OF SERPEN TS. 211 



rant People are made to believe,' that by drinkin,g this Water, they 

 obtain Pardon of their Sins. 



The Inhabitants of P^r«ip^;;2^r/r^, fling the Alhes of their 

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

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

 Acojia. 



The Perfia)is and Chaldeatis exprefs their God ,by Fire, to 

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

 it. Eat, Oh my Lard Fire! fo throw dead and dirty Things 

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



The Magicians fay, that this Fire was convey 'd to them from 

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

 ligiouHy. That they preferve a conftant Fire on , their Altars, is 

 evident from Hiftory. They are faid to haye Fires ftill fubfifting, 

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

 kept up with fuperflitious Care in the Temple oi Jupiter Ammon^ 

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

 of all the eaftern Countries, and Virgil tells; that larbas the Gi?- 

 tulian couldboaftofa hundred Temples he had eredled with 

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

 Gods*. 



That which gave occafion to perpetuate the Fire iii Pagan 

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

 at Jerufalem, which defcended from Heaven upon the firfl Vic- 

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

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



The Kings oi Perjia never went abroad without having fome 

 Portion of the facred Fire carried before them : The Hiftorian 

 ■ giving an Account of the March oi Darius' % Army, — fays, that 

 they carried Fireupon Altars of Silver, in great Ceremony,— that 

 they had it in great Veneration, caUing it xht facred mid eternal 

 Fire,'tind that the Magi came after, finging Hymns according to 

 the Perfian Mode -f-. 



God appear'd to Mofes under the Form of a Fire burning in 



a Bufh. The Camp of Ifrael in the W^ildernefs was conduced 



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



E e 2 RS' 



* Centum aras pofuit, vigilemque facraverat ignem, 

 Excubias divum aecernas. Virg. vEneid. 4. 



+ Quint. Curcius, lib. i. Hyde de Perf. Relig. c. iii. p. 69 



