OF SERPEN TS. 2ii 



rant People arc made to believe, tliat by drinking this Water, they 

 obtain Pardon of their Sins. 



The Inhabitants of Pi'nMn y^wma/, fling the A flies of their 

 Sacrifices into the River, follow the fame fix Leagues, and pray 

 the River to bring that Prefent to Virachoca, a fuperior Deity. 

 Acofla. 



The Perfiam and Chaldeans exprefs their God by Flrc^ to 

 which they perform Adoration, and bring it Food, crying to 

 it, Eat^ Ob my Lord Fire! To throw dead and dirty Things 

 into the Fire, yea to blow it with their Breath, was IlighTreafon. 



Tn K Magiciam iliy, that this F//r was convey 'd to them from 

 Heaven j and that it was for this Reafon that they kept it fo re- 

 ligioufly. That they prcferve a conftant Fire on their Altars, is 

 evident from Iliflory. They are faid to have Fires (till fubfifling, 

 which have burnt above a thoufand Years. We read of fuch Fire 

 kept up with fuperftitious Care in the Temple o^ Jupiter Amnion^ 

 and in that oi Hercules at Gadis. So it is in Egypt, and in moft 

 of all the eaftern Countries, and Virgil tells^ that Jarbas the Ge- 

 tulian could boaft of a hundred Temples he had ere<fted with 

 Altars, blazing with perpetual Fire, the eternal Guard of the 

 Gods* 



That which gave occafion to perpetuate the Fire in Pagan 

 Temples, might be from the perpetual Fire kept in the Temple 

 at 'Jerufalem, which defcended from Fleaven upon the fi.rfl Vic- 

 tims facrificed by Aaron and his Son. Hence the Vejlals were ap- 

 pointed exprefs, to keep up the facred Fire of the Romans. 



The Kings oiPerJia never went abroad without having fome 

 Portion of the facred Fire carried before them : The Hiftorian 

 giving an Account of the March oi Darius's Army, — . fays, that 

 they carried Fire upon Altars of Silver, in great Ceremony,-— —that 

 they had it in great Veneration, calling it the facred and eternal 

 Firej'^znd that the Magi came after, fmging Hymns according to 

 the Perjian Mode -f-. 



God appear'd to Alo/es under the Form of a Fire burning in 

 a Bufli. The Camp of [J'rael in the Wildernefs was conducfled 

 in the Night by a Pillar of Fire. Now God having made feveral 



E e 2 Rc- 



* Centum aras pofuit, vigilemquc facravcrat ignem, 

 Excubias divum aetcrnas. Vruo. v^ncid. 4. 



t Quint. Curtius, lib. i. Hyde dc Pgrf, Rclig. c, ill. p. ^9 



