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Untitled Article
can be spoken of a serpent of any speci&s . 1 . None of them evjet did , or ever chn walk erect * The talcs we have had of two-footed and four-footed serpents , * are justly exploded by every judicious naturalist , and are utterly unworthy of credit . The very name
serpent comes from serpo to creep , and therefore , to such it could be neither curse nor punishment to go on their bellies , k e . to creep on , as they had done from their creation and must do while their
race ? endures , 2 . They have no frrgans for speech , or any kind of Articulate sound ; they can only kiss . It is true , that an ass by miraculous influence , mayspeak ;
but it is ' ntit to be supposed that there was any miraculous interfe - rence here . God did not qualify this Creature with speech for tfte occasion , &nd it is riot intimated
that there was any other agent , that did it ; on the contrary , thef ffekt intimates , that speech atfd t&dsoti were natural to the nachctsti ; tLttd is it not in reference to this ' , tHfe inspired penman says ? The riachask was more wise or
intelligent than all thb beasts of the JieTd ikat the Lord God had Made ! Nor can I find that th 6 serpentine g&hus are remarkable for intelligence . It is true , the wisdem of tht serpent ( has passed into a
proverb , but I cannot see on what it is founded , except in reference to the passage in Question , Where the riixthctsh ; Where we translate serpetit , \ following the Septuagint , she ' ws io much intelligence and
cuftning : and it is very probable , that our Lord aftlud ^ s to this very pl&te , wheiY ; he exhorts his dis-< % l # s , to he tvi $ e prudeut or intel - li ^ eri t ti& Mrpe nts , ( pfoyoixoi w $ 61 0 $$$ ; brief JtUs worth y of reinar ^
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that he uses the same term em * ployed by the Septustgint , in the teict in question , o < pt $ yv < ppovi [/ , wrotroz , the serpent was more prudent or intelligent than all the beastfc * &c . All these thing considered , we are obliged to seek for some
other word to designate the na ~ chashj in the text , fhari the word serpent ; which On every view of tht subject , appears to me ineffi * cient and inapplicable . We have seen above that kkanas * akhnas and
Jchanoos , signify a creature of the ape or satyrus kind . We have &een that the meaning of the root is , he lay hid , seduced \ slunk away , fyc . atfd that khahas means the devil , as the inspirer © f evil and seducer from God and truth ;
see Golius and Wilmetm It therefore appears to me , that a creature of the ape or ouran outang kind , is he ^ -e intended ; ati d that Satan made use of this creature a : s th ^ most proper instrument for the ac « coinplishment of his murderous purposes against tbfe Hfe and soul of man . Uilder this creature he
lay Aid , and by ( his creature he seduced our first parents , and drefo off or slunk away from every eyfc but the eye of God . Stich a creature answers to every ^ part of the descripticfn in the text : it is evi - dent from the structure of its lirhbs
and their muscles , that it might hal v ^ been originally designed to walk erectj and that nothip ^ less than a sovereigncontrotiting power , could induce them to put dowtv'hctndfy in fev * dry iespect formed' like tfrdste of man , and walk like those cre&L
tures , whose claw-airocied pa ws ^ prove them to have been des ? en 6 d to walk on all fdur $ . The ItfbL tlety , cunning , endlessly varfed pranks add tricks of these creatures , sheW them , tvtn now to fee witer
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18 Dr . Adam Clarke , on the Nature of tht Serpenty Oen % iif , 1 *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1812, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1744/page/18/
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