338.]
sage advice, he consulted his own young companions ; who recommended rather a system of intimidation : this was more congenial with his own pride ; but it exasperated to the ut- most those whom by conciliatory measures he might easily have won^.
The event was such as might have been foreseen : the ten tribes would no longer acknowledge any allegiance to the house of David, but appointed a king of their own, even Jero- boam, whom they had sent for out of Egypt, to be an head, or centre of union to them, on the present emergency*^. The contemptuous way in which they spake of David was most ungrateful, seeing that his whole life had been spent in their service ^ : but past obligations weigh but little with men irritated by a sense oi present injuries.
The mode adopted to appease their irdnds, was no less absurd than the measure by which they had been incensed. Rehoboam sent Adoram, his tax-gatherer, the most obnoxious of all persons, to confer with them: but him they immediately stoned to death''.
Rehoboam then fled to Jerusalem, and raised a large army of a hundred and eighty thousand men from among the two remaining tribes, to redvice the rebels by force : but God sent a prophet to him, and to the whole army, forbidding them to proceed, and declaring that the whole matter had been ordered by God himself: "Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren, the children of Israel : return every man to his own house; for this thing is from ?«e."]
That this thing was from God, we now proceed to shew —
[Hitherto nothing had appeared to be from God, except the sending of a prophet to declare his will respecting the pro- secution of the war : but the whole was really of God, in its rise, its j)Togress, and its termination.
From God it took its rise. On account of Solomon's trans- gressions, God declared to Solomon himself that he would rend the ten tribes out of the hand of his son, and give them to his servant^. He sent also a prophet to Jeroboam, to announce to him, by a very expressive emblem, that ten of the tribes should be taken from Solomon on account of his iniquities, and be given to him^. These matters were well known to all Israel; for Solomon had on this account sought to kill Jeroboam*'; and constrained him to flee to Egypt for protection : and from thence had the ten tribes sent for him as soon as Solomon was
b ver. 5 — 14. <= ver. 2, 3. ^ ver. 16. « ver. 18.
f 1 Kings xi. 11—13. s 1 Kings xi. 26—35.
h 1 Kings xi. 40.