Verse 7. And Solomon begat Roboam.]
A childe of fourty years old, a soft-spirited man, the Scripture notes him, a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, easily drawn away by evil counsell. Green wood will be warping. Of him it might be said, as once it was of a certain Prince in Germany, Esset alius, si esset apud alios. But a man would wonder, that* 1.1 by so many wives Solomon should have but one sonne, and him none of the wisest neither. Herôum filij 〈◊〉〈◊〉. He might (like∣ly) bewail his own unhappines in Rehoboam, Eccles. 2. 18, 19. as he is thought to do in Jeroboam, Pro. 20. 21. His mother was an Ammonitesse: the birth followes the belly: the conclusion fol∣lowes the weaker proposition.
A man not right, yet better then his father: and for this to be commended, that he held and plead∣ed the true worship and service of God as the beauty and bul∣wark of his Kingdom: relying also upon God, he discomfited Je∣roboam; Deo confisi, nunquam confusi.
A better son, sprung of the seed of bad Abia, of the soil of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Maachah, whom St. Jerome makes to be a worshipper of that abominable idol Priapus, otherwise called Baal-peor. For thus he translates that, 1 King. 15. Insuper &* 1.2 Maachan matrem 〈◊〉〈◊〉 amovit, ne esset princeps in sacris Pri∣api,* 1.3 & in luco 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Nos, pudore pulso, stamus sub Iove, coleis apertis, said the worshippers of Priapus. The people that 〈◊〉〈◊〉* 1.4 thereto (the sacrifice being ended) all stepped into a thicket, which was alwaies planted neer the altar of this God; and there, like brute beasts, 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 satisfied their lusts: thereby, as they conceived, best pleasing their God. This villany Maachah may seem to have been guilty of, and was therefore worthily re∣moved by her son Asa, from 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Queen. Sedes prima, & 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ima, suit not well together. Dignitas in indigno est ornamen∣tum in luto, saith Salvian. Honour in a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 man, is as a jew∣ell 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Gold in a swines snout.* 1.5