Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

not only challenged a good man of war, being himself a dastard, but, when he was beaten and taken by him, had basely pleaded for the common enemy, to have him let into the city, that, with his own eyes, he might see what spoil there was, and not make a had bargain by hear-say. The father of this Amaziah was a beastly man; yet when the Aramites took him, and tormented him, he did not offer to buy his own life at so dear a rate as the city and temple of Jerusalem. Had he offered,-should they have made his promise good? Surely the haste which they had made in condescending to this hard match, was ve-. ry unfortunate; for by keeping out the Israelite, (which was easy enough,) any little while, they should soon have been rid of him, seeing that the Aramites would have made him run home with greater speed than he came forth. Then also, when having trussed up his baggage, he was ready to be gone, a little courage would have served to persuade him to leave his load behind, had not their good king delivered up hostages, to secure his return, as loth to defraud him of the recompense due to his pains taken.

Such exprobrations could not but vex the heart of this unhappy king; it had been well for him, if they had made him acknowledge his faults unto God, that had punished him by all this dishonour. But we find no mention of his amendment. Rather it appears, that he continued an idolator to the very last. For it.is said of him, that after his turning away from the Lord, they wrought treason against ⚫ him in Jerusalem';' a manifest proof that he was not reclaimed, unto his life's end. And certainly they which tell a man in his adversity, of his faults passed, shall sooner be thought to upbraid him with his fortune, than to seek his reformation. Wherefore it is no marvel, that priests and prophets were less welcome to him than ever they had been. On

1 2 Chron. xxv. 27.

the other side, flatterers, and such as were desirous to put a heart into him, whereof themselves might always be masters, wanted not plausible matter to revive him. For he was not the first, nor second, of the kings of Judah, that had been overcome in battle. David himself had abandoned the city, leaving it, before the enemy was in sight, unto Absalom his rebellious son. Many besides him had received losses, wherein the temple bore a part. If Joash might so easily have been kept out,-why did their ancestors let Sesac in? Asa was reputed a virtuous prince, yet with his own hands he emptied the temple, and was not blamed, but held excusable by the necessity of the state. Belike these traducers would recommend no actions but of dead princes; if so, he should rather live to punish them, than die to please them. Though wherein had he given them any cause of displeasure? It was he indeed that commanded to set open the gates to Joash; but it was the people that did it. Good servants ought not to have obeyed their master's commandments to his disadvantage, when they saw him not master of his own person. As his captivity did acquit him from blame of all things that he did or suffered in that condition, so was that misfortune itself, in true estimation, as highly to his honour, as deeply to his loss. For had he been as hasty to fly as others were, he might have escaped as well as others did. But seeking to teach the base multitude courage, by his royal example, he was shamefully betrayed by those in whom he trusted. Unworthy creatures, that could readily obey him, when speaking another man's words, being prisoner, he commanded them to yield; having neglected his charge, when leading them in the field, he bade them stand to it, and fight like men. The best was, that they must needs acknowledge his mischance, as the occasion whereby many thousand lives were saved; the enemy having wisely preferred the surprise of a lion that was captain,

before the chase and slaughter of an army of stags, that followed him.

These or the like words comforting Amaziah, were able to persuade him that it was even so indeed. And such excuses might have served well enough to please the people, if the king had first studied how to please God. But he that was unwilling to ascribe unto God the good success foretold by a prophet, could easily find how to impute this late disaster unto fortune, and the fault of others. Now concerning fortune; it seems that he meant to keep himself safe from her, by sitting still; for in fifteen years following, (so long he out-lived his honour,) we find not that he stirred. As for his subjects, though nothing henceforth be recorded of his government, yet we may see by his end, that the middle time was ill spent among them, increasing their hatred to his own ruin. He that suspecteth his own worth, or other mens opinions, thinking the less regard is had of his person, than he believeth to be due to his place, will commonly spend all the force of his authority, in purchasing the name of a severe man. For the affected sourness of a vain fellow, doth many times resemble the gravity of one that is wise and the fear wherein they live, which are subject unto oppression, carries a shew of reverence to him that does the wrong; at least it serves to dazzle the eyes of underlings, keeping them from prying into the weakness of such as have jurisdiction over them. Thus the time, wherein, by well using it, men might attain to be such as they ought, they do usually mispend, in seeking to appear such as they are not. This is a vain and deceivable course; procuring, instead of the respect that was hoped for, more indignation than was feared. Which is a thing of dangerous consequence; especially when an unable spirit, being over-perted with so high authority, is too passionate in the execution of such an office as cannot be checked but by violence. If, therefore, Amazi

;

ah thought by extreme rigour to hold up his reputation, what did he else than strive to make the people think he hated them, when of themselves they were apt enough to believe that he did not love them? The best was, that he had, by revenging his father's death, provided well enough for his own security; but who should take vengeance, (or upon whom?) of such a murther, wherein every one had a part? Surely God himself, who had not given commandment, or leave unto the people, to take his office out of his hand, in shedding the blood of his anointed. Yet as Amaziah, careless of God, was carried headlong by his own affections; so his subjects, following the same ill example, without requiring what belonged unto their duties, rose up against him, with such headlong fury, that being unable to defend himself in Jerusalem, he was driven to forsake the city, and fly to Lachis, for safeguard of his life. But so extreme was the hatred conceived against him, and so general, that neither his absence could allay the rage of it in the capital city, nor his presence in the country abroad, procure friends to defend his life, Questionless, he chose the town of Lachis for his refuge, as a place, of all others, best affected to him; yet found he there none other favour, than that the people did not kill him with their own hands; for when the conspirators, (who troubled not themselves about raising an army for the matter,) sent pursuers after him, he was abandoned to death. Lachis was the utmost city of his dominion westward, standing somewhat within the border of Judah; so that he might have made an easy escape, (if he dared adventure,) into the territory of the Philistines, or the kingdom of Israel. Therefore it may seem that he was detained there, where certain it is that he found no kind of favour; for had not the people of this town added their own treason to the general insurrection, the murderers could not, at so good leisure as they did, have carried away

his body to Jerusalem, where they gave him burial with his fathers.

SECT. XI.

Of the Interregnum or vacancy, that was in the kingdom of Judah, after the death of Amaziah.

Ir hath already been shewed, that the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel were sometimes to be measured by complete years, otherwhiles by years current; and that the time of one king is now and then confounded with the last years of his father's reign, or the foremost of his son's. But we are now arrived at a mere vacation, wherein the crown of Judah lay void eleven whole years; a thing not plainly set down in scriptures, not yet remembered by Josephus, and therefore hard to be believed, were it not proved by necessary consequence.

[ocr errors]

Twice we find it written, that Amaziah king of Judah, lived after the death of Joash king of Israel 'fifteen years';' whereupon it follows, that the death of Amaziah was about the end of fifteen years complete, which Jeroboam the second, (who, in the fifteenth year of Amaziah was made king over Israel,) had reigned in Samaria. But the succession of Uzziah, who is also called Azariah, unto his father in the kingdom of Judah, was eleven years later than the sixteenth of Jeroboam; for it is expressed, that Azariah began to reign in the seven and twentieth year of Jeroboam 3; the sixteenth year of his life being joined with the first of two and fifty that he reigned. So the interregnum of eleven years cannot be divided, without some hard means used of interpreting the text otherwise than the let

ter sounds.

[ocr errors]

Yet some conjectures there are made, which tend to keep all even, without acknowledging any void time. For it is thought, that in the place last of all 1 2 Chron. xxv. 2. and 2 Kings xiv. 47. 2 2 Kings xiv. 23. 3 2 Kings xv, 1.

« AnteriorContinuar »