THE ANCIENT HEBREWS. 
423 
•shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give 
him a stone ? If he ask a fish will he give him a serpent ? 
If he ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion the sense 
of which may be thus illustrated. 
If a parent was so unnatural as to give his hungry son 
a serpent, instead of a fish ; or a scorpion, instead of an egg ; 
he would both deceive and disappoint him — he would de- 
ceive him, if he took a serpent for a fish, which it resembles ; 
and a scorpion for an egg, which it also resembles, if the tail, 
legs, and arms are kept out of sight. If we call in question 
this resemblance, Bochart has quoted a sufficient number of 
examples to shew, that the scorpions about Judea resembled 
eggs, and if we can bring ourselves to believe that they were 
white, the resemblance will be still more complete. 
The son would be disappointed, as well as deceived, if 
he took a serpent for a fish, and a scorpion for an egg. In 
neither case could his hunger be appeased, because men in 
ordinary cases do not eat serpents, and far less scorpions. 
These are not coveted, as food, when they are dead ; be- 
cause they are avoided, as causing destruction, when they 
are alive. 
But if a parent, possessed of natural affection, will not de- 
ceive or disappoint his children, when they apply to him for 
the means of bodily support; far less, argues the Author 
of our religion, will the Parent of the Universe deceive or 
disappoint men, whom he considers as his children, if they 
seek the means of spiritual nourishment, never withheld, if 
properly sought, by which their religious and moral cha- 
racter^will be perfected, and their true and everlasting hap- 
piness secured ; or, to use his own words, verse 13, " If ye 
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give 
the Holy Spirit" (or, in the parallel passage, good things) 
" to them that ask him 
