See the note on his father (Letter XXXII). The son, to whom this
letter was addressed, was an uncivilized loose liver, and made his home
a misery. Like his others to the same address, Rutherford's letter is
outspoken and straight to the point. Nor could he ignore the fact that
though the young man continued to attend church at times he came late
and strode out before the service was over, behaving with the utmost
irreverence and as if he was deliberately trying to insult his
minister.
MUCH HONORED SIR, -- I long to hear whether or not your soul be
hand-fasted with Christ. Lose your time no longer: flee the follies of
youth: gird up the loins of your mind, and make you ready for meeting
the Lord. I have often summoned you, and now I summon you again, to
compear before your Judge, to make a reckoning of your life. While ye
have time, consider your ways. Oh that there were such an heart in you,
as to think what an ill conscience will be to you, when ye are upon the
border of eternity, and your one foot out of time! Oh then, ten
thousand thousand floods of tears cannot extinguish these flames, or
purchase to you one hour's release from that pain! Oh, how sweet a day
have ye had! But this is a fair-day that runneth fast away. See how ye
have spent it, and consider the necessity of salvation! And tell me, in
the fear of God, if ye have made it sure. I am persuaded that ye have a
conscience that will be speaking somewhat to you. Why will ye die, and
destroy yourself? I charge you in Christ's name, to rouse up your
conscience in time, while salvation is in your offer. This is the
accepted time, this is the day of salvation. Therefore, let me again
beseech you to consider, in this your day, the things that belong to
your peace, before they be hid from your eyes. Dear brother, fulfill my
joy, and begin to seek the Lord while He may be found. Forsake the
follies of deceiving and vain youth: lay hold upon eterna] life.
Shoring, night-drinking, and the misspending of the Sabbath, and
neglecting of prayer in your house, and refusing of an offered
salvation, will burn up your soul with the terrors of the Almighty,
when your awakened conscience shall flee in your face. Be kind and
loving to your wife: make conscience of cherishing her, and not being
rigidly austere. Sir, I have not a tongue to express the glory that is
laid up for you in your Father's house, if ye reform your doings, and
frame your heart to return to the Lord. Ye know that this world is but
a shadow, a short living creature, under the law of time. Within less
than fifty years, when ye look back to it, ye shall laugh at the
evanishing vanities thereof, as feathers flying in the air, and as the
houses of sand within the sea-mark, which the children of men are
building. Give up with courting of this vain world: seek not the
bastard's moveables, but the son's heritage in heaven. Take a trial of
Christ. Look unto Him, and His love will so change you, that ye shall
be taken with Him, and never choose to go from Him. There is nothing
that will make you a Christian indeed, but a taste of the sweetness of
Christ. 'Come and see', will speak best to your soul. I would fain hope
good of you. Be not discouraged at broken and spilled resolutions; but
to it, and to it again! Use the means of profiting with your
conscience: pray in your family and read the Word. Remember how our
Lord's day was spent when I was among you. It will be a great challenge
to you before God if ye forget the good that was done within the walls
of your house on the Lord's day; and if ye turn aside after the
fashions of this world, and if ye go not in time to the kirk, to wait
on the public worship of God, and if ye tarry not at it, till all the
exercises of religion be ended. Give God some of your time both morning
and evening and afternoon; and in so doing, rejoice the heart of a
poor, oppressed prisoner. Rue upon your own soul and from your heart
fear the Lord.
Now He that brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of His
sheep, by the blood Of the eternal covenant, establish your heart with
grace, and present you before His presence with joy.
Your affectionate and 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.