is fummoned, all the Peers of France have Right of Seffion and Vote as Members of it.

If we were to fuppofe the Sanhedrim fomewhat after this Manner, conftantly attending as Judges in more difficult Cafes of Law and Appeals, and to affift the Judge as a privy Council on common Occafions; and if we were to confider the Princes of Ifrael, as Peers of Ifrael, who had Seffion and Vote in the national Senate when affembled

on extraordinary Occafions of greater Confequence: We should come nearer, I think, to the Truth of the Cafe than we generally do, from the falfe Notions of the Sanhedrim, taught in the fabulous Accounts of the Talmudifts.

Some may imagine the Preamble to the Laws of King Ina*, will give fome light to this Conftitution; there is mention of all his Alderment, and at the fame Time of the elder wife Men: What may we fuppose the Difference between these? As the Alderman appears to be much the fame with Earl, while that was a Name of Office and chief Government in a County; fo the Witan feem to be Men of Learning in the Law, or employ'd in Affairs of State, and

fo

* Mid Eallum minum Ealdermannum, and tham yldeftan Witan minre theod, omnium Senatorum meorum, & natu majorum Sapientum Populi mei. Ina Leges.

Ealderman, Senior, Senator, Princeps, Satrapa, Witword, Witaword, Refponfa Prudentum. Wita Confiliarius, Sapiens. Vocab.

fo moft converfant and beft fkill'd in them. But fuch Similitude of the wife Men to the Hebrew Sanhedrim, and of the Aldermen to the Princes of Ifrael, is fubmitted to the Judgment of those who are fkill'd in our Saxon Antiquities.

However, this feems clear and evident, that whoever they were who compofed the great Council or Senate of the Hebrew Nation, under the Stile of Princes or Elders, that there was a Senate to affift the Judge, and by whofe Advice he acted in Affairs of Confequence, and which concerned

the

whole Nation. And this was a fecond Part of the Union of the Tribes. There was a national Council and Senate, as well as a Congregation of all Ifrael.

G

CHA P. X.

Of the JUDGE.

OD, the Author of the Hebrew Polity, having taken care by the Congregation of all Ifrael, and by the Senate of Princes and Elders, for the Prefervation of the Liberties. of the People, and for the Wisdom of the Administration of Government, takes further care of the executive Powers, that the wife Refolutions which might be taken at any Time, fhould be brought into due and timely Execution; and that the Force of the N Nation

Nation fhould be properly employ'd for the Defence and Protection of the whole.

The wifeft Nations have ever thought it convenient to lodge these Powers either in one hand, or at least in a few, to prevent the Delays and manifeft Inconveniences which would certainly arife from Difference of Sentiments in Perfons of equal Authority, when Things were to be brought into Execution; fo that almost all Forms of Government have found it neceffary to have fome Commander in Chief for their Armies, and fome firft or principal Magiftrate or Magiftrates, either hereditary, or for Term of Life or Years, to fummon the national Councils, to prefide in them, and to fee to a due Adminiftration of Justice, according to Law and Equity. Thus the Lacedæmonians had their Kings, the Athenians their Archons, the Carthaginians their Suffetes, the Romans their Conjuls, and the Hebrews their Judges.

Very little is to be learn'd of the Nature of a Magistracy from its Name, the Kings of Lacedemon had no more Authority than the Confuls of Rome; and among the Hebrews the Words King and Judge feem to be ufed promifcuoufly. For, as Bertram obferves * "the Word King in fome Places "C means

*

Regis autem nomine intelligi videtur Gubernator, & Dux quilibet, qualis fuerat Mofes, qualis etiam Jofhua, quales denique fuerant Judices qui poftea excitati funt. de Rep. Hebræ, 104.

Bert.

means only a chief Governor or Captain, "fuch as Mofes, Joshua, and the other Judges." Mofes is in particular called King of Jefurun; Deuteron. and to judge Ifrael was of the fame Import, xxxiii. 5. and meant the fame Authority.

The Title of King in the After-times of the Hebrew Government did fignify a Magiftracy, different in fome Things from the Magiftracy of a Judge, yet not in fo many as are usually thought; but the Difference between these Magiftracies is not to our prefent Purpose.

The Magiftracy of Judge, as it appears in the ancient Hebrew Hiftory,and in the Adminiftration of Mofes and Joshua, was the true primitive Conftitution of the Hebrew Government, and which the Wisdom of the divine Lawgiver had appointed as one principal Part of the Union of the Tribes, in the Power of their Arms, in their national Coun.. cils, and in the Administration of national Juftice.

This Part of the Conftitution was very foon neglected and altered: There was no Judges King or Judge in Ifrael. The Confequence xix. 1. of which, was very great Disorders, Civil Wars among themfelves, Invafions from their Enemies, by whom they were greatly opprefs'd, and they were made to ferve their Heathen Neighbours. This continued more or lefs, from a little after the Death of Joshua and the Elders of his Time, till this N 2 Part

Part of the Conftitution was in fome Meafure restored under Eli and Samuel; which was foon after changed into the Office and Authority of the After-Kings, when the chief Magiftracy became an hereditary Office, and was inlarged with fome new Powers; but as that was not the original Constitution, it is what our prefent Enquiry is very little concerned in. We are only concerned to examine how this Magiftracy was inftituted and exercised by Mofes and Joshua, in whofe History alone we can expect to find a true Account of it. Agreeable to this true historical Account, Conringius gives a general Description of this Magiftracy in Mofes, That "*with respect to God who referv'd to him"felf the fupreme Authority over the H"brew Nation, and who was himself pro

perly King of Ifrael, Mofes might not "improperly be called his Viceroy. +However, "that Mofes had a Magiftracy and an

Authority, tho' depending in a peculiar manner on God himfelf, of confulting, appointing, commanding, and judging "Controverfies in the Hebrew Nation, is " evident

*Quem habito refpectu ad Deum, qui fummam poteftatem, fibi in Populo Hebræo fervaverat, atque adeo illius Rex erat, haud abfurde proregem dixeris. Conringius de Rep. Hebræ.249.

+ Cæterum geffiffe Moyfem Magiftratum, habuiffeque poteftatem, peculiari tamen modo ab ipfo eo dependentem, deliberandi, ftatuendi, & mandandi, ac de controverfiis judicandi in Gente Ebræorum, id ex Hiftoria facra, quam ipfe Moyfes fcripfit, abunde liquet. Id. ib. 250.