Came like a deluge on the South, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian sands. Forthwith from every squadron and each band The heads and leaders thither haste where stood Their great Commander; godlike shapes and forms Excelling human, princely dignities,
And pow'rs that erst in Heaven sat 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 sons of Eve Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth, Through God's high suff'rance for the trial of
By falsities and lies the greatest part Of mankind they corrupted to forsake 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
Rous'd from the slumber, on that fiery couch, At their great Emp'ror's call, as next in worth Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof. 380 The chief, were those who from the pit of Hell
Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix Their seats long after next the seat of God, Their altars by his altar, gods ador'd Among the nations round, and durst abide Jehovah thund'ring out of Sion, thron'd Between the cherubim; yea, often plac'd Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, Abominations; and with cursed things His only rites and solemn feasts profan'd, And with their darkness durst affront his light. First Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears,
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Their children's cries unheard, that pass'd through fire
Worshipt in Rabba and her wat'ry plain, In Argob and in Basan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such Audacious neighborhood, 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 sons, From Aroar to Nebo and the wild
Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond
The flow'ry dale of Sibma clad with vines, 410 And Eleälé to th' Asphaltic pool.
Peor his other name, when he entic'd
Israel in Sittim on their march from Nile To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. Yet thence his lustful orgies he inlarg'd Ev'n to that hill of scandal by the grove Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate; Till good Josiah 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 essence 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 æry purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfil. For those the race of Israel oft forsook
Their living Strength, and unfrequented left His righteous altar, bowing lowly down
To bestial gods; for which their heads as low 435 Bow'd down in battel, sunk before the spear Of despicable foes. With these in troop Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd Astarte, queen of Heav'n, with crescent horns; To whose bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs, In Sion also not unsung, 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, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
In amorous ditties all a summer's day,
While smooth Adonis from his native rock 450 Ran purple to the sea, suppos'd with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale Infected Sion's daughters with like heat, Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch Ezekiel saw, when by the vision led His eye survey'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 grunsel 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 coast Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,
And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. Him follow'd Rimmon, whose delightful seat Was fair Damascus, on the fertil banks Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. He also' against the house of God was bold: 470
A leper once he lost, and gain'd a king, Ahaz his sottish 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 Whom he had vanquish'd. After these appear'd A crew who under names of old renown, Osiris, Isis, Órus, and their train,
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus'd Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek
Their wand'ring gods disguis'd in brutish forms Rather than human. Nor did Israel 'scape Th' infection, when their borrow'd gold compos'd The calf in Oreb; and the rebel king Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan, Likening his Maker to the grazed ox, Jehovah, who in one night when he pass❜d From Egypt marching, equall'd with one stroke' Both her first-born and all her bleating gods. Belial came last, than whom a spi'rit more lewd Fell not from Heav'n, or more gross to love 491 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 sons, who fill'd With lust and violence the house of God? In courts and palaces he also reigns And in luxurious cities, where the noise Of ri'ot ascends above their loftiest towers, And injury and outrage: and when Night 500
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