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LECTURE XVII.

CANAAN.

ITS POLITY.

THE object of Jehovah in locating the Israelites in Canaan, was, we have seen, the recovery, through them, of the world from idolatry. As the principal means whereby he purposed accomplishing this object, were the government under which he placed them, and the revelations of his will which from time to time he made to them; the nature of that government, and the character of the language in which he made and caused to be perpetuated, those revelations, become subjects of interesting inquiry. The Polity of Canaan will form the subject of the present lecture ; its language will form the subject of a future lecture.

There were indeed widely different forms of government existing in Canaan at different periods of its history; but only one of those forms, that which was introduced by Moses, and which continued, with but little modification, till the days of Samuel, was instituted by the express direction of Jehovah. As, however, we shall thereby perceive, how much more conducive to the happiness of the governed was that form which Jehovah himself instituted, than those which men substituted in its stead, and that if the object for which Israel was located in Canaan were not attained, the failure is to be attributed, not to the inadequacy of

the means provided for the purpose, but solely to those means not being fully carried out into action, we shall, together with the form that God instituted, contemplate those which were successively substituted in its place.

The form of government that was introduced by Moses is called by Josephus a theocracy; and it is properly so called; for that which constitutes sovereign authority, the prerogative to make laws, declare war, and appoint magistrates, existed in Jehovah himself. This form was not a monarchy; neither was it either a pure aristocracy, or a pure democracy, but a mixture of the two. It perhaps more nearly resembled a republican government, than any other with which we are acquainted. Under it, every tribe existed as a distinct province, while all the tribes were united in one national confederation. In order, therefore, to give a just view of it, we must, first, describe the government of the tribes, and then, that of the union of the tribes.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TRIBES.

We have frequent mention of persons in authority in the tribes as, "princes of the tribes of their fathers; heads of thousands in Israel, the princes of Israel; heads of the houses of their fathers, who were princes of the tribes, and were over them that were numbered." (Num. i. 16, vii. 2.) And the Hebrew constitution required that there should be persons in authority in all the cities of the tribes: "judges and officers shalt thou make in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes." (Deut. xvi. 18.) Accordingly, we frequently read of the elders and judges of particular cities. Now not only had each of these courts of elders a separate jurisdiction in the several cities over which they presided; but their decision was generally final; as it was only in cases of great moment, or, rather, when the judges were them

selves divided in their opinions, that any appeal was allowed from their decision: and then the appeal was not to any superior court in the tribe, but to the supreme national court. (Deut. xvii. 8.) We have on

record some of their acts, from which we may form some idea of the nature of their authority. The inhabitants of Gilead were desirous of making Jephtha their captain, in order to defend themselves against the children of Ammon; when "the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephtha, and to make him their captain.” And it is added, "Jephtha went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them." (Judges xi. 5, 6, 11.) The elders first treated with Jephtha, but the people confirmed their act: whence, we perceive in this city a form of government very nearly resembling that by a senate and an assembly of the people.

Sigonius supposes that these judges and elders of cities were according to an original constitution of Moses in the wilderness, but were continued by divine appointment for the government of the tribes when they were settled in the land of Canaan. "So I took the chief of your tribes," says Moses, "wise men and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes" (Deut. i. 15 :) and his supposition is not without reason. *

We have seen that the whole Hebrew nation held their estates by military tenure, and that the tribes were always to be in readiness to raise a sufficient number of men in arms for the defence of their country on any emergency. But some have supposed that a militia of twenty-four thousand men, raised equally from all the tribes, and relieved by the same number

Sig. de Heb. Rep. 1. 6, c. 6.

every month, was constantly kept up. While the men thus served in rotation, it is highly probable that the officers-the colonels, captains, and those of inferior rank, were permanently on duty. It is highly probable, too, that these officers had a civil, as well as a military authority, they being a council of state and magistrates, in affairs relating to the government of their cities, as well as a council of war, in affairs relating to the defence of their country. This is the more probable, as such was precisely the character of the superior officers in the tribes, in reference to the affairs of the nation at large. These were summoned to attend Moses alone, without their hosts; (Num. x. 3, 4 ;) and when thus assembled, civil affairs were submitted to them, as well as military: as, the question of the succession of females to inheritances, (xxxvi. 1,) and the dividing of the country among the tribes. (xxxiv. 17.)

In addition to these functionaries, each tribe had a prince or chief, with four or five heads of families; who commanded the tribe when in arms, and presided in its counsels when assembled as a civil or political body; and which authority appears to have been hereditary.

"These princes of tribes and heads of families," observes Lowman, “ may be represented as lord-lieutenants of counties, and the deputy lieutenants; or as generals, and lieutenant generals; being constant general officers when the tribe was to march, as part of the army of Israel; and in the tribe they were the principal magistrates to summon the tribe to a general assembly when there was occasion for it, or when any affairs relating to the whole tribe were to be proposed, or any resolution of consequence to be taken by the whole tribe, or when any thing was to be communicated to it from the general states of the united tribes, which required the concurrence of the province.

"The officers in each city may, in like manner, be considered as the local officers of the militia in the several hundreds and divisions of the county or province. This made a provision of colonels and captains, to draw the forces of the tribe together, and to lead them wherever they were directed to a general rendezvous, where the prince of the tribe as general, and the heads of families as lieutenant-generals, should receive them; and at all times to exercise them to arms at home, the better to prepare them for the service of their country, whenever they should be called to march in defence of it.

"As civil authority was generally joined to military command in this constitution, so these captains of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, were also elders of the people. They were as a standing senate and council in the places of their habitation, so that we conceive the same persons invested with the authority of aldermen and justices of the peace, at the same time that they were colonels and captains of the militia.

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Thus, with the assemblies of the people, they managed the public affairs of each hundred or division; at the same time they were in readiness, not only to appear as a council of war, with the prince of the tribe, the general, and with the heads of families, the lieutenant-generals, as military officers; but, moreover, to meet them on all occasions as a civil council or parliament, as a sort of representative of the people of the tribe in its several divisions, when there was any occasion to summon them together, to treat on any arduous affairs concerning the public good of the tribe.*

* Lowman's Civil Government of the Hebrews, pp. 79, 80.

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