Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
On the devil's perpetual lying, and on the powers which we ought to obey, and on earthly rule, in that it is established by God and not by the devil.
As, then, he lied in the beginning, so also he was lying at the end, saying, "All these things have been delivered to me, and to whomever I will, I give them." It was not he, after all, who fixed the boundaries of the world's realms, but God; for the ruler's heart rests in God's own hand. And speaking through Solomon, the Word likewise declares that through him kings hold their reign and the powerful hand down verdicts, that through him rulers are lifted up and those who wield tyranny possess the land. The Apostle Paul affirms this same point when he writes: submit yourselves to every governing authority set above you, for authority exists nowhere except from God, and whatever authorities do exist have been established by him. And he goes on to say of them that the ruler does not carry the sword idly, for he serves as God's minister, one who brings down retribution on the wrongdoer. And because he was speaking not of angelic powers or unseen princes, as some presume to explain it, but of the authorities that belong to human affairs, he adds: it is for this reason that you render tribute also, since these are God's officers, continually devoted to this very task. The Lord himself confirmed as much — not by acting on the devil's suggestion, but by directing that tribute be paid, both for himself and for Peter, to those who collected it — inasmuch as they too are God's officers, continually devoted to this very task.
For since man, in departing from God, had grown so savage that he even regarded his own kinsman as an enemy, and lived in every kind of turmoil, murder, and greed, without fear, God imposed upon him the fear of man — for men did not know the fear of God — so that, brought under human authority and bound by human statute, they might arrive at some degree of uprightness and hold one another in check, dreading the blade set over them — just as the Apostle says that the ruler does not carry the sword idly, for he serves as God's minister, one who brings down retribution on the wrongdoer. And on this account those same officials, wrapped in the mantle of justice through the laws, will never be called to account or punished for whatever they do rightly and lawfully. But whatever they carry out unjustly, impiously, against the law, and tyrannically, to crush the innocent — for these very deeds they too will be undone, God's righteous verdict falling equally on all and missing nothing. It is, then, for the good of the nations that earthly government has been set up by God rather than by the devil, who never once knows rest, and who does not even want the nations to enjoy calm — so that, out of dread of human rule, they would not swallow one another whole like fish, but through the setting up of laws might hold back the countless wrongs the nations commit against each other. And it is in this same sense that the collectors of our tribute, too, count as God's officers, continually devoted to this very task.
The powers that exist, then, have been ordained by God; it is plain, therefore, that the devil lies when he says, "They have been delivered to me, and I give them to whomever I will." For by whose command men are born, by his command also kings are appointed, fitted for those who at that time are ruled by them. Some rulers, indeed, are raised up to reform and profit those under them and to safeguard what is right; others, to instill dread, to chastise, and to rebuke; and still others, for scorn, disgrace, and arrogance — each according to what they merit, by God's own righteous verdict — while he, being the rebel angel he is, remains able only to repeat that same act he committed at the outset: to lure and steer the human mind off course into breaking God's precepts, and little by little to darken the hearts of those laboring to serve him, until they lose sight of the true God and bow to him as a substitute deity.
It is much as when some rebel, having seized a territory by force, harasses its inhabitants so as to snatch for himself royal splendor among people unaware that he is a renegade and a brigand; so too the devil — one of those angelic beings holding dominion over the aerial realm, as the Apostle Paul made known when writing to the Ephesians — turned, through envy of mankind, into a deserter from the law of God, since envy has no place in God. And because it was through man that his revolt and its sentence were exposed, he grew still more hostile toward man, begrudging him his life, and desiring to keep him locked within his own rebel dominion. But the Word of God, craftsman of all things, defeated him through man and unmasked him as a deserter, turning him back, in his turn, against man, and declaring: "See, I have granted you authority to trample serpents and scorpions, and the whole strength of the foe underfoot" — so that just as the enemy had won mastery over man through his own revolt, so, conversely, through man's return to God, that revolt might be reduced to nothing.