Physical Copy of Samuel Rutherford's Lex Rex Needed

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OldSchoolPresbyterian

Puritan Board Freshman
I'd like to buy a physical copy of Samuel Rutherford's Lex Rex. There appear to be quite a number of different versions available through Amazon and other sources. Does anyone recommend any version in particular? I'd prefer a paperback version.

I noticed that Canon Press, affiliated with Doug Wilson, has published a version, which looks quite good based on the description on the Amazon website.

Thank you.
 
I can’t speak to any current editions, but I do know that Reformation Heritage Books is working on releasing Rurherfords entire corpus. If you have the time I would wait for that, rumor has it the Latin will also be translated making Lex Rex much more readable.
 
I can’t speak to any current editions, but I do know that Reformation Heritage Books is working on releasing Rurherfords entire corpus. If you have the time I would wait for that, rumor has it the Latin will also be translated making Lex Rex much more readable.
I'm not sure when Lex Rex is slated; the ones I've been approached about editing are several years out (they are talking about me taking 3 or 4 works of the English ones). I think the plan is to start with the works never translated out of Latin.
 
The Canon Press edition is nice and well-laid out.

If you don't want to give money to Doug Wilson there are copies by Sprinkle still running around the internet.
 
I would commend Canon Press's edition - it is good quality, with a more user-friendly (larger) size font than Sprinkle Publications.
 
Not a physical copy but I read through Monergism's free ebook copy this year.

I'm probably just an dull-witted neanderthal but I found it quite tedious and a while I agreed with many of the conclusions, I found the rhetoric to be often unconvincing.

I feel like it would help if there was a fully annotated version showing what Rutherford was responding to and why. This would be extremely helpful because half the time I really didn't know what particular point Rutherford was responding to in his point-by-point refutation. Sometimes it reads more like one side of a forum argument than a clearly laid-out argument. I feel like it's mostly a historical curiosity now rather than a real practical book of instruction.

I also read this abridgment about eight years ago and wasn't any more enlightened. :(
 
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Not a physical copy but I read through Monergism's free ebook copy this year.

I'm probably just an dull-witted neanderthal but I found it quite tedious and a while I agreed with many of the conclusions, I found the rhetoric to be often unconvincing.

I feel like it would help if there was a fully annotated version showing what Rutherford was responding to and why. This would be extremely helpful because half the time I really didn't know what particular point Rutherford was responding to in his point-by-point refutation. Sometimes it reads more like one side of a forum argument than a clearly laid-out argument. I feel like it's mostly a historical curiosity now rather than a real practical book of instruction.

I also read this abridgment about eight years ago and wasn't any more enlightened. :(
I have never finished it after several attempts, which frustrates me to no end. This work would do well with a study guide or historical lecture series.
 
I was wondering if there were any works that agree with Rutherford but were more up to date and deal with more modern issues?
 
Not a physical copy but I read through Monergism's free ebook copy this year.

I'm probably just an dull-witted neanderthal but I found it quite tedious and a while I agreed with many of the conclusions, I found the rhetoric to be often unconvincing.

I feel like it would help if there was a fully annotated version showing what Rutherford was responding to and why. This would be extremely helpful because half the time I really didn't know what particular point Rutherford was responding to in his point-by-point refutation. Sometimes it reads more like one side of a forum argument than a clearly laid-out argument. I feel like it's mostly a historical curiosity now rather than a real practical book of instruction.

I also read this abridgment about eight years ago and wasn't any more enlightened. :(
I have never finished it after several attempts, which frustrates me to no end. This work would do well with a study guide or historical lecture series.
My old boss said when he read Lex Rex, after Rutherford would state something, he could never tell if he were fer it or agin it.
 
One advantage of the Sprinkle edition is that it also includes a translation of George Buchanan's Concerning the Rights of the Crown in Scotland, which I am currently enjoying re-reading.
 
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One advantage of the Sprinkle edition is that it also includes a translation of George Buchanan's, Concerning the Rights of the Crown in Scotland, which I am currently enjoying re-reading.
I have the Sprinkle edition but was unaware of that. Thank you for pointing it out. I'll have to give it a read.
 
Personally, I would avoid the canon press edition simply because it lines a certain author's pockets. The Sprinkle Edition is small, double-columned print, but it isn't any more difficult. Lex, Rex is a tough read, even if it has Doug Wilson's pretty cover on it.

And you should probably also read John Coffey's Politics, Religion, and the British Revolution. It will keep you from misinterpreting Rutherford and making some of Schaeffer's mistakes in A Christian Manifesto.
 
And you should probably also read John Coffey's Politics, Religion, and the British Revolution.

I was going to make this point as well. If you read John Coffey's biography of Samuel Rutherford, then Lex, Rex becomes much easier to understand. In fact, I would say that it is pretty much essential to read Politics, Religion and the British Revolution (it is a Cambridge University Press book, so no Oxford comma in the title :p ) if you wish to read Lex, Rex with profit.
 
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