'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 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.
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 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
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