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 signal giv'n, th' uplifted spear
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 barb'rous fons
Came like a deluge on the South, and spread
Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian 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; 360
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 fuff'rance for the tri`al 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 through the Heathen world. 375
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 stood 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 fanctuary itself their shrines,
Abominations; and with cursed 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 noise of drums and timbrels loud
Their children's 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 wisest 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. 405
Next Chemos, th' obscene dread of Moab's fons,
From Aroar to Nebo and the wild
Of fouthmoft Abarim; in Hefebon
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
Yet thence his luftful orgies he inlarg'd
Ev'n to that hill of scandal 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 Ashtaroth, those male,
These feminine. For spirits when they please
Can either sex assume, 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 cumb'rous flesh; but in what shape they chuse
Dilated or condens'd, bright or obscure,
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, sunk before the spear
Of defpicable foes. With these in troop
Came Aftoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd
Aftarte, queen of Heav'n, with crefcent horns;
To whose bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and fongs,
In Sion also not unfung, where stood
Her temple on th' offensive mountain, built
By that uxorious king, whose 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 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 fham'd his worshippers:
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, whofe delightful feat
Was fair Damascus, 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 conqu'ror, whom he drew
God's altar to disparage and displace
For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn
His odious offerings, and adore the gods
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