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Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd

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Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft, whofe waves o'erthrew.

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Abject and loft lay these, cov'ring the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.
He call'd fo loud, that all the hollow deep
Of hell refounded. Princes, potentates,

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Warriours, the flow'r of heav'n, once yours, now loft,.

If fuch aftonishment as this can feize

Eternal fpi'rits; or have ye chos'n this place

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After the toil of battle to repofe

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find
To flumber here, as in the vales of heaven?
Or in this abject pofture have ye fworn
To' adore the conqueror? who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood.
With scatter'd arms and enfigns, till anom
His fwift purfuers from heav'n-gates difcern
Th' advantage, and defcending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts.
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf,
Awake, arife, or be for ever fall'n.

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They heard, and were abafh'd, and up they fprung: Upon the wing; as when men wont to watch On duty, fleeping found by whom they dread, Rouse and beftir themselves ere.well awake. Nor did they not perceive the evil plight. In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;, Yet to their general's voice they foon obey'd Innumerable. As when the potent rod: Of Amram's fon, in Egypt's evil day,

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Wav'd round the coaft, up call'd a pitchy cloud
Of locufts, warping on the eastern wind,
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung
Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile:
So numberless were those bad angels feen
Hovering on wing under the cope of hell,
'Twixt upper, nether, and furrounding fires;
Till, as a fignal giv'n, th' uplifted fpear
Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Their courfe, in even balance down they light
On the firm brimftrone, and fill all the plain;
A multitude, like which the populous north
Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pafs
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous fons
Came like a deluge on the fouth, and spread
Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan fands.
Forthwith from every squadron and each band ́
The heads and leaders thither hafte where ftood
Their great commander; godlike fhapes and forms
Excelling human, princely dignities,

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And pow'rs that erft in heaven fat on thrones;
Though of their names in heav'nly records now

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Be no memorial, blotted out and ras'd
By their rebellion from the books of life.

Nor had they yet among the fons of Eve

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Got them new names; till wand'ring o'er the earth,
Through God's high fufferance for the trial of man,
By falfities and lies the greatest part

Of mankind they corrupted to forfake
God their Creator, and th' invifible

Glory of him that made them to transform.
Oft to the image of a brute, adorn'd
With gay religions full of pomp and gold,
And devils to adore for deities:

Then were they known to men by various names,

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And various idols through the Heathen world.

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Say, Mufe, their names then known, who first, who Rous'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch, [laft, At their great emperor's call, as next in worth Came fingly where he stood on the bare strand, While the promifcuous croud ftood yet aloof. The chief were those who from the pit of hell Roaming to feek their prey on earth, durst fix Their feats long after next the feat of God, Their altars by his altar, gods ador'd Among the nations round, and durft abide Jehovah thund'ring out of Sion, thron'd Between the Cherubim; yea, often plac'd Within his fanctuary itself their fhrines, Abominations; and with curfed things His holy rites and folemn feafts profan'd And with their darkness durft affront his light.. First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood. Of human facrifice, and parents tears,

Though for the noife of drums and timbrels loud

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Their childrens cries unheard, that pafs'd through fire
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipp'd in Rabba and her watry plain,
In Argob and in Bafon, to the stream.

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Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with fuch
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build.
His temple right against the temple' of God.
On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove
The pleafant Valley' of Hinnom, Tophet thence-
And black Gehenna call'd, the type of hell.
Next Chemos, th' obfcene dread of Moab's fons,.
From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild
Of fouthmoft Abarim; in Hafebon.
And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond

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The flow'ry dale of Sibma, clad with vines,
And Eleälé, to th' Afphaltic Pool.

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Peor his other name, when he entic'd

Ifrael in Sittim, on their march from Nile,

To do him wanton rites, which coft them woe.
Yet thence his luftful orgies he enlarg'd

Ev'n to that hill of fcandal, by the grove
Of Moloch homicide; luft hard by hate;
Till good Jofiah drove them thence to hell.

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With these came they, who from the bord'ring flood Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts

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Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names
Of Baälim and Afhtaroth; those male,

Thefe feminine. For fpirits when they pleafe
Can either fex affume, or both; fo foft

And uncompounded is their effence pure ;

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Not ty'd or manacled with joint or limb,

Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,

Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they chufe
Dilated or condens'd, bright or obscure,

Can execute their airy purposes,

And works of love or enmity fulfil.

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For thofe the race of Ifrael oft forfook

Their living ftrength, and unfrequented left
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down

To beftial gods; for which their heads as low
Bow'd down in battle, funk before the spear
Of defpicable foes. With these in troop
Came Aftoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd
Aftarte, queen of heav'n, with crescent horns;
To whofe bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and fongs;
In Sion alfo not unfung, where ftood
Her temple on th' offenfive mountain, built
By that uxorious king, whofe heart, tho' large,

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Beguil'd by fair idolatreffes, fell

To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,
Whofe annual wound in Lebanon allur'd

The Syrian damfels, to lament his fate.
In amorous ditties all a fummer's day;
While fmooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the fea, fuppos'd with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale
Infected Sion's daughters with like heat;
Whofe wanton paffions in the facred porch
Ezekiel faw, when, by the vifion led,
His eye furvey'd the dark idolatries
Of alienated Judah. Next came one,

Who mourn'd in earnest, when the captive ark
Maim'd his brute image, head and hands lopt off
In his own temple, on the grunfel edge,

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Where he fell flat, and fham'd his worshippers:
Dagon his name, fea-monster, upward man

And downward fish: yet had his temple high
Rear'd in Azotus, dreaded thro' the coaft

Of Palestine, in Gath, and Afcalon,

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And Accaron, and Gaza's frontier bounds.

Him follow'd Rimmon, whofe delighful feat
Was fair Damafcus, on the fertile banks
Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid ftreams.
He also 'against the house of God was bold:
A leper once he loft, and gain'd`a king,
Ahaz, his fottish conqu'ror, whom he drew
God's altar to difparage, and difplace,
For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn
His odious offerings, and adore the gods
Whom he had vanquish'd. After these appear'd
A crew, who, under names of old renown,

Ofiris, Ifis, Orus, and their train,

With monstrous fhapes and forceries abus'd

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