To' adore the conqueror? who now beholds Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood With scatter'd arms and enfigns, till anon His fwift purfuers from Heav'n gates discern Th' advantage, and descending 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 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 surrounding fires; Till, as a fignal giv'n, th' up-lifted fpear Of their great Sultan waving to direct Their course, 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 shapes 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 sufferance 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. Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last 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 strand, While the promiscuous croud ftood yet aloof. The chief were those who from the pit of Hell Roaming to feek their prey on earth, durft fix VOL. I.
Their feats long after next the seat 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 shrines, 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, besmear'd with blood Of human facrifice, and parents tears,
'Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Their childrens cries unheard, that pass'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 such Audacious neighbourhood, the wifest 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' 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 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 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 effence pure, 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 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 crescent horns ; To whose 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 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 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, Whose 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 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 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 alfo' 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
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