This gloomy Occurrence fell out in the last Year of their Pilgrimage. The Wilderness thro’ which they had travelled abounded with these venemous Creatures, but were under the Restraint of a kind Providence, and not suffer’d to distress the Camp of _Israel_ till now. _Deut._ viii. 15. _Who led thee through the great Wilderness, wherein were fiery Serpents and Scorpions._ Thus, for their repeated Provocations, they were pursued by divine Vengeance to the very Borders of _Canaan_. Just as they were congratulating one another upon the glorious Prospect before them, an Army of venemous Serpents invade their Camp, and made a terrible Slaughter among them. Little did our first Parents suspect a Serpent in Paradise, nor _Israel_ such a Visit from fiery Serpents upon the Confines of the holy Land, the western Border of Paradise. This Plague in the Camp, was the last Punishment inflicted upon the _House of Israel_ in the Wilderness. When they came out of _Egypt_, it appeared they were about _six hundred thousand Men, besides Women and Children, and a mixt Multitude_: Of that mighty Number, none but two, _viz._ _Josua_ and _Caleb_ enter’d into the promised Land; the rest, for their Unbelief and reiterated Offences, perish’d by the way[357]. Footnote 357: _Exod._ xii. 37, 38. CHAPTER III. CONTENTS. _The flying and fiery Serpents. Ungrateful Israel wounded by them, and healed by the Figure of a Serpent. God hears the Intercession of_ Moses, _when deaf to the Cries of that rebellious People. Conjectures why healed by a Machine in the Form of a Serpent. Sin in all its Appearances, the Venom of the old Serpent. The brazen Serpent a Representation of the_ Messiah. _The Cures wrought by both were by very unlikely Means. The Wonders of Salvation. Why_ Israel _was healed by a Serpent made of Brass; Opinions about it. The brazen Serpent was no Talisman, or a magical Image. The fatal Catastrophe of the brazen Serpent. Destroyed, when abused to Idolatry. The Serpent shewed in St._ Ambrose’_s Church at_ Milan, _for that of_ Moses, _a Cheat. Martyrs from the Catacombs of St._ Sebastian. _Divine Institution necessary to acceptable Worship. May the Destruction of the brazen Serpent, when abused to Idolatry, warrant us to guess at the Fate of a Cross abused to Idolatry!_ ---------------------------------------------------------------- SECTION I. Among Serpents, we find some that are furnished with Wings. _Herodotus_ who saw those Serpents, says they had great Resemblance to those which the _Greeks_ and _Latins_ call’d _Hydræ_; their Wings are not compos’d of Feathers like the Wings of Birds, but rather like to those of _Batts_; they love sweet smells, and frequent such Trees as bear Spices. These were the fiery Serpents that made so great a Destruction in the Camp of _Israel_.