Scripture you have the solemn enthronizing of Joash, a
young king, and that in a very troublesome time; for Athaliah, the
mother of Ahaziah, had cruelly murdered the royal seed, and usurped the
kingdom by the space of six years. Only this young prince was preserved
by Jehosheba, the sister of Ahaziah, and wife to Jehoiada, the high
priest, being hid with her in the house of the Lord, all that time.

Good interpreters do conjecture, though Joash be called the son of
Ahaziah, that he was not his son by nature, but by succession to the
crown. They say, that the race of Solomon ceased here, and the kingdom
came to the posterity of Nathan, the son of David, because, 'tis said,
"the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom;" which
they conceive to be for the want of children in that house, and because
of the absurdity and unnaturalness of the fact, that Athaliah, the
grandmother, should have cut off her son's children. I shall not stand
on the matter, only I may say, if they were Ahaziah's own children, it
was a most unnatural and cruel act for Athaliah to cut off her own
posterity.

For the usurpation, there might have been two motives. _First_, It
seemeth when Ahaziah went to battle, Athaliah was left to govern the
kingdom, and, her son Ahaziah being slain before his return, she thought
the government sweet, and could not part with it, and because the royal
seed stood in her way, she cruelly destroyed them, that she might reign
with the greater freedom. _Secondly_, She was earnest to set up a false
worship, even the worship of Baal, which she thought could not be so
well done, as by cutting off the royal race, and getting the sole power
in her hand, that she might do what she pleased.

The business you are about this day, is not unlike: you are to invest a
young king in the throne, in a very troublesome time, and wicked men
have risen up and usurped the kingdom, and put to death the late king
most unnaturally. The like motives seemed to have prevailed with them.
_First_, These men by falsehood and dissimulation, have gotten power in
their hands, which to them is so sweet, that they are unwilling to part
with it; and because the king and his seed stood in their way, they have
made away the king, and disinherited his children, that the sole power
might be in their hand. _Secondly_, They have a number of damnable
errors, and a false worship to set up, and intend to take away the
ordinances of Christ, and gover