Adoration of Serpents.
The next thing that comes under Consideration is, the Worship of Serpents, which is observed thro’ all the Pagan Antiquity. The Devil, who, under the Shape of a Serpent, tempted our first Parents, has, with unwearied Application, labour’d to deify that Animal, as a Trophy of his first Victory over Mankind. The Conquest made by the old Serpent in Paradise, and the wonderful Cures made by the Shadow of a Serpent in the Wilderness, contributed very much towards making that hateful Creature so venerable in the Eyes of so many Nations.
God having past Sentence upon the Serpent, Satan consecrates that Form in which he deceived the Woman, and introduces it into the World as an Object of religious Veneration: This he did with a view to enervate the Force of the divine Oracle, the Seed of the Woman. Scarcely a Nation upon Earth, but he has tempted to the grossest Idolatry, and in particular got himself to be worshipped in the hideous Form of a Serpent.
The Almighty foreseeing this general Delusion, guarded the World against it, by inspiring Men with the greatest Aversion to that venemous Creature, and yet was the Tempter ador’d in most places under the Appearance of a Serpent. If you say, that Men worship other Creatures; I answer, Those are beneficial to Mankind, and not so odious and hurtful as those who carry Poison in their Tails and Teeth.
How surprizing this! that a Serpent, a Beast to which Mankind has a strong natural Aversion, should be ador’d by Creatures of Reason, and yet nothing more common, as will appear by the following Instances from Antiquity.
EGYPT was a Country that abounded with Variety of Serpents, and where they were generally held in the greatest Veneration. The supreme God was represented by them in the Form of a Serpent with a Hawk’s Head, because of the wonderful Agility of that Bird. We see no Table of Osiris and Isis, two Egyptian Idols, without a Serpent joined to them[[392]]. This Isis married Osiris, King of that Country, and govern’d with so much Wisdom and Gentleness, that the Egyptians paid divine Honours to them, who had been such Blessings to the Land.
[392]. Macrobii Oper. Sat. cap. xx.
In Egypt is a Serpent of the Aspick Kind, called Thermutis, to which they gave divine Worship; therefore crown’d with it the Statue of their Goddess Isis. In the Corners of the Temples, they built little Chapels under ground, where they carefully fed this Thermutic Serpent, as a sacred Genius[[393]].
[393]. Ælian de Animalibus, lib. x. Conrad. Gesner. de Serp. p. 32.
The Egyptians also paid divine Honours to the Crocodile, that monstrous kind of Serpent, particularly the Inhabitants of Arsinoë, and they who dwelt in the Neighbourhood of Thebes, and the Lake Mæris; among whom ’twas fed by their Priests with Bread, Wine, Flesh, and diverse Rarities[[394]].