Awake, arife, or be for ever fall'n.
They heard, and were abash'd; and up they sprung 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,
Wav'd round the coaft, up call'd a pitchy cloud 340 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 surrounding fires; Till, as a fignal giv'n, th' up-lifted spear Of their great Sultan waving to direct Their course, in even balance down they light On the firm brimftone, and fill all the plain; A multitude, like which the populous north Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous fons Came,like a deluge,on the south, and spread Beneath Gibralter to the Lybian sands. Forthwith, from every squadron, and each band, The heads and leaders thither hafte where stood
Their great commander; Godlike shapes, and forms Excelling human; princely Dignities,
And Pow'rs that erft in Heaven fat on thrones; 360 Though of their names, in heav'nly records, now 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,
Got them new names, till,wand'ring o'er the earth, Through God's high fufferance for the tri al of man, By falfities and lies the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forfake God their Creator, and th'invisible
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, And various idols through the Heathen world. 375
Say, Mufe, their names then known, who first, who Rous'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch, (laft, At their great empe rors call, as next in worth Came fingly where he flood on the bare strand, While the promiscuous croud flood yet, aloof. The chief were thofe, who, from the pit of Hell Roaming to seek 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 it self their shrines, Abominations; and with cursed things His holy rites and solemn feasts profan'd, And with their darkness durst affront his light. First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood Of human facrifice, and parents tears;
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, Their childrens cries unheard, that pafs'd through fire To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite Worshipt in Rabba, and her watry plain; In Argob and in Bafan, to the ftream.
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 pleasant 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 Hefebon
And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond
The flow'ry dale of Sibma, clad with vines, And Eleälé to th' Asphaltic pool.
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 inlarg'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.
With these came they, who, from the bord'ring flood Of old Euphrates, to the brook that parts
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names Of Baälim and Afhtaroth; those male,
These feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either sex affume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is their effsence pure;
Not ty'd or manacled with joint or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle ftrength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose Dilated or condens'd, bright or obfcure,
Can execute their aery purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfil.
For those the race of Ifrael oft forfook
Their living strength, and unfrequented left His righteous altar, bowing lowly down
To beftial Gods; for which their heads as low, Bow'd down in battel, funk before the spear Of despicable foes. With these in troop Came Aftoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd Aftarte, queen of Heav'n, with crefcent horns; To whofe bright image nightly by the moon Sidonian virgins paid their vows and fongs,
In Sion also not unfung; where stood
Her temple, on th'offensive mountain, built
By that uxorious king, whose heart, though large, Beguil'd by fair idolatreffes, fell
To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd The Syrian Damfels to lament his fate
In amorous ditties all a fummer's day; While smooth 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; Whose wanton paffions, in the facred porch, Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, His eye survey'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 grunsel edge, Where he fell flat, and fham'd his worshippers: Dagon his name, sea monster, upward man And downward fish: yet had his temple high Rear'd in Azotus, dreaded through the coast Of Palestine, in Gath and Afcalon,
And Accaron, and Gaza's frontier bounds.
Him follow'd Rimmon, whofe delightful feat Was fair Damascus, on the fertil banks
Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.
« PreviousContinue » |