[ 62 Circle; which Addition might probably arife froth an abufedTraditionof another Truth, That Man was created in the Imageand Likenefs of GOD.: --TheWifdom, or fecond Perfon, might alfo be alluded to in this, as well, as in the Egyptian, Symbol,, under the Delineation of the Serpent0- and from a like Abufe of divine Reve- lation. In the holy Scriptures we find the Serpent ufed as a Type of the WORD, whowas to be made Flefh: For Mofes lifted up the Serpent in the `Wildernefs, in reference to the Lifting up of Jefus on the Crofs for his People's Salvation. It is not probable, that Mofes Ihould ere& . this Serpent as a T'alifman, or in Allufion to any Egyptian Rite (as Sir John Marfham fuppofed) ; becaufe this was done by the exprefs Command of GOD, who, as many learned Men have remarked, in ftituted many Ceremonies of the Law, in dire Op- pofition to the Idolatries of the Heathen. t The Wings in this, as well as in the Egyptian Scheme, feem a third Abufe of a further revealed Truth, which could not have been known but by Revelation, and may re- fer to a corrupt Tradition concerning the SPIRIT of and Greeks, had, in the very fame kind, corrupted their uvat's, and exhibited the material Sun, rather as a Reprefentative than an Em- blem of the great Sun of Righteoufnefs, to which they confecrated Fire, as an Oblation the molt analogous to his own Nature. Thus? as we find by an Infcription on an Egyptian Obelisk, the Sun was Styled, K1irss .roc Owei,wni, " the Framer or Opificer of the World.", The Confequence was, the Reprefentative became the Objea of Worfhip, and the Antitype was forgotten. Eesnu. de pr p. emang. 1. I I i. c. 12. Dr. LELAND'S lldvantage, &c. of the Chriß. Revel. Vol. i. p. 229. * Gen. i. z6. t Even Maximus clyrius Pays, Serpens commendabatur Gentibus, ut NUMINIS SYMBOLUM. DifS. 38. aped HOFMAN. Lex. Uni, in verb. Serpens. And juil afterwards Hofmann adds ; Hodiéque Peruanos colere Iridem cum duobus àLatere Serpentibus,D I Y1 NI TAT lb SY Meo L o, tradunt Indicarum Rerum Scriptores, t Maimonides, the molt learned of all the Jews, confeffed, that he should have been ignorant of the Realmof many Inftitutes in the Law, but for his Knowledge of fome heathen Ceremonies to which they were oppofed. Vide WITSIJ. dEgypt. 1. II. C. 8. & 1. c. 14. MAIMON. Port. Mos. 3. Pocock. p. 168. GOD
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