2. The Reputation gain’d by the Serpent in Paradise, was heighten’d by the wonderful Cures done by the brazen Serpent in the Wilderness. As this strange Occurrence was capable of various Glosses, so it must undergo different Constructions. The Brazen Serpent was brought to Canaan, where ’twas kept in remembrance of the miraculous Cures their Forefathers had received from it in the Wilderness; and, ’tis probable, the Israelites themselves were the first that paid divine Honours to it, and the Idolatry might begin in the days of the Judges; others say, under the Kings of Judah[[426]].
[426]. Jurieu, vol. ii. from Rabbi Kimchi, who says they burnt Incense to it, from the time the Kings of Judah had corrupted themselves ... in locum.
It lay quiet there, until those Days, the Children of Israel burnt Incense to it. That is, from the days Israel 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 Moses had made. 2 Kings xviii. 4.
The Sound of the strange Cures done by the brazen Serpent, soon spread over the forsaken Nations, who, observing how the Wounded were healed by looking at it, conceived it to be a proper Instrument to be their Mediator, and consequently a fit Object for their Adoration, when even the Wounded in Israel, by addressing to its Shadow, were healed.
It is most probable, that the Adoration of Serpents by the Pagans, sprung from these two Fountains,
The Wisdom of the Serpent in Paradise, and the miraculous Cures done by the Shadow of a Serpent in the Wilderness; which were improved by the Devil to secure his Honour and Interest, who wanted not Priests to display the Glories of their Character, to make the Serpent honourable in the sight of his Vassals. From hence, the Egyptians, Phenicians, yea most Nations, did imagine the Serpent to have some Divinity in its Nature, and for that reason (as hinted before) honour’d it with sacred Homage; this the Devil did, with a view to lessen Men’s Esteem for the Almighty Creator.
Hence also some Men of superior Dignity have affected to be esteem’d more than meer Men, making this as an Argument, that they were begot by Serpents, as we observed already, therefore I shall only add, viz.
That Alexander the Great, after he had taken Rhodes, Egypt and Cilicia, addrest Jupiter Ammon to know his Original, for his Mother Olympias had confest to his Father Philip, that Alexander was not begot by him, but by a Serpent of vast Bulk; whereupon Philip was divorced from his Wife Olympias, and Alexander was saluted Son of Ammon, and by Order of the Priests, his Companions were enjoin’d to worship him as a God, and not as a King.
ALEXANDER, when he had conquer’d Darius III. surnam’d Codomannus, and was possest of the Persian Empire, writ to the Grecians, that they should decree him to be a God. Hereupon several Decrees were made: The Lacedemonians exprest their Compliance in this short Decree, viz. Forasmuch as Alexander would be a God, let him be a God. Thus with Laconick Brevity, fashionable among the Lacedemonians, they humour’d and reproved the Pride of their King at once[[427]].
[427]. Επειδἡ Αλεξανδρος βουλεται Θεδς ειναι εσο Θεος. Æliani variæ Hist. lib. ii. cap. xix.