thee a fiery or burning one, and in the performance of it Mofes is faid to have made na Serpent? R. Bechai anfwers to it Mofes obferved that God had a mind to fay, that he should make a Serpent, but did not chufe to call it by its proper name, which is wn, because w Nachajch was the cause of Sin, and brought death into the World: Therefore he faid, , a Burning or Fiery one, ufing the Epithet, a Serpent being venomous and fiery, 483. R. Levi. The Children of Ifrael offered Incenfe to it, because they thought this Fi

-a degree of Divi מדרגה אלהית gure had

nity in it, because Mofes made it, and therefore deserved divine Honour. For that reafon he thinks they added, which Mofes made. Aberbanel fays the fame."

As Satan enter'd into a Serpent, and thence is call'd that Serpent, to destroy Men, fo the Son enter'd into Man, to redeem Men; and the Ifraelites burn'd Incense to this,till Hezekiah's time. Whether when the Serpent had bit the firft Man the Emblem to cure him had been call'd by that Name, or, the Prophet ufed this name from the Idea of the Names in circulation, or because of their appearance like Fire, or they had that name from the occafion of their appearance, which was to prefage

the

the deftruction of that place, which was by fire, may be difputed. The Author of the Wisdom of Solom. fays xi. 15. The Egyptians worshipped Serpents void of reafon. Wigand. Corp. Doctrin. p. 378. Seraphim," from the brightnefs or fplendor both of the Subftance and alfo of the Gifts. Ifa. vi. the Seraphim stood upon it. Withi Oecon. Foed. 762. The Scripture calls thefe Serpents, which name is derived from burning." ibid. 763. Rom. viii. 3. Speaking of Chrift, he came in the likeness of finful Flefb. Caufin. Hori. Apol. Hierog. p. 2. to defcribe nóoμov the World (the Machine) they draw a Serpent biting its own Tail. Spencer de leg. Heb. p. 889. that Seraphim fignifies Fires burning or blazing, is known not only to the Masters, but their Scholars. Hence Stuck. de Sacrific. Gentil. p. 101. The antient Ægyptians worshipped Fires by the name of Teraphim, and under words parallel to Seraphim, Suidas interprets Seraphim, fiery, having fiery Mouths, or hot. If then Seraphim and Theraphim are the fame words, different only in dialect, and the smallest Variation of found, and Theraphim or Seraphim fignifies burning, or inflaming, as Urim, Fires kindled or flaming, a Man may fee with half an

Eye that Urim and Theraphim are fynonymous words and very near of the fame fignification, tho' at firft view they may feem to differ fo much in their Significations." Joan. Oliva in Marmor. Ifiac. p. 70. in Harpoc.-"I ftand upon Plutarch's authority only; that it is beft to make Ofiris and Bacchus the fame; and Ofiris and Serapis, fo called after he had changed his nature, because Serapis is common to all. They who are admitted into the facred Rites, know how Ofiris is called. And again he fays the fame, that Horus the power which prefides over the (Converfion) Courfe of the Sun, is by the Grecians called Apollo; but by others Ofiris, by the Egyptians Sothi. Witfii Egypt. p. 28. but it is certain that the use of such small Images is very antient in Egypt, which Abenephius cited by Kircher is very exprefs in. The Egyptians had Images in the shape of Boys, called in Egyptian Serapes, which they worshipped, and confulted for future and fecret things; they used to burn Incense to them, and carry them with them to prevent misfortunes. p. 314. at least, if we may truft Macrobius, who, Saturnal: lib. 1. cap. 21. writes thus of Serapis, they join to the Image a Threefold Animal; whofe middle Head, which is the biggest

of

of all, refembles a Lion; on the right fide rifes the Head of aDog, fawning; but on the left fide is the Head of a ravenous fhe Wolf. A Serpent enclofes the Images of these Animals with his Fold; his Head: turning round to the right Hand of the God where the Monster is feen;" the Figure of this is exhibited in Chartar. Imag. Deorum. 55. Athanafius Kircherus, Oedipi Egypt. Syntag. III. cap. 5. p. 315. Pignorius gives the Picture of a Stone, on which is engraved a Serapis, horned and radiated, carrying a Rod with three points, enfolded by a Snake." Exhibited in Pier. Hierogl. P. 324. ibid. 320. "Then the Image of Jupiter Serapis."

with Accounts of the fumptuous Temple to Serapis. 591. "Nor need I repeat here what has been faid at large on the fignifications of the triple Head, whether Serapis be the Sun, or Jupiter, or the Machine of the whole World, as the Oracle declared to Nicocreon the King of Cyprus, because this is all done already. Gifb. Cuperi. Mon. Antiq. p. 107. for 207. In Lucerna apud Chifletium, p. 1178. Serapis accompanied with a Dog, a Monster with three Heads and three Feet; which has Candles burning in both Hands."

When, and long after, the Heathens deferted the Eternal Three, and made Rub

bim, Aleim, of the Names Fire, Light, and Spirit, they retain'd the method of exhibiting the Perfons, and the Covenant, by joining the Heads of three facred Animals, and substituted each of them to the Name which reprefented each of the Perfons; and, though they had corrupted and changed many things, they ftill retain'd, or preferv'd the Memory of the Three. Some had one, fome two, and fome three, and the Bull to the Fire, the Lion to Light, and the Eagle to Spirit: as these were us'd for the Names, thence Juvenal Sat. xiv. “They adore nothing but the Clouds (the Cloud above) and the Deity of Heaven" (the Cherubim.) And thence the ftory of heads in the S. Sanctorum. And they alfo retain'd the Emblems of the Unity and Perfonality, by putting those three, or four, heads upon one body. The notion that their new Aleim would inhabit them, give refponfes; and the protection by the wings, the wisdom by Eyes, the cloud, the Irradiation, was common to both; fo Sacrifice, Atonement, and all the fervices. Pier. Hierogl. p. 319. "When we put a head to the Image of God, says Euckerius, we mean his Divinity, which was before all things, and to which all things are fubject. The fame fays Jerom in his Book which treats of what Divinity