But tho' God might appoint _Jeroboam_ to be King, (that is to say, of ten Tribes,) yet GOD did not appoint him to set up the _two Calves_ in the two extreme Parts of the Land, _viz._ in _Dan_, and in _Bethel_; that was _Jeroboam_'s own doing, and done on purpose to keep the People from falling back to _Rehoboam_, by being obliged to go to _Jerusalem_ to the publick Worship: And the Text adds, _Jeroboam made Israel to sin_. This was indeed a Master-piece of the _Devil_'s Policy, and it was effectual to answer the End, nothing could have been more to the Purpose; what Reason he had to expect the People would so universally come into it, and be so well satisfied with a couple of Calves, instead of the true Worship of GOD at _Jerusalem_; or what Arts and Management he (_Satan_) made use of afterwards, to bring the People in, to join with such a Delusion, that we find but little of in all the Annals of _Satan_; not is it much to the Case: 'Tis certain the _Devil_ found a strange kind of Propensity to worshiping Idols rooted in the Temper of that whole People, even from their first breaking away from the _Egyptian_ Bondage; so that he had nothing to do but to work upon the old Stock, and propagate the Crime that he found was so natural to them. And this is _Satan_'s general Way of working, not with them only, but with us also, and with all the World, even then, and ever since. When he had thus secur'd _Jeroboam_'s Revolt, we need not trace him among his Successors; for the same Reason of State that held for the setting up the Calves at _Bethel_ and _Dan_, held good for the keeping them up, to all _Jeroboam_'s Posterity; nor had they one good King ever after; even _Jehu_, who call'd his Friends to come and see his _Zeal for the Lord_, and who fulfill'd the Threatnings of God upon _Ahab_ and his Family, and upon Queen _Jezabel_ and her Offspring, and knew all the while that he was executing the Judgment of the true God upon an idolatrous Race; yet he would not part with his Calves, but would have thought it to have been parting with his Kingdom, and that as the People would have gone up to _Jerusalem_ to worship, so they would at the same Time have transfer'd their civil Obedience to the King of _Judah_, (whose Right it really was, as far as they could claim by Birth and right Line); so that by the way, _Satan_ any more than other Politicians, is not for the _jus divinum_ of lineal Succession, or what we call hereditary Right, any farther than serves for his Purpose.