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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