By their rebellion, from the book of life.
Nor had they yet, among the sons of Eve,
Got them new names: till, wandering o'er the earth,
Through God's high sufferance, for the trial of man,
By falsities and lies, the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted, to forsake God their Creator, and the 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.
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, 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 395 To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite Worshipp'd in Rabba and her watery plain, In Argob and in Basan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such 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. Next Chemos, the obscene, dread of Moab's sons, From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond
The flowery dale of Sibma, clad with vines, And Eleälé to the Asphaltic pool: Peor his other name, when he enticed Israel, in Sittim, on their march from Nile, To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged, Even 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 bordering flood Of old Euphrates, to the brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names Of Baalim 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 tied or manacled with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they choose, Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,
Can execute their airy 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 Bow'd down in battle, sunk before the spear Of despicable foes. With these in troop Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd Astarté, 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 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 groundsil-edge, Where he fell flat, and shamed 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 fertile banks Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. He also against the house of God was bold: A leper once he lost, and gain'd 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 vanquish'd. After these appear'd A crew, who, under names of old renown, Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train, With monstrous shapes and sorceries, abused Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek Their wandering gods, disguised in brutish forms, Rather than human. Nor did Israel 'scape The infection, when their borrow'd gold composed 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, equalled, with one stroke, Both her first-born, and all her bleating gods. Belial came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd Fell not from Heaven, or more gross, to love Vice for itself; to him no temple stood, Or altar smoked; 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 riot ascends, above their loftiest towers, And injury and outrage: and when night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night
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