Or in this abject posture have ye sworn [sprung They heard, and were abashed, and up they Upon the wing; as when men wont to watch On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awa).. 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 soon obeyed, Innumerable. As when the potent rod Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, That over the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile : So numberless were those bad angels seen Hovering on wing under the cope of hell, Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires; Till, at a signal given, the 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 Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the south, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan 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 powers that erst in heaven sat on throner Though of weir names in heavenly records now Be no memorial; blotted out and rased By their rebellion from the books of life. Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve [earth, Got them new names; till, wandering over the Through God's high sufferance for the trial of By falsities and lies the greatest part Of mankind they corrupted to forsake [man, God their Creator, and the invisible Glory of him that made them to transform Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 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. Say, muse, their names then known, who first. who last, Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch, At their great emperor's call, as next in worth Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. 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 adored Among the nations round, and durst abide Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned Between the cherubim; yea, often placed Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, Abominations; and with cursed things His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, And with their darkness durst affront his light. First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears; Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud Their children's cries unheard, that passed through To his grim idol. Him the Ammonité Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain. [fire In Argob and in Basan the stream Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, Came Astoran, whom the Phœnicians called Astarte, queen of heaven, 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 the offensive mountain, built By that uxorious king, whose heart, though large Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate In amorous ditties all a summer's day; While smooth Adonis from his native rock Ran purple to the sea, supposed 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 surveyed the dark idolatries Of alienated Judah. Next came one Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopped In his own temple, on the grunsel edge, Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshippers: Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man And downward fish: yet had his temple high Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. He also against the house of God was bold : A leper once he lost, and gained a king; Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, 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 vanquished. After these appeared Lou [ed A crew, who, under names of old renown, |