A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of…

The crown of the ten tribes was changed from one family to another continually. First, Jeroboam took it; but the crown remained in his family but for one generation after his death; it only descended to his son Nadab: and then Baasha, that was of another family, •ook it; and it remained in his posterity but one generation after his death: and then Z•mri, that was his servant, and not of his posterity, took it; and then, without descending at all to his posterity, Omri, that was of another family, took it; and the crown continued in his family for three successions: and then Jehu, that was of another family, took it; and the crown continued in his family for three or four successions: and then Shall••, that was of another family, took it: and the crown did not descend at all to his posterity; but Menahem, that was of another family, took it; and it remained in his family but one generation after him: and then Pekah, that was of another family, took it; and after him Hoshea, that was still of another family, took it: so great a difference was there between the crown of Israel, and the crown of Judah; the one was continued evermore in the same family, and with very little interruption, in one right line; the other was continually tossed about from one family to another, as if it were the sport of fortune. The reason was not, because the kings of Judah, many of them, were better than the kings of Israel; but the one had the blessing in them; they were the ancestors of Christ, whose right it was to sit on the throne of Israel. But with the kings of Israel it was not so; and therefore divine Providence exercised a continual care, through all the changes that happened through so many generations, and such a long space of time, to keep the crown of Judah in one direct line, in fulfilment of the everlasting covenant he had made with David, the mercies of which covenant were sure mercies; but in the other case there was no such covenant, and so no such care of Providence.

Here it must not be omitted, that there was once a very strong conspiracy of the kings of Syria and Israel, in the time of that ⟨p. 89⟩