WORTHY AND DEAR BROTHER, -- I forget you not in my bonds. I know that
you are looking to Christ; and I beseech you to follow your look. I can
say more of Christ now by experience (though He be infinitely above and
beyond all that can be said of Him), than when I saw you. I am drowned
over head and ears in His love. Sell, sell, sell all things for Christ.
Sir, make sure work of your salvation: build not upon sand; lay the
foundation upon the rock of Zion. Strive to be dead to this world, and
to your will and lusts; let Christ have a commanding power and a king's
throne in you. Walk with Christ, howbeit the world should take the hide
off your face: I promise you that Christ will win the field. Your
pastors cause you to err. Except you see Christ's word, go not one foot
with them. Countenance not the reading of that Romish service-book.
Keep your garments clean, as ye would walk with the Lamb clothed in
white. Learn to discern the Bridegroom's tongue, and to give yourself
to prayer and reading. Ye were often a hearer of me. I would put my
heart's blood on the doctrine which I taught, as the only way to
salvation: go not from it, my dear brother. What I write to you, I
write to your wife also. Mind heaven and Christ, and keep the spunk of
the love of Christ which you have gotten. Christ will blow on it if ye
entertain it; and your end shall be peace. There is a fire in our Zion.
I assure you, howbeit we be nicknamed Puritans, that all the powers of
the world shall not prevail against us. Remember, though a sinful man
write it to you, that those people shall be in Scotland as a green
olive-tree, and a field blessed of the Lord; and that it shall be
proclaimed, 'Up, up with Christ, and down, down with all contrary
powers.'
Sir, pray for me (I name you to the Lord), for further evil is
determined against me.
ABERDEEN, Sept. 13, 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.