'To' adore the conqueror? who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
With fcatter'd arms and enfigns, till anon
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.

They heard, and were abafh'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
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' up-lifted fpear
Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Their courfe, in even balance down they light
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain;
A multitude, like which the populous north
Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pafs

Rhene

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 stood
Their great commander; Godlike fhapes and forms
Excelling human, princely Dignities,

And Pow'rs that erft in Heaven fat on thrones ;
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 trial of man,
By falfities and lies the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forsake
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.
Say, Mufe, their names then known, who first, who last
Rous'd from the slumber, on that fiery couch,
At their great emp'ror's call, as next in worth
Came fingly where he stood on the bare strand,
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
VOL. I.

C

Their

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 feasts profan'd,
And with their darkness durst 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
'Fo 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 such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wiseft 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' óbfcene 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 the 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 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 Baälim and Afhtaroth, thofe male,
Thefe feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either fex affume, or both; fo foft
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 obscure,

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 battel, funk before the spear
Of defpicable foes. With thefe in troop
Came Aftoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd
Aftarte, queen of Heav'n, with crescent horns
To whole bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and fongs,
In Sion alfo not unfung, where flood
C 2

Her

Her temple on th' offenfive mountain, built

By that uxorious king, whose heart though large,
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 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 faw, when by the vision 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 sham'd his worshipers:
Dagon his name, fea monster, upward man
And downward fish: yet had his temple high
Rear'd in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,

And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.
Him follow'd Rimmon, whose delightful feat
Was fair Damafcus, on the fertil banks
Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.
He also' against the house of God was bold:
A leper once he lost, and gain'd a king,
Ahaz his fottish conqu'ror, whom he drew

God's