Samuel Rutherford for the 21st Century
Guy M. Richard
If you have heard the name of Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661) at all, you have probably heard it in connection with the Westminster Assembly or one of his two best known works, the Letters of Samuel Rutherford or Lex, Rex. You may know that Rutherford is arguably the most important of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly, that he stayed in London longer than any of his Scots brethren (from November 20, 1643, to November 9, 1647), that he was the only commissioner specifically commended by the Assembly for his faithful attendance and assistance in its debates, and that very few of the delegates or commissioners spoke on the floor of the Assembly as frequently or as forcefully as Rutherford did.
You may know that the Letters of Samuel Rutherford has been in print ever since its original publication in 1664, that it has passed through something like 100 editions and been translated into at least four languages, that it has been treasured by Christians the world over for the manifest fragrance of heaven that lingers on its pages, and that men the caliber of Charles Spurgeon and Richard Baxter once said of the Letters: “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;” and “Hold off the Bible, such a book the world never saw.”
You may know that Rutherford’s Lex, Rex (originally published in 1644) not only fueled the Covenanters’ armed resistance to King Charles I, but was also influential in justifying the French and American revolutions that would follow in the next century; you may know that many historians regard it as one of the most important contributions to political science in any age, that no less than 9 histories of early modern political thought examine it and its implications, and that it is still read and discussed in university level political science courses to this day.
But what you may not know is that Samuel Rutherford is a towering figure in Scottish theology, that he stands head and shoulders above others of his contemporaries as a theologian, a preacher, and a pastor, and that the magnitude of his literary achievements alone puts him in a category by himself. You may not know that Rutherford published 13 major theological treatises in his lifetime, amounting to just over 7,000 pages of text, not to mention other works, including sermons, letters, an in-depth catechism (totaling 562 questions and answers–over five times the number in the Westminster Shorter Catechism), and a variety of political writings, all of which add nearly 3,000 pages to the total. (Just to give you a frame of reference, John Owen’s sixteen volumes, including the prefaces to the treatises, total only 9,200 pages!) You may not know that when we add to the Rutherford corpus a commentary on Isaiah, which has tragically been lost, and several unpublished manuscripts and sermons, we have a literary output that clearly rivals that of John Owen. And yet Rutherford has received and continues to receive very little attention, especially when compared to other English Puritans like Owen.
In this article I would like to help initiate a reversal of this trend by introducing you to Samuel Rutherford and by pointing you to several practical lessons that we in the 21st century might be able to learn from him. My hope is not only to inform you about this towering figure in post-Reformation history but also to motivate you to take up and read him for yourself (tolle lege!). Much more could be said in this article, to be sure. But I trust that what I have selected will help shed some light on a handful of issues that we are facing today.
