In worst extreams, and on the perilous edge Of battle when it rag'd, in ali affaults Their fureft fignal, they will foon refume New courage and revive, though now they ly Groveling and proftrate on yon lake of fire, As we ere while, astounded and amaz'd, No wonder, fall'n fuch a pernicious highth.
He scarc'd had ceas'd, when the fuperiour fiend Was moving toward the shoar; his pondrous shield Ethereal temper, maffy, large and round
Behind him. caft; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At ev'ning from the top of Fefole, Or in Valdarno, to defcry new lands, Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe. His fpear, to equal which the tallest pine. Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of fome great admiral, were but a wand, He walkt with to support uneasy steps
Over the burning marle, not like those steps. On heav'n's azure, and the torrid clime Smote on him fore befides, vaulted with fire; Nathlefs he fo endur'd, till on the beach Of that inflammed fea, he stood and call'd His legions, angel forms, who lay intrans't. Thick as autumnal leaves that ftrow the brooks In Vallombrofa, where th'Etrurian shades High overarch❜t imbowr; or scatter'd fedge. Afloat, when with fierce. winds Orion arm'd Hath vext the red fea coaft, whose waves o'erthrew
Bufiris and his Memphian chivalry, While with perfidious hatred they purfu'd The fojourners of Gofhen, who beheld From the safe shore their floting carkafes And broken chariot wheels; fo thick beftrown, Abject and loft lay these, covering the flood, Under amazement of their hideous change. He call'd fo loud, that all the hollow deep Of hell refounded. Princes, potentates, Warriors, the flower of heav'n, once yours, now lost, If fuch astonishment as this can feize Eternal spirits; or have ye chos'n this place After the toil of battle to repose
Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find To flumber here, as in the vales of heav'n? Or in this abject posture have ye sworn To adore the conqueror, who now beholds Cherub and seraph rowling in the flood With scatter'd arms and enfigns, till anon His fwift pursuers from heav'n gates discern Th'advantage, and descending tread us down Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts Transfix us to the bottom of this gulph. Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n.
They heard, and were abash't, and up they sprungTM Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, Rouse 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
Of Amram's fon in Aegypt's evil day
Wav'd round the coaft, up call'd a pitchy cloud Of locufts, warping on the eafter 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 Hovering on wing under the cope of hell 'Twixt upper, nether, and furrounding fires; Till, as a fignal giv'n, th'uplifted spear Of their great Sultan waving to direct Their courfe, 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 pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous fons Came like a deluge on the fouth, 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 powers that erft in heaven fat on thrones; Though of their names in heavenly records now Be no memorial, blotted out and raz'd
By their rebellion, from the books of life.
Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve
Got them new names, till wandring o'er the earth, Through God's high fufferance for the trial 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. Say, mufe, their names then known, who first, who last, Rouz'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch, At their great emperor's call, as next in worth, Came fingly where he stood on the bare strand, While the promiscuous croud flood 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 thundring out of Sion, thron'd Between the cherubim; yea, often plac'd Within his fanctuary itself their shrines, Abominations; and with curfed things His holy rites, and folemin feafts profan'd, And with their darknefs durft affront his light. First Moloch, horrid king, befmear'd with blood Of human facrifice, and parents tears,
Though for the noife of drums and timbrels loud Their childrens cries unheard, that past 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 utmost Arnon, Nor content with fuch
Audacious neighbourhood, the wifeft 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 vally of Hinnon, Tophet thence And black Gehenna call'd, the Type of hell. Next Chemos, th'obscene dread of Moab's fons, From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild Of southmoft Abarim; in Hefebon And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond The flowry dale of Sibma clad with vines, And Eleale to th’Asphaltic pool.
Peor his other name, when he entic'd
Ifrael in Sittim on their march from Nile
To do him wanton rites, which coft them woe. Yet thence his luftful orgies he inlarg'd Even to that hill of fcandal, 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 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 fpirits when they please Can either sex affume, or both; fo foft And uncompounded is their essence pure, Not ty'd or manacl'd with joint or limb, Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they chuse Dilated, or condens't, bright or obfcure,
Can execute their airy purposes,
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