"Seeing then that kings are ordained by God and established by the people to procure and provide for the good of those who are committed unto them, and that this good or profit be principally expressed in two things, to wit, in the administration of justice to their subjects and in the managing of armies for the repulsing their enemies, certainly, we must infer and conclude from this that the prince who applied himself to nothing but his peculiar profits and pleasures or to those ends which most readily conduce thereunto, who condemns and pervert all laws, who uses his subjects more cruelly than the barbarous enemy would do, he may truly and really be called a tyrant" -- Junius Brutus, Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos
Kings are God's servants. They are deacons appointed to serve His people. When they leverage their position of service as a means of forcing others to serve them or when they abandon the duties attending their office, they are in defiance of their God and King. They are rebelling and the people of the kingdom are obedient to Christ in defying them.
Proverbs 31:4-9
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
"If laws be superior to the king and that the king be tied in the same respect of obedience to the laws as the servant is to his master, who will be so senseless, who will not rather obey the law than the king or will not readily yield his best assistance against those who seek to violate or infringe them? ...The king is not lord over the laws." -- Junius Brutus, Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos
Kings are subject to God’s decrees and must be upright when it comes to protecting the God-given rights of his subjects. Kings who do not subject themselves to God’s laws will be the objects of His wrath.
"It will be replied that it is unworthy the majesty of kings to have their wills bridled by laws. But I will say that nothing is more royal than to have our unruly desires ruled by good laws." -- Junius Brutus, Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos
Proverbs 20:28
Steadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king,
and by steadfast love his throne is upheld.
Love and faithfulness keep the King! The king who upholds the law has a throne which is upheld by the Lawgiver.
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