(3.) The brazen serpent had the shape and figure of the serpent, but not the sting and the poison. Figuram habuit, non naturam ; it had the figure, not the nature of a serpent. Let us pause upon this a little. God would cure the bite of a serpent by a serpent ; a serpent stung, and a serpent healed : ' God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh,' Eom. viii. 3 ; that is, by Jesus Christ in our nature, who was made a sin-offering, and therefore called sin there. The parties to be cured were men, therefore ' the Son of man must be lifted up ; ' that title is given him here in the text. Christ was debased by this title, by being called ' the Son of man,' but yet the sons of men are dignified by it ; ' he came in the likeness of sinful flesh.' As the brazen serpent was in all things like the true serpent, but without any hurtful quality, so Christ in all points was like us, 'but without sin ;' Heb. iv. 15. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet was ' holy, harmless, and separate from sinners.'
(4.) The precise place where the brazen serpent was lifted up. Moses doth not tell us in the story where this matter is recorded ; but it may be collected from other places. Moses telleth us that the Israelites going from thence pitched their tents in Oboth, Num. xxi. 10 ; from whence it follows that the place was Punon, for from Punon they came to Oboth, Num. xxxiii. 42, 43. Now this Punon was a place belong- ing to Idumeea, very famous for mines of brass or copper, as is com- monly known in ancient writings, the brass being called from thence ' the metal of Punon.' Eusebius in the eighth book of his Ecclesiastical History tells us that Sylvanus and thirty-nine more were beheaded for the faith's sake, KaTci ra iv ^vvw ')(a\Kov jxeraWa, near the mines of brass in Punon ; and Eutychius speaketh of divers christians condemned to work in these mines. So also doth Epiphanius and Theodoret. So
4G0 SERMON UPON JOHN III. 14, 15.
tbat tlie brass out of wliicli the serpent was made was taken out of tlie very place in which they were bitten ; it was the brass of Punon, not without a mystery. Tliat body which Christ assumed was not brought from elsewhere, but born there and formed there where he "was manifested in the flesh for the salvation of the world ; and where the mischief was, there was the remedy at hand.
(5.) The similitude chiefly holdeth in this, that as the brazen ser- pent was lifted up upon the ])erch or pole, so was Christ lifted up on the cross : 1 Peter ii. 24, ' Who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree.' The serpent first stung us by the fruit of a tree, and Christ saved us by suffering upon a tree. David had foretold that his hands and his feet should be pierced : Ps. xxii. 16, ' They pierced my hands and my feet.' And the curse of the law was to be borne : ' Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,' Gal. iii. 13. The apostle obviates an objection ; if the law do curse all men, how are any freed from the curse of the law ? Even by Jesus Christ, who took upon him the curse due to us, while he was obedient to death, even the death of the cross ; for that kind of death was pronounced to be accursed : Deut. xxi. 23, ' He that is hanged is accursed of God.' He came as a surety in the sinner's name, and would take our burden upon himself, and therefore chose a death of all others most cruel and painful and contemptible, ordained for the wickedest and vilest wretches, thereby to assure us of a full ransom and satisfaction to divine justice for our wrongs, and to imprint upon our minds the horrors of our sins. Well, then, here is the spectacle ofi'ered to our faith, Jesus Christ hanging upon a tree. We should look upon Christ crucified as if the thing were now a-doing before our eyes: Gal. iii. 1, ' Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified l)efore you.' Though it be past long ago it is present to faith ; for he is lifted up, that by the eye of faith we should look to him, and see not only the thing, but the end, use, and virtue of this mystery. The brazen serpent was a sufficient remedy for the stung Israelites ; none that looked towards it perished, the cure never failed; and Jesus Christ lifted up, and being eyed, is sufficient to cure the guilt of sin, and pain of conscience through sin, and to heal our dis- eased souls, and free them from the power of corruption. For being made a curse for us, the blessing cometh freely upon the believing gentiles, even the gift of the Spirit : Isa. liii. 5, ' He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.'