With fcatter'd arms and enfigns, 'till anon
His swift purfuers from heav'n gates difcern
Th' advantage, and defcending tread us down.
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf,
Awake, arife, or be for ever fall'n.

325

330

They heard, and were abafht, and up they sprung Upon the wing; as when men wont to watch On duty, fleeping found by whom they dread, Rouze and beftir themselves ere well awake. Nor did they not perceive the evil plight In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; Yet to their General's voice they foon obey'd, Innumerable. As when the potent Rod

335

345

Of AMRAM's Son, in ÆGYP T's evil day,
Wav'd round the coaft, up call'd a pitchy cloud 340
Of locufts, warping on the eastern wind,
That o'er the realm of impious. PHARAOH hung
Like night, and darken'd all the land of NILE:
So numberless were thofe bad Angels feen
Hov'ring on wing under the cope of hell,
"Twixt upper, nether, and furrounding fires:
"Till, as a fignal giv'n, th' up-lifted fpear
Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Their courfe, in even baliance 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 pass
RHENE or the DANAW, when her barbarous fons
Came like a deluge on the fouth, and spread
Beneath GIBRALTER to the LIBYAN fands. 355
Forthwith from ev'ry fquadron, and each band,
'The Heads and Leaders thither hafte where stood
Their great Commander; God-like shapes and forms
Excelling human, Princely Dignities,

350

And Pow'rs, that eerft in heaven fat on thrones; 360 Tho' of their names in heav'nly records now

Be

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

364

Got them new names; 'till wand'ring o'er the earth,

Thro' GoD's high fufferance for the tryal of man,
By falfities and lies the greatest part

Of mankind they corrupted, to forfake
GOD their creator, and th' invifible
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:

370

Then were they known to men by various names, And various Idols thro' the heathen world. 375

385

Say, Mufe, their names then known; who first, who Rouz'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch, [last, At their great Emperor's call, as next in worth Came fingly where he ftood, on the bare ftrand, While the promifcuous crowd ftood yet aloof? 380 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 it felf their shrines, Abominations! and with cursed things His holy rites and folemn feafts prophan'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 395 To his grim idol. Him the AMMONITE Worship'd in RABBA, and her wat'ry plain, In ARGOs and in BASAN, to the ftream

390

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