188 FIRE. [Lesson xxvnr. 



berty, the posterity of those priests found it on 

 their return 10 Judea. (2 Mac-cab, i. 18.) Fire 

 was regarded wiih an equal degree of veneration 

 throughout Greece and Rome. Temples in every 

 city were erected to the goddess Vesta a name 

 importing fire, whether derived from the Grecian 

 grrja, or the Hebrew : and in every temple a lam- 

 bent flame was perpettially burning over the 

 altar. And even so late as in the third century of 

 the Christian sera, when Heliogabalus anticipated 

 his own apotheosis, and instituted the worship 

 of himself over all the Roman empire, having 

 erected a magnificent temple to his own divinity, 

 he supplied its altar \\ith sacred fire from the 

 temple of Vesta, which he plundered for this 

 purpose. 



The frequent reference to fire in the Holy 

 Scriptures, as emblematical and typical, and its 

 frequent introduction either to add dignity or so- 

 lemnity to occurrences, suggests important re- 

 flections. Sacrifices were consumed by fire, to 

 signify that wrath from Heaven is due to sin, 

 and would fall upon the sinful offerer himself, 

 if the victim did not receive it for him by sub- 

 stitution. When the law was given on Mount 

 Sinai, the heavens flamed with fire, and the moun- 

 tain burned below, to give the people a sense of 

 the terrors of Divine judgment. With allusion to 

 which exhibition, and other examples of the ac- 

 tual effects of his wrath, God is said to be " a con- 

 suming fire " to his enemies, while he is as " 

 wall ef fire" about those who trust in him, to de- 

 fend 



