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them. It was in these Courts that Ambaffadors were entertain'd, as in the presence of a common God and Friend: And in them fuch as were fed at the Public Charge, and publicly honoured with their conftant food, were entertained as at a Feaft with their Gods. It is certain that Vefta was worshipped at Troy; and Æneas brought her into Italy.

-Manibus Vittas, Veftamque potentem, Eternumque adytis effert Penetralibus Ig

nem.

Æne. Lii. 296.

And Numa fettled an Order of Virgin Priesteffes, whofe bufinefs and Care it was constantly to maintain the Holy Fire: And long before Numa's days we find it not only *"cuftomary, but honourable among the Albans, to appoint the Best "born Virgins to be Priesteffes of Vesta,' and to † keep up the conftant unex"tinguished Fire."

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* Εν ἔθει τοις ̓Αλφάνοις καὶ ἐν καλῷ ὄν, τὰς ευγενεςάτας ἀποδείκνυσθαι τῆς Ἑσίας προπόλους. † Αις ἀνατέθειται τέτε ἀστές8

p. 62.

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Diony. Halic. 1. i. p. 62. πυρὸς ἡ φυλακή. Ibid.

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When Virgil spoke of Jarbas in Africa as building a Hundred Temples and an hundred Altars, he says,

Vigilemque Sacraverat Ignem,

Excubias Divum æternas

Æn. iv.

That he had confecrated a Fire that never went out; and he calls these Temples and this Fire the perpetual Watches of the Gods, i. e. Places and Things that They conftantly protected, and guarded, were prefent at and watched over, and therefore They were fure to be met with, where the Fire was continually kept up. So that the Custom seems to have been general from the earliest Antiquity, to maintain a conftant Fire, as conceiving the Gods present there and This was not only the Opinion of the Inhabitants in Judæa, but it extended all over Perfia, Greece, Italy, Egypt, and most other Nations of the World.

:

Porphyry imagined that the reason why the Antienteft Mortals kept up a conftant ever-burning Fire in honour of the immortal

mortal Gods, was, Because Fire was most like the Gods. But Porphyry talks as people do that have an Hypothefis to serve, without knowing the Facts which should support it. He fays, * "That Trees were produced by the Earth long after "Herbs, and that the Antients gathering "them, burnt the Roots and Leaves, and "all the Branches; and with This Sa"crifice they entertain'd the heavenly

Deities, which appeared to them, and "immortalized to them the Honours of "Fire. To them likewife they kept an "unextinguished Fire in their Temples,

as being most like them." Fire was not like the Gods; but it was what They appeared in to Mortals. And fo the true God always appeared in Brightness and Glory; yet no one would fay that Brightnefs was most like the true God, but was moft like the Shechinah in which God appeared. And hence the custom arofe of

* Ης δερπόμενοι φύλλα καὶ ρίζας, καὶ ὅλους τῆς φύσεως αὐτῶν βλαςοὺς κατέκαιον· ταύτῃ τῆς φαινομένες ἐρανίους θεοὺς τῇ θυσίᾳ δεξιόμενοι, τὶ του πυρὸς ἀπαθανατίζοντες αυτῖις τας τιμάς. Τέτοις γὰρ και τὸ τῆς ἐφύλατον ἀθάνατον ἐν τῶις ἱερᾶς, ὡς ὃν μάλισα αυτοις ὁμοιότατον. Apud Eufeb. Praep. Evang. p. 28.

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keeping up an unextinguished Fire in their Temples.

It is a common Weakness in all people to give falfe Accounts of the Etymology of their words: The Latins were fond of deriving words that were plainly Ori-" ental, from their own Language: And' fo were the Greeks, as if their Language was an Original Language, and they were not beholden to Other People for their Words. Ovid has given us a ri diculous Latin Etymology of the word Vefta, as if it were derived from Vi fando; firft making Vefta the fame with the Earth,

Stat vi terra fua, vi ftando Vefta vocatur,

And then making it an Original Latin word. Phurnutus has equally abfurdly derived the Greek word 'Egía from

ával, to ftand: And He too has made Vefta the fame with the Earth. Whereas Vefta is properly an Oriental Word, derived from ws, Fire. It was the aug acero, the æternus ignus, the perpetual Fire itfelf. And "Hqaigos, or Vulcan, was

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derived

derived from the fame Original word? And They that worshipped either Vefta, or Vulcan, were properly Fire Worshippers. And fo the word Пpulavov, which fignifies the Court or Place where the Continual Fire was kept, is no Greek word, as the Greeks would have it, as if it fignified Πυρός oι Πυρο ταμείον, the place where Fire, or as Others, where Provifion was kept; But it is a Perfian, or a Chaldean Word, '. Partemim, fignifies in that Country Language Grandees, or Great Men, Great Princes, (we tranflate it Nobles, Efther i. 3.) From thence comes the word Πρυτάνεις, the Chief Men or Rulers; and thence Пputavelov, fignifies the place where thefe Пpuráveis, Rulers, met; and where the conftant Fire was kept, and where they worshipped jointly.

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God then being wont to appear in Fire, and being conceived to dwell in Fire, the Notion fpread univerfally and was univerfally admitted. Firft then, It was not at all out of the way to think of engaging in Friendship with God by the fame means as they contracted Friend

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