See also Letter LVI.
MUCH HONORED AND WELL BELOVED IN THE LORD, GraCe, mercy, and peace be
to you. Your letters give a dash to my laziness in writing.
I must first tell you, that there is not such a glassy, icy, and
slippery piece of way betwixt you and heaven, as Youth; and I have
experience to say with me here, and to seal what I assert. The old
ashes of the sins of my youth are new fire of sorrow to me. I have seen
the devil, as it were, dead and buried, and yet rise again, and be a
worse devil than ever he was: therefore, my brother, beware of a green
young devil, that has never been buried. Yet I must tell you, that the
whole saints now triumphant in heaven, and standing before the throne,
are nothing but a pack of redeemed sinners.
I shall be loath to put you off your fears, and your sense of
deadness: I wish it were more. There be some wounds of that nature,
that their bleeding should not be soon stopped. Ye must take a house
beside the Physician. It will be a miracle if ye be the first sick man
whom He put away uncured, and worse than He found you. 'Him that cometh
unto Me I will in no wise cast out' (John 6.37). Take ye that. It
cannot be presumption to take that as your own, when you find that your
wounds stound you. He that can tell his tale and send such a letter to
heaven as he has sent to Aberdeen, it is very like he will come speed
with Christ. It bodeth God's mercy to complain heartily for sin.
Now for myself; alas! I am not the man I go for in this nation: men
have not just weights to weigh me in. Oh, but I am a silly, feckless
body, and overgrown with weeds; corruption is rank and fat in me. Oh,
if I were answerable to this holy cause, and to that honorable Prince's
love for whom I now suffer! If Christ should refer the matter to me (in
His presence I speak it), I might think shame to vote my own salvation.
I think Christ might say, 'Thinkest thou not shame to claim heaven, who
does so little for it?' I am very often so, that I know not whether I
sink or swim in the water.
Grace be with you,
ABERDEEN, June 16, 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.