honour. It seems that he was one of those who, in time of faction, had laboured for himself; and now, when all other competitors were sitten down, thought easily to prevail against that king, in whose person the race of Jehu was to fail. Manifest it is, that Shallum had a strong party; for Tiphsah or Thapsa, and the coast thereof, even from Tirzah, where Menahem his enemy and supplanter then lay, refused to admit as king in his stead the man that murdered him. Yet, at the end of one month, Shallum received the reward of his treason, and was slain by Menahem who reigned in his place.

Menahem the son of Gadi, reigned after Shallum ten years. In opposition to Shallum, his hatred was deadly, and inhuman; for he not only destroyed Tiphsah, and all that were therein, or thereabouts, but he ripped up all their women with child, because they did not open their gates and let him in. Had this cruelty been used in revenge of Zachariah's death, it is like that he would have been as earnest in procuring unto him his father's crown when it was first due. But in performing that office, there was used such long deliberation, that we may plain

discover ambition, disdain, and other private passions, to have been the causes of this beastly outrage.

In the time of Menahem, and, (as it seems,) in the beginning of his reign, Pul, king of Assyria, came against the land of Israel, whom this new king appeased, with a thousand talents of silver, levied upon all the substantial men in his country. With this money, the Israelite purchased not only the peace of his kingdom, but his own establishment therein; some factious men, belike, having either invited Pul thither, or, (if he came uncalled,) sought to use his help, in deposing this ill-beloved king, Josephus reports of this Menahem 5, that his reign was no milder than his entrance. But after ten

5 Josh. Ant, l. ix, c. xi,

years, his tyranny ended with his life, and Pekahiah, his son, occupied his room.

Of this Pekahiah the story is short; for he reigned only two years, at the end whereof he was slain by Pekah, the son of Remaliah, whose treason was rewarded with the crown of Israel, as, in time coming another man's treason against himself shall be. There needs no more to be said of Menahem, and his son, save that they were both of them idolaters; and the son, (as we find in Josephus ',) like to his father in cruelty. Concerning Pul the Assyrian king, who first opened unto those northern nations the way unto Palæstina, it will shortly follow, in order of the story, to deliver our opinion, whether he was that Belosus, (called also Beleses, and by some, Phul Belochus,) who joined with Arbaces the Median, against Sardanapalus, or whether he was some other man. At the present it is more fit that we relate the end of Uzziah's life, who outlived the happiness wherein we left him.

SECT. II.

The end of Uzziah's reign and life.

As the zeal of Jehoiada, that godly priest, was the means to preserve the lineage of David, in the person of Joash; so it appears, that the care of holy men was not wanting to Uzziah, to bring him up, and advance him to the crown of Judah, when the hatred borne to his father Amaziah, had endangered his succession. For it is said of Uzziah, that he sought God in the days of Zachariah, (which un⚫derstood the visions of God,) and when he sought the Lord, God made him prosper '.'

But, when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction; for he transgressed against the Lord his God; and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense, upon the altar of incense *.'

6 Jos. ibid. 1 2 Chron. xxvi. 5. 2 2 Chron. xxvi.

Thus he thought to enlarge his own authority, by meddling in the priests office, whose power had in every extremity been so helpful to the kings of Judah, that mere gratitude, and civil policy, should have held back Uzziah from encroaching thereupon; yea, though the law of God had been silent in this case, and not forbidden it. Howsoever the king forgot his duty, the priests remembered theirs, and God forgot not to assist them. Azariah the high priest interrupted the king's purpose, and gave him to understand how little to his honour it would prove, that he took upon him the office of the sons of Aaron. There were with Azariah fourscore other priests, valiant men, but their valour was shewed only in assisting the high priest, when (according to his duty) he reprehended the king's presumption. This was enough; the rest God himself performed. We find in Josephus, 1. 9. c. 11. that the king had apparelled himself in priestly habit, and that he threatened Azariah and his companions, to punish them with death, unless they would be quiet. Josephus indeed enlargeth the story, by inserting a great earthquake, which did tear down half an hill, that rolled four furlongs, till it rested against another hill, stopping up the high-ways, and spoiling the king's garden, in the passage. With this earthquake, he saith, that the roof of the temple did cleave, and that a sun-beam did light upon the king's face, which was presently infected with leprosy. All this may have been true; and some there are who think that this earthquake is the same which is mentioned by the prophet Amos; wherein they do much misreckon the times: For the earthquake spoken of by Amos, was in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel, who died thirty-seven years before Uzziah; so that Jotham, the son of Uzziah, which supplied his father's place in government of the land, should, by this account, have been then unborn; for he was but twenty-five years old, when he began to reign as king. Therefore thus far only

we have assurance, that while Uzziah was wroth with the priests, the leprosy rose up in his forehead, before the priests,' 2 Chron. xxvi. 20. Hereupon he was caused, in all haste, to depart the place, and to live in a house by himself, until he died; the rule over the king's house, and over all the land, being committed to Jotham, his son and successor. Jotham took not upon himself the stile of a king, till his father was dead; whom they buried in the same field wherein his ancestors lay interred, yet in a monument apart from the rest, because he was a leper.

SECT. III.

Of the prophets which lived in the time of Uzziah; and of princes then ruling in Egypt, and in some other countries.

In the time of Uzziah were the first of the lesser prophets, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Jonas. It is not indeed set down when Joel or Obadiah did prophesy; but if the prophets, whose times are not expressed, ought to be ranged (according to St. Jerome's rule) with the next before them, then must these two be judged contemporary with Hosea and Amos, who lived under king Uzziah.

To

enquire which of these five was the most ancient, it may perhaps be thought, at least, a superflous labour; yet if the age wherein Homer lived, hath so painfully been sought, without reprehension, how can he be taxed who offers to search out the antiquity of these holy prophets? It seems to me, that the first of these, in order of time, was the prophet Jonas, who foretold the great victories of Jeroboam king of Israel; and therefore is likely to have prophesied in the days of Joash, whilst the affliction of Israel was exceeding bitter, the text itself intimating no less'; by which consequence, he was elder than the other prophets, whose works are now ex

1 2 Chron, xiv. 25, 26.

tant. But his prophecies, that concerned the kingdom of Israel, are now lost. That which remaineth of him, seems, not without reason, unto some very learned, to have belonged unto the time of Sardanapalus, in whose days Nineveh was first of all destroyed. This prophet rather taught Christ by his suf ferings, than by his writings now extant; in all the rest are found express promises of the Messiah.

In the reign of Uzziah likewise.it was, that Isaiah, the first of the four great prophets, began to see his visions. This difference of greater and lesser prophets, is taken from the volumes which they have left written, (as St. Augustine' gives reason of the distinction,) because the greater have written larger books. The prophet Isaiah was great indeed, not only in regard of his much writing, or of his nobility, (for their opinion is rejected, who think him to have been the son of Amos the prophet,) and the high account wherein he lived, but for the excellency, both of his style and argument, wherein he so plainly fortelleth the birth, miracles, passion, and whole history of our Saviour, with the calling of the Gentiles, that he might as well be called an evangelist as a prophet; having written in such wise, that, (as St. Jerome' saith,) one would think he did not fortel of things to come, but compile an history of matters already past.'

Bocchoris was king of Egypt, and the ninth year of his reign, by our computation, (whereof in due place we will give reason,) was current, when Uzziah took possession of the kingdom of Judah.

After the death of Bocchoris, Asychis followed in the kingdom of Egypt; unto him succeeded Anysis; and these two occupied that crown six years. Then Sabacus, an Ethiopian, became king of Egypt, and held it fifty years, whereof the ten first ran along with the last of Uzziah's reign and life. Of these and other Egyptian kings, more shall be spoken,

2 Aug. de Civit. Dei, 1.xviii. c. 19.

Hier. in præf. super Esaiam.