REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER, -- Ye look like the house whereof ye are a
branch: the cross is a part of the life rent that lieth to all the sons
of the house. I desire to suffer with you, if I could take a lift of
your house-trial off you; but ye have preached it ere I knew anything
of God. Your Lord may gather His roses, and shake His apples, at what
season of the year He pleaseth. Each husbandman cannot make harvest
when he pleaseth, as He can do. Ye are taught to know and adore His
sovereignty, which He exerciseth over you, which yet is lustred with
mercy. The child has but changed a bed in the garden, and is planted up
higher, nearer the sun, where he shall thrive better than in this
outfield muir-ground. Ye must think your Lord would not want him one
hour longer; and since the date of your loan of him was expired (as it
is, if ye read the lease), let Him have His own with gain, as good
reason were. I read on it an exaltation and a richer measure of grace,
as the sweet fruit of your cross; and I am bold to say, that that
college where your Master has set you now shall find it.
Dearest brother, go on and faint not. Something of yours is in
heaven, beside the flesh of your exalted Savior; and ye go on after
your own. Time's thread is shorter by one inch than it was. An oath is
sworn and past the seals, whether afflictions will or not, ye must grow
and live and triumph and reign and be more than a conqueror. For your
Captain who leadeth you on, is more than conqueror, and He maketh you
partaker of His conquest and victory. Did not love to you compel me, I
would not fetch water to the well, and speak to one who knoweth better
than I can do what God is doing with him.
Remember my love to your wife, to Mr John and all friends there. Let
us be helped by your prayers, for I cease not to make mention of you to
the Lord, as I can.
ST ANDREW, May 28, 1640
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.