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| Chapter XXIV.—Of the constant falsehood of the devil, and of the powers and governments of the world, which we ought to obey, inasmuch as they are appointed of God, not of the devil.
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Chapter XXIV.—Of the constant
falsehood of the devil, and of the powers and governments of the world, which
we ought to obey, inasmuch as they are appointed of God, not of the devil.
1. world" title="552" id="ix.vii.xxv-p1.1"/>As therefore
the devil lied at the beginning, so did he also in the end, when he said,
“All these are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give
them.”4654
For it is not he
who has appointed the kingdoms of this world, but God; for “the
heart of the king is in the hand of God.”4655
And the Word also says by Solomon, “By me kings do reign,
and princes administer justice. By me chiefs are raised up, and by me
kings rule the earth.”4656
Paul
the apostle also says upon this same subject: “Be ye subject to all
the higher powers; for there is no power but of God: now those which are
have been ordained of God.”4657
And
again, in reference to them he says, “For he beareth not the sword
in vain; for he is the minister of God, the avenger for wrath to him who
does evil.”4658
Now, that he spake these
words, not in regard to angelical powers, nor of invisible rulers—
as some venture to expound the passage—but of those of actual
human authorities, [he shows when] he says, “For this cause pay ye
tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, doing service for this
very thing.”4659
This also the Lord
confirmed, when He did not do what He was tempted to by the devil; but He
gave directions that tribute should be paid to the tax-gatherers for
Himself and Peter;4660
because “they are
the ministers of God, serving for this very thing.”
2. For since man, by departing from God, reached such a
pitch of fury as even to look upon his brother as his enemy, and engaged
without fear in every kind of restless conduct, and murder, and avarice;
God imposed upon mankind the fear of man, as they did not acknowledge the
fear of God, in order that, being subjected to the authority of men, and
kept under restraint by their laws, they might attain to some degree of
justice, and exercise mutual forbearance through dread of the sword
suspended full in their view, as the apostle says: “For he beareth
not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, the avenger for
wrath upon him who does evil.” And for this reason too, magistrates
themselves, having laws as a clothing of righteousness whenever they act
in a just and legitimate manner, shall not be called in question for
their conduct, nor be liable to punishment. But whatsoever they do to the
subversion of justice, iniquitously, and impiously, and illegally, and
tyrannically, in these things shall they also perish; for the just
judgment of God comes equally upon all, and in no case is defective.
Earthly rule, therefore, has been appointed by God for the benefit of
nations,4661
| 4661 [Well says
Benjamin Franklin: “He who shall introduce into public affairs the
principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the
world.” See Bancroft, Hist. U.S., vol. ix. p. 492.]
| and not by the devil, who is never at rest at all, nay, who does
not love to see even nations conducting themselves after a quiet manner,
so that under the fear of human rule, men may not eat each other up like
fishes; but that, by means of the establishment of laws, they may keep
down an excess of wickedness among the nations. And considered from this
point of view, those who exact tribute from us are “God’s
ministers, serving for this very purpose.”
3. As, then, “the powers that be are ordained of
God,” it is clear that the devil lied when he said, “These
are delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give them.” For
by the law of the same Being as calls men into existence are kings also
appointed, adapted for those men who are at the time placed under their
government. Some of these [rulers] are given for the correction and the
benefit of their subjects, and for the preservation of justice; but
others, for the purposes of fear and punishment and rebuke: others, as
[the subjects] deserve it, are for deception, disgrace, and pride; while
the just judgment of God, as I have observed already, passes equally upon
all. The devil, however, as he is the apostate angel, can only go to this
length, as he did at the beginning, [namely] to deceive and lead astray
the mind of man into disobeying the commandments of God, and gradually
to darken the hearts of those who would endeavour to serve
him, to the forgetting of the true God, but to the adoration of himself
as God.
4. Just as if any one, being an apostate, and seizing
in a hostile manner another man’s territory, should harass the
inhabitants of it, in order that he might claim for himself the glory of
a king among those ignorant of his apostasy and robbery; so likewise also
the devil, being one among those angels who are placed over the spirit of
the air, as the Apostle Paul has declared in his Epistle to the
Ephesians,4662
becoming envious of man, was
rendered an apostate from the divine law: for envy is a thing foreign to
God. And as his apostasy was exposed by man, and man became the [means
of] searching out his thoughts (et examinatio sententiæ ejus, homo
factus est), he has set himself to this with greater and greater
determination, in opposition to man, envying his life, and wishing to
involve him in his own apostate power. The Word of God, however, the
Maker of all things, conquering him by means of human nature, and showing
him to be an apostate, has, on the contrary, put him under the power of
man. For He says, “Behold, I confer upon you the power of treading
upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the
enemy,”4663
in order that, as he
obtained dominion over man by apostasy, so again his apostasy might be
deprived of power by means of man turning back again to God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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