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Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the maft
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand,
He walk'd with to fupport uneasy steps
Over the burning marle, not like those steps
On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime
Smote on him fore besides, vaulted with fire:
Nathless he so indur'd, till on the beach
Of that inflamed fea he stood, and call'd
His legions, Angel forms, who lay intranc'd

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Thick as autumnal leaves that ftrow the brooks

In Vallombrofa, where th' Etrurian fhades

High over-arch'd imbow'r; or scatter'd fedge

Aflote, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd

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Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coaft, whose waves o'erthrew

Bufiris and his Memphian chivalry,

While with perfidious hatred they pursued

The fojourners of Goshen, who beheld

From the fafe shore their floting carcafes
And broken chariot wheels: so thick bestrown
Abject and loft lay thefe, covering the flood,
Under amazement of their hideous change.
He call'd fo loud, that all the hollow deep
Of Hell refounded. Princes, Potentates,

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Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once your's, now loft,
If fuch astonishment as this can seise

Eternal Spi'rits; or have ye chos'n this place
After the toil of battel to repofe

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find

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To flumber here, as in the vales of Heaven?
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn

To' adore the conqueror? who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood

With scatter'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.

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Awake, arife, or be for ever fall'n.

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They heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch

On duty, fleeping 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 Egypt's evil day,
Wav'd round the coaft, up call'd a pitchy cloud
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 those bad Angels feen
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell
"Twixt upper, nether, and furrounding fires;
Till, as a signal giv'n, th' up-lifted spear
Of their great Sultan waving to direct
Their course, in even balance down they light
On the firm brimftone, and fill all the plain;
A multitude, like which the populous north
Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass

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Rhene

Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous fons
Came like a deluge on the fouth, and spread
Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan fands.

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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 Pow'rs that erft in Heaven fat 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 fons of Eve
Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth,
Through God's high fufferance for the tri'al 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;

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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,
Rous'd from the flumber, on that fiery couch,
At their great emp'ror's call, as next in worth
Came fingly where he ftood on the bare ftrand,
While the promifcuous croud ftood yet aloof.
The chief were those who from the pit of Hell
Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix
VOL. X.

C

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Their

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 itself their fhrines,
Abominations; and with cursed things
His holy rites and folemn feafts profan'd,
And with their darkness durft affront his light.
First Moloch, horrid king, befmear'd with blood
Of human facrifice, and parents tears,

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Though for the noife of drums and timbrels loud
Their childrens cries unheard, that pafs'd 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 utmoft 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 valley' of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna call'd, the type of Hell.

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Next Chemos, th' obfcene dread of Moab's fons,

From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild

Of fouthmoft Abarim; in Hefebon

And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond

The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines,
And Eleälé to the Asphaltic pool.

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Peor his other name, when he entic'd

Ifrael

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

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Ev'n 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 bordʼring flood Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts

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Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names
Of Baälim and Afhtaroth, those male,

These feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either fex affume, or both; so soft

And uncompounded is their effence pure,
Not ty'd or manacled with joint or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,

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Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose

Dilated or condens'd, bright or obfcure,

Can execute their aery purposes,

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And works of love or enmity fulfil.

For those the race of Ifrael oft forfook

Their living ftrength, and unfrequented left
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down

To beftial Gods; for which their heads as low
Bow'd down in battel, funk before the spear
Of despicable foes. With thefe in troop
Came Aftoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd
Aftarte, queen of Heav'n, with crescent horns;
To whose bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and fongs,
In Sion also not unfung, where stood.

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