manner.

1

thought of charms or enchantments; but in a noble expression represents that wicked men are deaf to the best instructions offered to them in the most engaging We have an English proverb, which in some measure expresses the import of David's words, though not with such a dignity of diction. When good advice is given, but not attended to, we com. pare it to a song sung to a horse. A horse or an adder are not to be moved by the wisest intimations; wicked and dissolute men are, morally speaking, like these. animals; the best things that can be said are lost upon them; which is what David very elegantly represents, without any view or hint of the possibility of charming any serpent whatsoever. In like manner, nothing can be concluded to Sir John Marsham's purpose from the words of the preacher. We translate the verse, surely a serpent will bite without enchantment, and a babler is no better. But the Hebrew words truly rendered would be thus: a serpent will bite without any warning, and a babler, (or one that loves to prate) is no better. The word lachash is here used as in 2 Samuel xii. 19. and the expression be loa lachash is without a whisper, i. e. without the least noise or intimations, in silentio, says

The Hebrew words, Eccles. x. 11. are,

i. e. Si mordeat serpens sine susurro: et non præstantia

adamantis linguam, or non melior est, qui adamat loqui.

the vulgar Latin, the LXX vidvgouw, without a whisper, the Targum in Taciturnitate, silently. The sacred writer hints beautifully, that a prater wounds you before you can be aware of him; and we entirely lose his sentiment, if we take the verse to hint what Sir John Marsham would infer from it. The last text cited by our learned author is Jeremiah viii. 17. The Prophet threatens the Israelites with serpents, cockatrices which will not be charmed. It it evident to any one who considers the context, that the Prophet here uses an allegory, and does not mean, that the Israelites should be infested with serpents; but that God would bring upon them the armies of their énemies, and calamities, against which they should find no remedy. However, since the allegory may be said to be founded upon the sentiment of the speaker, and the Prophet from his using the expression of serpents that will not be charmed, to signify irremediable calamities, may be argued to have thought some serpents capable of being charmed, as some calamities may have a cure; I would enter a little more exactly into his sentiment and expression. In order hereto let us observe, 1. That the Hebrews applied to no physicians in the most early times; but when under any malady they sought unto God for 2. There was an art of physic known both to Jews and heathens before the days of Jeremiah." 3. The heathens had introduced into their practice of it, such rites as their learning and religion dictated;

a cure.

See vol. ii. b. ix.

m

n Sec 2 Chron. xvi. 12.

which rites were the charms, magic, and incantation they made use of. They were charms of no real influence, nor truly productive of any supernatural effect; but they were thought significant by the learned of these ages, who built upon the rudiments of a vain and mistaken philosophy. 4. The Jews were not so careful in adhering strictly to the true God, and to his religion, but that in many things they fre quently admitted the pratice of the heathen superstitions, and learned their ways; and as Asa when sick, almost three hundred years before the days of Jeremiah, sinned in this manner by applying to the physicians;? so very probably in the Prophet's days much of the heathen physic might, in the corrupted state they were then in, be admitted and admired among them. But this is not all; in the days of Jeremiah the Jews were greatly corrupted, in both their religion and politics. They had departed far from GOD; walked after vanity, were become vain; and set up idols as numerous as their cities. They had changed their glory for that which could not profit them; turned their back upon God; burned incense unto Baal;* kneaded their dough to make cakes unto the queen of heaven; and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods: And now distress was coming upon them, and

This their method for the cure of the bites of serpents abundantly suggest to us.

a dread and fear of being ruined, sometimes from the armies of the kings of Assyria, at other times from the invasions of the kings of Egypt; they thought to be preserved under the protection of their false gods, by a vain policy, in confederating with one or other of these powers, as circumstances might require, in order to be supported by one or the other of them. And to this end, before Jeremiah applied to them, they had made a league with the king of Assyria, and had suffered by it, and been ashamed of it. At the time of his address to them, they were in alliance with Egypt, but of this the Prophet tells them they would in a little time be ashamed also; for that God had rejected their confidences, and that they should not prosper in them. The design of Jeremiah was to set before the Jews, that in the LORD their GOD was the only true salvation of Israel; that from all other helps they hoped for it but in vain; that destruction upon destruction would come upon them; a nation from far be brought against them; and that if they did not amend their ways and their doings ;* turn from their wickedness and idolatry, they should find, that they put their trust in lying words, which could not profit," and that the evils which were coming upon them, would be as serpents, cockatrices, which could not be charmed, i. e. would be calamities

* Jer. ii. 36. See Prideaux' Connection, Vol. i. b. i.

really fatal, not to be remedied by the trifling and insignificant amusements, on which they so much depended. This is the argument and reasoning of the Prophet, which if duly attended to, is so far from ascribing any true efficacy to charms and enchantments, that it strongly intimates they are a doctrine of vanities. Jeremiah compares charms and enchantments, and the false confidences of the Israelites, with each other; and thereby declares his opinion of both to be, that they were insignificant and vain. In cases of no certain danger, those who were to be deceived with vain and imaginary expectations, might amuse themselves, and think they received benefit from them; but where the evil was real, and truly wanted a redress, there they would be found not able to profit, there no help was found to be had from them.

I have now considered to the bottom what Sir John Marsham intimates concerning the brazen serpent; and hope it must be evident, that there are no foundations for his suggestions; but that every sober querist must see reason to consider both the calamity that was inflicted upon the Israelites, and the miraculous cure of it, in the light, in which the author of the Book of Wisdom long ago set it. They, i. e. the Israelites, were troubled, says he, for a small season, that they might be admonished, having a sign of salvation, to put them in remembrance of the commandment of the law. For he that turned himself towards it, was not saved by the thing that he saw, but by thee, who

Jeremiah x. 8.