This is the fundamental principle espoused in Samuel Rutherford’s time-honored work, Lex Rex: or The Law and the Prince (1644). In his book, Rutherford said that the law, not the human authority, is king, and the law is to be based on God’s law. Therefore, when the human authority uses the sword, he is doing so not on a personal basis but as a servant of the king-law. King Lemuel’s (Solomon?) mother illustrated this principle in her maxims to her son: “It is not for kings … to drink wine … lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights (Prov. 31:4–5; emphasis added). The king’s job is to apply righteous standards to the people (Prov. 31:8–9), to be a servant of the law.
