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&tuary itself their fhrines,
Abominations; and with curfed things
His holy rites and folemn feasts profan'd,
And with their darkness durft affront his light.
First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'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
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipt in Rabba and her watry plain,
In Argob and in Bafan, to the stream
Of utmoft 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 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, thofe male,
These feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either fex 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 choofe
Dilated or condens'd, bright or obfcure,
Can execute their aery purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfil.
For thofe the race of Ifrael oft forfook
Their living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down
To bestial Gods; for which their heads as low
Bow'd down in battel, funk before the spear
Of defpicable foes. With these in troop
Came Aftoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd
Aftarte, queen of Heav'n, with crescent horns ;
To whofe bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and fongs,
In Sion alfo not unfung, where stood
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Her temple on th' offenfive mountain, built
By that uxorious king, whofe heart though large,
Beguil'd by fair idolatresses, 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 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 fham'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
God's altar to difparage and displace
For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn
His odious offerings, and adore the Gods
Whom he had vanquish'd. After these appear'd
A crew who under names of old renown,
Ofiris, Ifis, Orus, and their train,
With monstrous fhapes and forceries abus'd
Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek,
Their wand'ring Gods difguis'd in brutish forms
Rather than human. Nor did Ifrael 'scape
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,
Likening his Maker to the grazed ox,
Jehovah, who in one night when he pass'd
From Egypt marching, equal'd with one stroke
Both her firft-born and all her bleating Gods.
Belial came laft, than whom a Spi'rit more lewd
Fell not from Heaven, or more grofs to love
Vice for itself to him no temple stood
Or altar smok'd; yet who more oft than he
In temples and at altars, when the priest
Turns atheist, as did Eli's fons, who fill'd
With luft and violence the house of God?
In courts and palaces he alfo reigns
And in luxurious cities, where the noise
Of ri'ot afcends above their loftieft towers,
And injury and outrage: and when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the fons
Of Belial, flown with infolence and wine.
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