the power in some cases of judicature; as also the right of
levying war, cognizance in matter of religion, and the election
of their magistrates, as the judge or dictator, the king, the
prince: which functions were exercised by the Synagoga magna, or
Congregation of Israel, not always in one manner, for sometimes
they were performed by the suffrage of the people, viva voce,
sometimes by the lot only, and at others by the ballot, or by a
mixture of the lot with the suffrage, as in the case of Eldad and
Medad, which I shall open with the Senate.

The Senate of Israel, called in the old Testament the Seventy
Elders, and in the New the Sanhedrim (which word is usually
translated "the Council"), was appointed by God, and consisted of
seventy elders besides Moses, which were at first elected by the
people, but in what manner is rather intimated than shown.
Nevertheless, because I cannot otherwise understand the passage
concerning Eldad and Medad, of whom it is said "that they were of
them that were written, but went not up to the tabernacle," then
with the Talmudists I conceive that Eldad and Medad had the
suffrage of the tribes, and so were written as competitors for
magistracy; but coming afterward to the lot, failed of it, and
therefore went not up to the tabernacle, or place of confirmation
by God, or to the session-house of the Senate, with the Seventy
upon whom the lot fell to be senators; for the session-house of
the Sanhedrim was first in the court of the tabernacle, and
afterward in that of the Temple, where it came to be called the
stone chamber or pavement. If this were the ballot of Israel,
that of Venice is the same transposed; for in Venice the
competitor is chosen as it were by the lot, in regard that the
electors are so made, and the magistrate is chosen by the