What is moral Evil but the Venom of the old Serpent? A Venom as pleasant to the Taste, as the forbidden Fruit to the Eye, but the End is Bitterness. And what are Incentives to Sin, but delusive Insinuations of the subtle Serpent? And what is Enjoyment, but a pleasing Illusion, which is no sooner grasp’d, but glides away as a Shadow, leaving behind it a wounded Conscience, direful Apprehensions and Prospects.
And what are all sensual Entertainments but so many hot Gleams that portend the Approach of warring Winds and Storms? The Powers of Darkness that excel in Science, know how to regale the human Mind with pleasant Scenes, and how to divert the Senses with delightful Charms; Charms that have no Existence but in a deluded Imagination.
The Cure by a brazen Serpent, might also be to shew, that the Almighty in relieving distressed Supplicants, is not tied to any particular Medium. When the Israelites were poison’d by real Serpents, he heals them by the Image of a Serpent. When he would destroy Goliath the Tyrant, he does it by a Sling in the Hands of David a Youth, a very unlikely Person to encounter a Champion.
Thus God by the Figure of a Serpent mortifies the Pride of Lucifer, the old Serpent, by which he acquir’d greater Honour, than if he had sacrificed to the Fire all the Serpents in the Wilderness.
This may further intimate, that Providence may employ the same Kind of Instruments, either for the Display of Mercy or Justice upon Mankind. He who heals and wounds by the Mediation of Serpents, can turn Blessings into a Curse, or enable us to extract Sweetness out of the bitter Cup.
SECT. III.
This artificial Serpent might (as some have thought) prefigure the Messiah, the Healer of spiritual Maladies. Many take it for a Representation of his Passion and Crucifixion: The Analogy may be thus illustrated, viz. The Cures wrought by the Serpent and the Saviour, deriv’d their Efficacy from Divine Appointment.
If the brazen Serpent had been the mere Contrivance of Moses, it would not have answer’d the Intention: so all human Institutions adopted into Divine Worship will be as little available to true Happiness, (Who has required this at your Hand?) of that Sovereign, who accepts no Worship but what has the Sanction of his Wisdom and Will.
Both Cures were performed by the most unlikely Means. The Serpent that healed their Wounds, was made of Brass; a Prescription in which there was no Probability of producing that happy Effect: And where was the promising Aspect arising from the Manner of our Saviour’s Appearance on Earth? What great Things could be expected from a Root of a dry Ground? How improbable was it that a Person so mean in external Form should overthrow the Kingdom of Darkness, a Kingdom that had been strengthening its Barriers for about four thousand Years? Who could think that he had such powerful Interest in Heaven, who was of no Reputation on the Earth?
Behold here a Scene of Paradoxes! Patients recovered by the Death of the Physician. Upon Mount Golgotha we see Paradise, lost by the first Adam, regained by the Death of the second Adam; Principalities and Powers led captives by a dying Man; there we see Life restored by Death, a Crown of Glory purchased by an ignominious Cross. Were the Israelites healed by a Creature made in the Likeness of the Serpent that hurt? So Men are restor’d by one made like themselves.