was dead, the younger sons of Jehoshaphat, found strong cities a weak defence against the power of him to whom the citizens were obedient. If they came in upon the summons of a king, their brother then had them without any more ado; if they stood upon their guard, then were they traitors, and so unable to hold out against him, who, besides his own power, was able to bring the forces of the Israelitish kingdom against them; so that the apparent likelihood of their final overthrow, sufficed to make all forsake them in the very beginning. Howsoever it was, they were all taken and slain, and with them for company many great men of the land; such belike, as either had taken their part, when the tyrant sought their lives, or had been appointed rulers of the country when Jehoram was deposed from his government; in which office they, without forbearing to do justice, could hardly avoid the doing of many things derogatory to their young master, which if he would now call treason, saying that he was then king, who durst say the contrary?

After this, Jehoram took upon him, as being now lord alone, to make innovations in religion; wherein he was not contented, as other idolatrous princes, to give way and safe-conduct unto superstition and idolatry, nor to provoke and encourage the people to that sin, whereto it is wonderful that they were so much addicted, having such knowledge of God and of his detesting that above all other sins; but he used compulsion, and was, (if not the very first,) the first that is registered, to have set up irreligion by force.

Whilst he was thus busied at home, in doing what he listed, the Edomites his tributaries rebelled against him abroad; and having hitherto, since David's time, been governed by a viceroy, did now make unto themselves a king. Against these Jehoram ip person made an expedition, taking along with him his princes, and all his chariots, with which he obtained

victory in the field; compelling the rebels to fly in. to their places of advantage, whereof he forced no one, but went away contented with the honour that he had gotten in beating and killing some of those, whom he should have subdued, and kept his servants. Now began the prophecy of Isaac to take effect, wherein he foretold, that Esau, in process of time, should break the yoke of Jacob. For after this, the Edomites could never be reclaimed by any of the kings of Judah, but held their own so well, that when, after many civil and foreign wars, the Jews by sundry nations had been brought low, Antipater the Edomite, with Herod his son, and others of that race following them, became lords of the Jews, in the decrepid age of Israel, and reigned as kings, even in Jerusalem itself.

The freedom of the Edomites, though purchased somewhat dearly, encouraged Libna, a great city within Judah, which, in the time of Joshua, had a peculiar king, to rebel against Jehoram, and set itself at liberty. Libna stood in the confines of Benjamin and of Dan, far from the assistance of any bordering enemies to Judah, and therefore so unlikely it was to have maintained itself in liberty, that it may seem strange how it could escape from utter destruction, or at the least from some terrible vengeance, most likely to have been taken by their powerful, cruel, and thoroughly incensed lord. The Israelites held such good intelligence at that time with Judah, that he would not have accepted the town, had it offered itself unto him; neither do we read that it sought how to cast itself unto a new subjection, but continued a free estate. The rebellion of it against Jehoram was, because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers';' which I take to have not only been the first and remote cause, but even the next and immediate reason, moving the inhabitants to do as they did; for it was a town of the Levites;

1 2 Chron. xxiv. 10.

who must needs be driven into great extremities, when a religion, contrary to God's law, had not only some allowance to countenance it by the king, but compulsive authority to force unto it all that were unwilling. As for the use of the temple at Jerusalem, (which, being devout men, they might fear to lose by this rebellion,) it was never denied to those of the ten revolted tribes by any of the religious kings, who rather invited the Israelites thither, and gave them kind entertainment; under idolators they must have been without it, whether they lived free or in subjection. Yet it seems that private reasons were not wanting, which might move them rather to do than to suffer that which was unwarrantable. For, in the general visitation before remembered, wherein Jehoshaphat reformed his kingdom, the good old king appointing new governors, and giving them special charge to do justice, without respect of persons, used these words: The Levites shall be officers be• fore you; be of good courage and do it, and the

Lord shall be with the good. By these phrases, it seems, that he encouraged them against the more powerful than just proceedings of his son; whom, if the Levites did, (according to the trust reposed in them,) neglect, in discharging their duties, likely it is, that he meant to be even with them, and make them now to feel, as many princes of the land had done, his heavy indignation. How it happened that Libna was not hereupon destroyed, yea, that it was not, (for ought that we can read,) so much as besieged or molested, may justly seem very strange; and the more strange it is, in regard of the mighty armies which Jehoshaphat was able to raise, being sufficient to have overwhelmed any one town, and buried it under the earth, which they might well in one month have cast into it with shovels, by ordinary approaches.

But it seems that of those great numbers which

2 2 Chron. XXX.

his father could have levied, there were not many whom Jehoram could well trust; and therefore, perhaps, he thought it an easier loss, to let one town go, than to put weapons into their hands, who were more likely to follow the example of Libna, than to punish it. So desperate is the condition of tyrants, who, thinking it a greater happiness to be feared than to be loved, are fain themselves to stand in fear of those by whom they might have been dreadful unto others.

SECT. IV.

Of the miseries falling upon Jehoram, and of his death.

THESE afflictions not sufficing to make any impression of God's displeasure in the mind of the wicked prince, a prophecy in writing was delivered unto him, which threatened both his people, his children, his wives, and his own body. Hereby likewise it appears, that he was a cruel persecutor of God's servants; in as much as the prophets durst not reprove him to his face, as they had done many of his predecessors, both good and evil kings, but were fain to denounce God's judgments against him by letters, keeping themselves close and far from him. This epistle is said to have been sent unto him from Elias the prophet'. But Elias was translated, and Elizeus prophesied in his stead before this time, even in the days of Jehoshaphat. Wherefore it may be that Elias left this prophecy in writing behind him, or that, (as some conjecture,) the error of one letter in writing, was the occasion that we read Elias for Elizeus. Indeed any thing may rather be believed than the tradition held by some of the Jewish Rabbins, that Elias from heaven did send this epistle; a tale somewhat like to the fable of our lady's let

1 2 Chron. xxi. 12. 2 2 Kings, ii. 3. 11.

ters, devised by Erasmus, or of the verse that was sent from heaven to St. Giles.

But whosoever was the author of this threatening epistle, the accomplishment of the prophecy was as terrible as the sentence. For the Philistines and Arabians broke into Judea, and took the king's house, wherein they found all, or many of his children and wives, all which they slew, or carried away, with great part of his goods. These Philistines had not presumed, since the time of David, to make any offensive war till now; for they were by him almost consumed, and had lost the best of their towns, maintaining themselves in the rest of their small territories, by defensive arms, to which they were constrained at Gibbethon by the Israelites. The Arabians were likely to have been then, as they are now, a naked people, all horsemen, and ill appointed; their country affording no other furniture, than such as might make them fitter to rob and spoil in the open fields, than to offend strong cities such as were thick set in Judah. True it is, that in ages long after following, they conquered all the south parts of the world then known, in a very short space of time, destroying some, and building other some very stately cities. But it must be considered, that this was when they had learned of the Romans the art of war; and that the provisions which they found, together with the arts which they learned, in one subdued province, did make them able and skilful in pursuing their conquest, and going onward into regions far removed from them. At this day, having lost, in effect, all that they had gotten, such of them as live in Arabia itself are good horsemen, but ill-appointed, very dangerous to passengers, but unable to deal with good soldiers, as riding stark naked, and rather trusting in the swiftness of their horses, than in any other means of resistance, where they are well opposed. And such, or little better, may they seem to have been, that spoiled Judæa in the time of Jehoram. For their country was al