876    8.8.7.     J. Hart
The Brazen Serpent. Numb. 21. 9; John. 3. 14

1 When the chosen tribes debated
  ’Gainst their God, as hardly treated,
  And complained their hopes were spilt,
  God, for murmuring to requite them,
  Fiery serpents sent to bite them;
  Lively type of deadly guilt!

2 Stung by these, they soon repented;
  And their God as soon relented;
  Moses prayed; he answer gave:
  “Serpents are the beasts that strike them;
  Make of brass a serpent like them;
  That’s the way I choose to save.”

3 Vain was bandage, oil, or plaster;
  Rankling venom killed the faster;
  Till the serpent Moses took,
  Reared it high, that all might view it;
  Bid the bitten look up to it;
  Life attended every look.

4 Jesus, thus for sinners smitten,
  Wounded, bruisèd, serpent-bitten,
  To his cross directs their faith.
  Why should I, then, poison cherish?
  Why despair of cure, and perish?
  Look, my soul, though stung to death.

5 Thine’s alas! a lost condition;
  Works cannot work thee remission,
  Nor thy goodness do thee good.
  Death’s within thee, all about thee;
  But the remedy’s without thee;
  See it in thy Saviour’s blood.

6 See the Lord of glory dying!
  See him gasping! Hear him crying!
  See his burdened bosom heave!
  Look, ye sinners, ye that hung him;
  Look how deep your sins have stung him;
  Dying sinners, look and live.