I will now ask the Christian preachers, whether I dishonor the all-wise Sovereign of the Universe, in not believing him to be capable of such tomfoolery as this: in choosing, and again rejecting his former choice: in blundering, to rectify a former blunder, and falling into one much greater, to remedy the first: to be doing, and undoing: to have an end to accomplish, and to make use of means that fail in its accomplishment. Ye priests! if ye are not blind, look at the heavens above, and also on the earth beneath, and then ask yourselves, whether the God of all is the same personage as Jehovah, the God of Israel?
To conclude these remarks respecting the house of David and Solomon:--Even admitting that such personages had a real existence, I cannot so dishonor the Supreme Governor of Nature as for a moment to admit, that he dealt with either David or Solomon any otherwise than he deals with every human being, and I should stand before my fellow men a self-convicted hypocrite, were I to affect to believe.
CHAPTER VII. THE REIGN OF JEROBOAM, AND THE SEPARATION OF ISRAEL FROM JUDAH
REVIEWING the character of the three former Kings, two of whom gave Jehovah much trouble, and David, the best of them, committed adultery and murder, we must say, it was an unfortunate beginning of royal government. After the death of Solomon, his son, Rehoboam, began to reign. The people requested the new made King to ease them somewhat of the taxes and burdens laid on them by his father, Solomon. Rehoboam consulted with his father's old servants on that subject, and they advised him to attend to the wishes of his people; but he, on consulting with his own particular party, returned the following answer:--"_My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions_." This gives us a sample of Solomon's reign, and also of the course intended to be pursued by his son.
Rehoboam's answer produced a revolt, and the kingdom became divided. Ten tribes broke off from Rehoboam, and proclaimed Jeroboam King of Israel, while Rehoboam retained two tribes: so that the Israelites were divided. The ten tribes were called the kingdom of Israel, and the other two, the kingdom of Judah. This is the punishment that the Lord said he would bring on the nations in consequence of the sins of Solomon. So it was then, with the Lord's people, as it has ever been in Christian countries where the aristocracy is every thing, and, the people are considered as nothing. According to Jewish history, Jehovah and the Kings of his own choosing quarrelled, and then the people had to suffer in consequence of disputes in which they had but little or no interest; and one of the strongest proofs that "the God of the Bible" is not that Being whom we believe to be the only true God, is, that when the Jehovah of Moses and the Kings quarrel, the Kings are spared alive, but the innocent people are in some way or other murdered; thus clearly showing, that Kings are by Jehovah worth more than those who by honest toil cultivate the earth, and labor for the benefit of society,--a doctrine directly opposite to all our ideas of impartial justice.