when he had a child by his lawful wife, it is too common a case to be an evidence of any singular authority vested in the patriarchs, and peculiar to those ages.

The third instance is that of Jacob's denouncing a curse upon Simeon and Levi, "Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel," Gen. xlix, 7.

But this might have been more properly alleged as an instance of prophetic inspiration than of patriarchal authority; it being among the predictions, which, under a divine afflatus, Jacob delivered concerning the posterity of his twelve sons. And very remarkably was this prediction fulfilled. The tribe of Simeon, upon the division of the land of Canaan, had not a separate inheritance assigned them by themselves, but only a portion in the midst of the tribe of Judah, Josh. xix, 1, 9. And when they were afterwards increased, they acquired possessions where they could, far from the rest of their brethren, 1 Chron. iv, 39, 42. And if the Jewish tradition be credible, that many of them, wanting a livelihood, engaged in teaching children, and were employed as schoolmasters in all the other tribes of Israel, it was a further accomplishment of Jacob's prophecy. As for the tribe of Levi, it was remarkably scattered among the other tribes; having no tract of land assigned it, in the manner they had, but only certain cities (with a little land about them), out of all the other tribes. See Josh. xxi, passim. Howbeit, as this tribe manifested an extraordinary zeal against idolatry in the affair of the golden calf, Exod. xxxii, 26-28, the curse was taken off, or rather turned into a blessing, ver. 29; for it was consecrated of God to teach Jacob his judgments, and Israel his laws," Deut. xxxiii, 9, 10; and the Levites had the tenth of all the increase of the land assigned them, throughout all the country.

The fourth instance of patriarchal authority, which is alleged, is of Judah; who, when he was informed, that Tamar, his daughter-in-law, had played the harlot, and was with child by whoredom, said, " Bring her forth and let her be burnt," Gen. xxxviii, 24. From whence it is inferred, that Judah, as a patriarch, was invested with supreme authority in his own house, and even with power of life and death. But to this it is objected,

1st, It is not probable that Judah should be invested with such authority, while his father Jacob was still living: much less,

2dly, That he should have such a despotic power over Tamar, who was not one of his family; for, after the death of Onan, she had returned to dwell in her own father's house, ver. 11. Nor,

3dly, If he had possessed such a power, is it likely he would have been guilty of so much injustice and cruelty, as to put her to death, when she was with child. Perhaps therefore Judah might speak only as a prosecutor: Bring her forth, to her trial, in order that she may be burnt after her delivery." For though the law of Moses, which enacted that adultery should be punished with death, Lev. xx, 10, was not yet given, burning seems, however, to have been the punishment of that crime, which custom had established. We find it practised by the Philistines, who were not under the law of Moses. When Samson's wife had married another man, they burnt her with fire," Judg. xv, 6. It is further to be considered, that though Tamar had lived a widow since the death of Onan, yet she was legally espoused to his younger brother Shelah, and only waited till he was of proper age for the consummation of the marriage, and therefore she was considered as a wife, and consequently as an adulteress.

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Of the Special Form of the Hebrew Government.

Having thus examined the hints of the patriarchal form of government, which are to be found in the only authentic history of those early ages, we proceed,

II. To consider the special government of the people of Israel, from the beginning of their national polity to its final dissolution. Here I shall distinguish this large tract of time into four periods:

1st, From their entrance into Egypt to their entrance into Canaan.

2dly, From their entrance into Canaan to the captivity. 3dly, During the captivity; and,

4thly, From the captivity to the destruction of Jerusalem. I. The first period is, from their entrance into Egypt to

their entrance into Canaan, which may conveniently be subdivided into two lesser periods.

The former takes up the time of their sojourning in the land of Egypt; the latter, the time of their migration through the wilderness, from Egypt to Canaan.

First, As to the state and form of their government while they sojourned in Egypt.

No doubt, while Jacob and Joseph lived, they were their own masters, and were governed by their own laws. And though afterwards, "when another king arose that knew not Joseph," they were enslaved by the Egyptians, yet we may perhaps discern the shadow, at least, of some form of civil government still subsisting among them.

God commanded Moses to "gather the pt zikenim, elders of Israel, together, in order to deliver to them the message with which he was sent to their nation," Exod. iii, 16. And "Moses and Aaron went, and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel," chap. iv, 29.

By elders some understand the judges in their civil courts; because we find this title afterwards applied to such judges, Deut. xxi, 2; xix, 12, and in several other places. But it is an objection of no small weight against this opinion, that when Moses had brought the Israelites out of Egypt, there were no such judges among them; but Moses judged all himself, to his exceeding great trouble, Exod. xviii, 13, &c. By the elders, therefore, spoken of before, during their abode in Egypt, may only be meant the wisest and gravest men in the highest esteem among them, or at most, according to Mr. Selden, the heads of their tribes*.

As for the now shoterim, officers of the children of Israel, Exod. v, 14, which they had amongst them at this time, they seem to have been appointed, and set over them, by the Egyptians, merely for the purpose of overseeing the work they were employed in.

So that, upon the whole, we have only very dark and uncertain hints of any special form of government among the Hebrews during their abode in Egypt. But,

Secondly, The form of their government is far more con

* Uxor. Hebr. lib. i, cap. 15.

spicuous in and during their migration through the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan.

Presently after they had left Egypt, the Theocracy was set up among them, that is, God condescended to be their king, as well as their God. The word expatia, formed by Josephus from Eos, Deus, and xparew, impero, very happily expresseth that peculiar government which God exercised over the people of Israel. To them he stood in a threefold relation.

First, As their Creator, in common with the rest of mankind; and, therefore, as the Lord of their consciences, he required from them all the duties of the moral law.

Secondly, He was their God, as they were a visible church, separated from all the nations of the earth to be his peculiar people. In this character he prescribed the peculiar forms and distinguishing rites and ceremonies of their religious worship.

Thirdly, He was their proper king, the sovereign of their body politic, in which character he gave them judicial or political laws relating to government and civil life; he ordered a royal palace to be built for his residence among them, I mean the tabernacle, in which he dwelt, or manifested his special presence, by the Shechinah, as the Jews call it; that is, by a bright cloud, or glory, appearing over the mercy seat, betwixt the two cherubim in the innermost room of that palace, Lev. xvi, 2; on which account he is said to "dwell betwixt the cherubim," Psal. lxxx, 1; and to "sit betwixt the cherubim," Psal. xcix, 1. From thence he gave forth oracles, or signified his will concerning matters of importance to the state, which were not determined by the body of written laws, Lev. i, 1.

It should seem, the common way of giving these oracles was by an audible voice. In this manner, we are expressly informed, the oracle was given to Moses, when he went into the tabernacle to consult it, Numb. vii, 89. And it may be inferred from the phrase by which the oracle is usually expressed, "Jehovah spoke, saying," or "Jehovah said."

However that was (which will be considered more fully in its proper place), it sufficiently appears, that by the oracle, or by Jehovah himself, all laws were enacted, war was proclaimed, and magistrates were appointed, in which three

things the summa potestas, or sovereign authority, of any state, consisteth*.

1st, Laws were enacted and promulgated immediately by the oracle, or voice of Jehovah.

Thus, when the laws of the two tables were given at mount Sinai, the voice of Jehovah was heard by all the people, Deut. v, 22, 23. But the majesty in which God manifested himself on that occasion was so very awful, that it struck them with amazement, and a kind of horror; therefore the rest of the laws were, at their request, communicated more privately to Moses, and by him to the people. Yet they were all given immediately, by the oracle, or voice of Jehovah. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying," is the usual preface to every body or parcel of laws.

Now these laws are an evidence that Jehovah acted as their king, as well as their God, since they contain a number of forensic, as well as moral and ceremonial precepts, relating to their civil polity and government, to their magistrates and judges, their estates and inheritances, their trade and commerce, and even to the form of their houses, their food, and their apparel. God enacted all their laws, and no power was vested in any one else, either to make new, or repeal old

ones.

2dly. God, as king, reserved to himself the sovereign right of proclaiming war and making peace with their neighbouring nations.

He proclaimed war with the Amalekites, Exod. xvii, 16, and with the Midianites, Numb. xxxi, 1, 2, and therefore a certain history of the wars of the Israelites, now lost, is called "the book of the wars of the Lord," Numb. xxi, 14. Jehovah commanded, and even headed, their armies in their marches and in their battles. Thus the tabernacle, or royal tent, led their marches through the wilderness; from thence, by the rising and falling of a miraculous cloud over it, was the signal given when they should proceed, and when they should rest, Numb. ix, 17, 18. By this extraordinary appearance, or token of the Divine presence, was the course, as well as the time, of their marches directed; for "the Lord went before

* Vid. Conring, de Rep. Heb. sect. vii, et seq.