ich were not
of the sons of Levi, he might pretend that they were rebellious to him, in
that they would not assent unto his new ordinances,(949) which he had
enacted for the safety and security of his subjects, and that they did not
only simply refuse obedience to these his ordinances, but in their refusal
show themselves so stedfastly minded, that they would refuse and withstand
even to the suffering of deprivation and deposition; and not only so, but
likewise drew after them many others of the rest of the tribes to be of
their judgment, 2 Chron. xi. 16, and to adhere to that manner of worship
which was retained in Jerusalem. Lastly, For the change which he made
about the season of the feast of tabernacles, he might have this pretence,
that as it was expedient for the strengthening of his kingdom(950) to draw
and allure as many as could be had to associate and join themselves with
him in his form of worship (which could not be done if he should keep that
feast at the same time when it was kept at Jerusalem); so there was no
less (if not more) order and decency in keeping it in the eighth month,
when the fruits of the ground were perfectly gathered in(951) (for
thankful remembrance whereof that feast was celebrated) than in the
seventh, when they were not so fully collected.

These pretences he might have made yet more plausible, by professing and
avouching that he intended to worship no idols, but the Lord only; that he
had not fallen from anything which was fundamental and essential in divine
faith and religion, that the changes which he had made were only about
some alterable ceremonies which were not essential to the worship of God,
and that even in these ceremonies he had not made any change for his own
will and pleasure, but for important reasons which concerned the good of
his kingdom and safety of his subjects. Notwithstanding of all this, the
innovations which he made about these ceremonies of sacred signs, sacred
places, sacred persons, sacred times, are condemned for this very reason,
because he devised them of his own heart, 1 Kings xii. 33, which was
enough to convince him of horrible impiety in making Israel to sin.
Moreover, when king Ahaz took a pattern of the altar of Damascus, and sent
it to Urijah the priest, though we cannot gather from the text that he
either intended or pretended any other respect beside the honouring and
pleasuring of his patron and protector, the king of Assyria, 2 Kings xvi.
10,