OF SERPENTS. 231 



Wildernefs. As thi^ ftrange Occurrence was capable of various 

 Gloffes, fo it muft undergo different Conftruclions. The Brazen 

 Serpent was brought to Canaan, where 'twas kept in remembrance 

 of the miraculous Cures their Forefathers had received from it in 

 the Wildernefs; and, 'tis probable, the Ifraelites themfelves were 

 the firfl: that paid divine Honours to it, and the Idolatry might 

 begin in the days of the Judges ; others fay, under the Kings of 

 yiidah *. 



It lay quiet there, until thofe Days, the Children of Ifrael bumf 

 Incenje to it. That is, from the days Ifrael began to commit 

 Idolatry, to the days of Hezekiah ; who, to prevent the Growth 

 of that Serpentine Idolatry, brake in pieces the brazen Serpent that 

 MoJ'es had made-. 2 Kings xviii. 4, 



The Sound of the ftrange Cures done by the brazen Serpent, 

 foon fpread over the forfaken Nations, who, obferving how the 

 Wounded were healed by looking at it, conceived it to be a pro- 

 per Inftrumcnt to be their Mediator, and confequently a fit Objed: 

 for their Adoration, when even the Wounded in Ifrael, by ad- 

 dreffing to its Shadow, were healed. 



3. It is moft probable, that the Adoration of Serpents by the 

 Pagans, fprung from thefe two Fountains, 



The Wijdotn of the Serpent in Paradife, and the miraculous 

 Cures done by the Shadow of a Serpent in the Wildernefs ; which 

 were improved by the Devil to fecure his Honour and Intereft, 

 who wanted not Priefts to difplay the Glories of their Charader, 

 to make the Serpent honourable in the fight of his Vaflals. From 

 hence, the Egyptians, Phenicians, yea moft Nations, did imagine 

 the Serpent to have fome Divinity in its Nature, and for that 

 reafon (as hinted before) honour'd it with facred Homage ; this 

 the Devil did, with a view to lefiTen Men's Efteem for the Al- 

 mighty Creator. 



Hence alfo fome Men of fuperior Dignity have afFedled to 

 be efteem'd more than meer Men, making this as an Argument, 

 that they were begot by Serpents^ as we obferved already, therefore 

 I fliall only add, viz. 



T H A T Alexander the Great, after he had taken Rhodes, Egypf 

 and Cilicia, addreft Jupiter Hammon to know his Original, for his 



Mother 



* Jurku, vol. ii. from 'Rahhi Kimchi, wlio fays they burnt Incenfe to it, 

 le tyne ite Kings of ^«^«/? had- corrupted themleives ^. . . tn lamm. 



