(6.) It will be very useful, in order to our understanding scripture, for us to know some things, relating to the different forms of civil government, and the various changes made therein, among the Jews, and other nations, with whom they were conversant. At first we find, that distinct families had the administration of civil affairs committed unto them, and the heads thereof were, as it were, the chief magistrates, who had the exercise of civil power, in some instances; especially if it did not interfere with that of the country wherein they lived. Some think, indeed, that it extended to the punishing capital crimes with death; and that Judah, who was the head of a branch of Jacob’s family, when he passes this sentence concerning Tamar, in Gen. xxxviii. 24. _Bring her forth, and let her be burnt_, does it as a civil magistrate: But, if it be not deemed a rash and unjustifiable expression in him, when he says, _Let her be brought forth, and burnt_, we must suppose the meaning to be, let her first be confined till she is delivered of her child, and then tried by the civil magistrate, the consequence whereof will be, her being burnt, when found guilty of the adultery that was charged upon her. So that it does not appear that the heads of families, when sojourning in other countries, had a power distinct from that of the government under which they lived, to punish offenders with death; though, I think, it is beyond dispute, that they had a government in their own families, that extended, in many respects, to civil affairs, as well as obliged them to observe those religious duties which God required of them. It may be farther observed, that this government extended so far, as that the Patriarchs, or heads of families, had, sometimes, a power of making war, or entering into confederacies with neighbouring princes, for their own safety, or recovering their rights when invaded. Thus when Lot and the Sodomites, were taken prisoners by the four kings that came up against them, we read, in Gen. xiv. 13, 14. that Abraham called in the assistance of some of his neighbours, with whom he was in confederacy, and _armed his trained servants, three hundred and eighteen, born in his house_, and rescued him, and the men of Sodom from the hands of those that had taken them prisoners.