Till, as a fignal giv'n, th' up-lifted spear Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Their course, in even ballance 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 fouth, and spread Beneath Gibralter to the Libyan fands.
Forthwith from ev'ry fquadron, and each band, The Heads and Leaders thither hafte where food Their great Commander; God-like shapes and forms Excelling human, Princely Dignities,
And Pow'rs! that earft in heaven fat on thrones Tho' 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,
Thro' God's high sufferance for the tryal 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 thro' the heathen world.
Say, Mufe, their names then known; who first, who laft,
Rouz'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch, At their great Emperor's call, as next in worth Came fingly where he stood, on the bare ftrand, While the promiscuous crowd ftood yet aloof? The chief were those who, from the pit of hell Roaming to feek their prey on earth, durft 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&u'ry it felf 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;
Tho', for the noife of drums and timbrels loud, Their childrens cries unheard, that paft thro' fire Tho his grim idol. Him the Ammonite Worship'd in Rabba, and her watʼry plain, In Argob, and in Bafan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with fuch Audacious neighbourhood, the wifeft heart Of Solomon he led by fraud, to build His temple right against the temple of God, On the opprobrious hill; and made his grove The pleasant valley of Hinnon, Torbet thence
And black Gebenna 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 Sibmna, clad with vines; And Eleale 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 Even to that hill of fcandal, by the grove Of Moloch homicide; luft hard by hate; Till good Jofab drove them thence to hell. With thefe came they, who from the bord'ring
Of old Euphrates, to the brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names Of Baalim, and Ashtaroth; thofe male, Thefe feminine: (For fpirits 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 chufe, Dilated or condens'd, bright or obfcure,
Can execute their airy purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfil.)
For those 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 fpear Of defpicable foes. With thefe in troop Came Aftoreth, whom the Phenicians call'd Aftarte, Queen of heaven, with crefcent horns: To whofe bright image nightly by the moon, Sidonian virgins paid their vows and fongs; In Sion also not unfung, where ftood Her temple on th' offenfive mountain, built By that uxorious King, whofe heart, tho' large Beguil'd by fair idolatreffes, fell
To idols foul. Thammug came next behind, Whofe annual wound in Lebanon allur'd The Syrian damfels, to lament his fate In am'rous ditties all a fummer's day; While fmooth Adonis from his native rock Ran purple to the fea, fnppos'd with blood Of Thammuz 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 eyes furvey'd the dark idolatries Of alienated Judah. Next came one
Who mourn'd in earneft, when the captive Aik Maim'd his brute image, head and hands lop'd off In his own temple, on the grunfel edge, Where he fell flat, and sham'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 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 ftreams! He alfo against the house of God was bold: A leper once he loft, and gain'd a King, Ahaz, his fottish conqueror, whom he drew God's altar to difparage, and displace, For one of Syrian mode, whereon to born His odious off'rings, an adore the Gods Whom he had vanquish'd. After thefe appear'd Α crew, who under names of old renown, Ofiris, Ifis, Orus, and their train,
With monftrous shapes and forceries abus'd Fanatic Egypt, and her priefts, to seek
Their wandring Gods disguis'd in brutish forms, Rather than human. Nor did Ifrael 'fcape Th' infection, when their borrow'd gold compos'd The calf in Oreb; and the rebel King
Doubled that fin in Bethel, and in Dan, Lik'ning his Maker to the grazed ox, Jehovah! Who in one night when he pafs'd From Egypt marching, equal'd with one stroke Both her firft-born and all her bleating Gods. Belial came laft, than whom a spirit more lewd Fell not from heaven, or more grofs to love Vice for itfelf: to him no temple ftood, Or altar fmok'd; yet who more oft than he
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