DEAR AND LOVING FRIEND, -- I cannot but, upon the opportunity of a
bearer, exhort you to resign the love of your youth to Christ; and in
this day, while your sun is high and your youth serveth you, to seek
the Lord and His face. For there is nothing out of heaven so necessary
for you as Christ. And ye cannot be ignorant but your days will end,
and the night of death shall call you from the pleasures of this life:
and a doom given out in death standeth for ever -- as long as God
liveth! Youth, ordinarily, is a post and ready servant for Satan, to
run errands; for it is a nest for lust, cursing, drunkenness,
blaspheming of God, lying, pride, and vanity. Oh, that there were such
an heart in you as to fear the Lord, and to dedicate your soul and body
to His service! When the time cometh that your poor soul look out at
your prison house of clay, to be set at liberty; then a good
conscience, and your Lord's favor, shall be worth all the world's
glory. Seek it as your garland and crown.
Grace be with you.
ABERDEEN, March 14, 1637
Be the first to react on this!
Rutherford was also known for his spiritual and devotional works, such as Christ Dying and drawing Sinners to Himself and his Letters. Concerning his Letters, Charles Spurgeon wrote: "When we are dead and gone let the world know that Spurgeon held Rutherford's Letters to be the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men". Published versions of the Letters contain 365 letters and fit well with reading one per day.
Rutherford was a strong supporter of the divine right of Presbytery, the principle that the Bible calls for Presbyterian church government. Among his polemical works are Due Right of Presbyteries (1644), Lex, Rex (1644), and Free Disputation against Pretended Liberty of Conscience.
Samuel Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian theologian and author. He was one of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly.
Born in the village of Nisbet, Roxburghshire, Rutherford was educated at Edinburgh University, where he became in 1623 Regent of Humanity (Professor of Latin). In 1627 he was settled as minister of Anwoth in Galloway, from where he was banished to Aberdeen for nonconformity. His patron in Galloway was John Gordon, 1st Viscount of Kenmure. On the re-establishment of Presbytery in 1638 he was made Professor of Divinity at St. Andrews, and in 1651 Rector of St. Mary's College there. At the Restoration he was deprived of all his offices.
Rutherford's political book Lex, Rex (meaning "the law [and] the king" or "the law [is] king") presented a theory of limited government and constitutionalism. It was an explicit refutation of the doctrine of "Rex Lex" or "the king is the law." Rutherford was also known for his spiritual and devotional works, such as Christ Dying and drawing Sinners to Himself and his Letters.