When the Church of Israel murmured against God in the Wilderness, and censured the Conduct of Providence, he employs an Army of Serpents as his Agents, to correct the Rebels.——Plagues, and other pestilential Diseases, were, in old times, reputed to be the Messengers of the Gods, and commissioned by them, to execute Wrath upon the Wicked.
Some of the Heathens had exalted Notions of Virtue, and believed Men of Virtue to be the Favourites of the Gods, and that a vicious Life, being opposite to the Sanctity of their Nature, they could not let it pass with Impunity.
An Instance to this purpose we have in the History of the Apostles, Acts xxviii. 1-6. The Island was called Melita. And when Paul had gathered a Bundle of Sticks, and laid them on the Fire, there came a Viper out of the Heat, and fastened on his Hand. And when the Barbarians saw the venemous Beast hang on his Hand; they said among themselves, No doubt this Man is a Murderer, tho’ he has escaped the Sea, yet Vengeance (δικη, Justice) suffers not to live——They looked when he should have swoln, or faln down—And when they saw no harm come to him, they changed their Mind, and said he was a God. How came they to alter their Opinion? Because, according to their Divinity, none else could thus command, and controul a venemous Serpent, which was one of the Messengers of the Gods.
“No venemous Beasts, according to the fabulous Tradition, will live in the Island, which they ascribe to St. Paul’s Blessing, when he was shipwreck’d there.” They shew the Cave where they pretend he resided, and reckon the Earth of it, an Antidote against Poison.
From this historical Passage, ’tis evident, that these Barbarians did believe a Providence, and the Doctrine of Divine Justice, which Justice they openly adored, under the Name of Vindicta, or Nemesis, which was the Goddess of Revenge, whose Province was to inspect the moral Conduct of all Men, and distribute Rewards and Punishments as the Case required. It was painted in the same manner as Justice, with a Pair of Scales in one hand, and a Sword in the other.
In Ethiopia, we read of a large Country, this side the Cynamolgi, that was laid waste, and entirely depopulated by Scorpions, before whom, the Inhabitants not being able to stand, fled for their Lives. The same Desolation was made by the Scorpions at Salamin, an island not far from Athens, called the Island of Dragons, for which Lycophron is quoted[[87]].
[87]. Conrad. Gesner. de Scorp.
The Inhabitants of Amyclæ, a Town in Italy, were destroyed by Serpents, being, as ’tis said, of the Pythagorean Race, whose Laws forbid to kill Animals, and by suffering these venemous Creatures to multiply without Controul, they became insufferable[[88]].
[88]. Ibid.
The Inhabitants of Pescara, an antient City in Africa, were constrained to forsake their Habitations in Summer, by reason of Scorpions that were very numerous, and in that Season, their Sting most dangerous: In Winter, when their Wounds were less dangerous, the Refugees turned to their Houses[[89]].