LOVING FRIEND, -- I received your letter. I entreat you now, in the
morning of your life, to seek the Lord and His face. Beware of the
follies of dangerous youth, a perilous time for your soul. Love not the
world. Keep faith and truth with all men in your covenants and
bargains. Walk with God, for He seeth you. Do nothing but that which ye
may and would do if your eye-strings were breaking, and your breath
growing cold. Ye heard the truth of God from me, my dear heart, follow
it, and forsake it not. Prize Christ and salvation above all the world.
To live after the guise and course of the rest of the world will not
bring you to heaven; without faith in Christ, and repentance, ye cannot
see God. Take pains for salvation; press forward toward the mark for
the prize of the high calling. If ye watch not against evils night and
day, which beset you, ye will come behind. Beware of lying, swearing,
uncleanness, and the rest of the works of the flesh; because 'for these
things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience'. How
sweet soever they may seem for the present, yet the end of these
courses is the eternal wrath of God, and utter darkness, where there is
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Grace be with you.
Your loving pastor.
ABERDEEN, 1637
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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.