Bufiris and his Memphian chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursued
The fojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the fafe fhore their floating carcafes
And broken chariot wheels: fo thick beftrown,
Abject and loft lay thefe, covering the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.
He call'd fo loud, that all the hollow deep
Of Hell refounded. Princes, Potentates,
Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once yours, now loft,
If fuch astonishment as this can seise
Eternal Spirits; or have ye chos'n this place
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 ensigns, till anon
His swift purfuers from Heav'n gates discern
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.
They heard, and were abash'd, and up they fprung
Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch
On duty fleeping found by whom they dread,
Roufe 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 soon obey'd
Innumerable. As when the potent rod
Of Amram's fon, in Egypt's evil day,
Wav'd round the coast, 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 spear Of their great Sultan waving to direct Their course, in even balance down they light On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain; 350 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 fouth, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian fands. Forthwith from every fquadron 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 erst 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 fufference for the tri'al 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, And various idols through the Heathen world. 375 Say, Mufe, their names then known, who first, wholaft C
Rous'd from the flumber on that fiery couch,
At their great emp'ror's call, as next in worth
Came fingly where he stood on the bare ftrand,
While the promiscuous croud stood 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 fan&tuary itfelf their shrines,
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, befmear'd with blood
Of human facrifice, and parents tears,
Though for the noife 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 stream
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 Hinnon, 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 Eleale to th' Afphaltic 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 thefe came they, who from the bord'ring flood Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names
Of Baalim and Afhtaroth, thofe male,
These feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either fex affume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is their effence 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 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 crefcent horns;
To whose bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and fongs,
In Sion alfo not unfung, where stood
Her temple on th' offenfive mountain, built
Ey that uxorious king, whofe 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 fmooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the fea, fuppos'd with blood
Of Thammus 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,
Where he fell flat, and fham'd his worshippers:
Dagon his name, fea monfter, upward man
And downward fifh: yet had his temple high
Rear'd in Azotus, dreaded through the coaft
Of Palestine, in Gath and Afcalon,
And Accaron, and Gaza's frontier bounds.
Him follow'd Rimmon, whofe delightful feat
Was fair Damafcus, on the fertil banks
Of Abbana, and Pharphar, lucid streams.
He also 'gainst the houfe 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 displace
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
Fanatic Egypt and her priefts, to seek
Their wand'ring Gods difguis'd in brutish forms
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