The Civil Magistrates Power in Matters of Religion, Answer 1 – Object 2
It is anſwered, firſt, That Civil Rulers are Chriſts Vicegerents, Anſw. 1 conſidered as God; and are therefore called gods, Pſal. 82. 1, 6. and ſaid to judge for God, 2 Chron. 19. 6. and called the Miniſters of God, Rom. 13. 4. the ordinary publick Avengers who are to take vengeance; namely in Gods ſtead, to whom alone vengeance doth belong: ſo are they Chriſts Vicegerents as Mediatour: as one that hath all power committed to him in earth, as well as heaven, Matth. 28. 18. and from him therefore as political head of his people, Magiſtrates power on earth muſt come, Prov. 8. 15, 16. by me (ſaith the eſſential wiſdom of God) Princes rule: hence called King of kings, and Lord of lords, 1 Tim. 1. 16, 17. Rev. 19. 16. yea he maketh Civil Rulers nurſing Fathers and Mothers to his Church, and ſo committeth his Church which Eſay 49. 23. 1 Tim. 3. 15.is his houſe, into their hands, as thoſe, who in their civil officed way, are every way to further its welfare. What Chriſt did here immediately, as an act appertaining to his Soveraignty, to purge out Church corruptions, he now doth by his Vicegerents hands, mediately.
Secondly, It is anſwered; he that was God and man, who acted did act thus in a mixt way, not onelyonly as God, but partly alſo as Man: as man he gathered up the ſmall cords, as man he twiſted them, and made a ſcourge of them; as man he laid on with his bodily hand in ſuch ſort, as thereby to drive the beaſt-ſellers out of the Temple: herein therefore imitable, in ſuch mere humane acts, by men of place. Like acts for ſubſtance, were put forth by David, a man of place, (before Chriſts coming in the fleſh) and if typical in David, yet verified partly in Chriſt as the ſon of David; and ſo as man. Yea the reaſon here ſuggeſted by the Holy Ghoſt to the Diſciples, as juſtifying Chriſts act, namely the zeal of Gods houſe, Joh. 2. 17. it muſt needs be yeelded to be an apt, and juſt reaſon ſuitable to the act: as the reaſon therefore is appliable to Chriſt as man, the Antitype, even as it was to David the type: ſo is the Act grounded upon that reaſon, and juſtified by it, in the ſame way appliable to the Antitype Chriſt, as to the type David. Chriſt could have caſt out theſe out of the Temple, by a word of his mouth, as he did caſt Devils out of living temples, of his peoples bodies: or as he caſt down thoſe who came to take him, Joh. 18. or he could by a Judicial cord have puniſhed them ſpiritually; as when he bid them fillup the meaſure of their fathers ſins, Matth. 23. 32. but he choſe to act in ſuch a humane way, imitable by others thereunto called.
Secondly, If any object that it was extraordinary in Chriſt as Object. 2 man, then to reſtrain, or puniſh abuſes in Religion, in any forcible and corporal way.