i86 A NATURAL HISTORY 



under fome vifible Form. It could not but give them fome fe- 

 cret Satisfacflion to fee their cruel Enemy tremble at the Bar. 



I T is obfervable here, that the Promife of the Mejfiah was made 

 to Adam, before the Almighty paft upon him the Sentence of 

 Death. How furprizing this ! to find the Death of Chrift pub- 

 lijloed, before the Death of Adam was pronounced. The Death of 

 Chrift, the Innocent ; before the Death of Ada7n, the Criminal. 



The laft Remark I fhall make here is, that the Earth, tho' 

 curfed for Man's Sin, fcill puts on the Face of a Paradife, abound- 

 ing with an innumerable Variety of good Things j yea, and thofe 

 fo delicious and pleafant to Mankind, that many wifh to live in 

 it for ever. Thus they confine their Hopes and Fears to the pre- 

 fent State, and are fo far from believing a Life to come, that 

 they can hardly perfuade themfelves to believe, that they fhall 

 leave this prefent Life. 



A s the Bounties of Providence gives us no room to murmur 

 at our prefent Province or Portion, fo on the other hand, the 

 Toils and Troubles of this State fhould caufe us to afpire after 

 the heavenly Paradife, where no Curfe ever found Accefs, where 

 none of the Thorns of Afiiidlion, or the Briers of Sorrow grow. 



CHAP. IL 



Contents. Of the fiery Serpents that annoy d the Camp of 

 Ifrael : The Re afon of that judicial Stroke, i.e. Murmuring un- 

 der a Difpenfation of Miracles. Why puniftSd- by Serpents ? 

 W^hy called Fiery ? The laji Plague in the Defart. Flying 

 ■Serpents. 



SECT. L 



IT might be faid with great Propriety of the People of Ifrael, 

 that they were a Generation of Vipers. Ingratitude, Unbelief, 

 Difcontent and Murmuring, were the dominant Pallions in the 

 Wildernefs ; they were always quarrelling with God and Mofes : 

 never eafy, no not under a Theocracy, a divine Government. 

 No wonder that Rage and Faftion haunt the Dwellings of good 



Princes^ 



