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they sacrificed their children, in the Valley of Tophet.

dropt Manna.

though his tongue

The miraculous and delicate bread, wherewith God fed his people in the wilderness of Arabia, forty years: it was a little round hard grain, that fell every morning in plenty; that it was sufficient to feed more than a million of people, allowing every one three quarts a day: it suited every one's taste; always good, as the widow's meal in the days of Elija; and, therefore, it was called angels' food, and the bread of heaven.

170 What if the breath.

Tophet is ordained of old. He hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood, the breath of Jehovah, like a stream, doth kindle it. Isaiah, xxx. 33.

191 All these our motions vain sees and derides.

He that sitteth in the heavens, shall laugh; Jehovah shall have them in derision. Psalms, ii. 4.

226 Thus Belial.

228

233

263

A fallen angel.

and after him thus Mammon spake.

A fallen angel.

and Chaos judge the strife.

Chaos was deemed, by some, as one of the oldest of the gods; and invoked as one of the infernal deities.

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Thick cloud and dark, doth heaven's all-ruling sire.

He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion

293

round about him, were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. Jehovah also thundered in the heavens; and the Highest gave his voice, hail-stones and coals of fire. Psalms, xviii. 11, 13.

so much the fear

Of thunder and the sword of Michael.

One of the chiefs of the celestial army, against the revolting angels. An archangel.

299 Which when Beelzebub.

305

327

352

A fallen angel, the next to Satan in power.
sage he stood

With Atlantean shoulders.

Atlas, a king of Mauritania, who, for his great skill in astronomy, was feigned, by the poets, to bear heaven on his shoulders; whence a book of universal geography, containing maps of the world, is called an atlas.

and with iron sceptre rule.

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for an inheritance; and the uttermost parts of the earth, for a possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron: thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings: be intructed, ye judges of the earth. Ps. ii. 8,9,10. and by an oath,

That shook heav'n's whole circumference, confirmed.

For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could not swear by a greater, he sware by himself:

Saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee;

483

499

For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath of confirmation, is to them an end of strife.

Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew, unto the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath :

That, by two immutable things, in which it were impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the oath set before us.

vi. 13, 14, 16, 17, 18.

Hebrews,

lest bad men should boast.

By grace are ye saved through faith: not of works, lest any man should boast. Eph. ii. 8, 9. and God proclaiming peace. He came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. Eph. xi. 17. 505 That day and night for his destruction wait,

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour;

Whom resist, stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren, that are in the world. 1 Peter, v. 8, 9. 506 The Stygian counsel thus dissolv'd.

Belonging to the river Styx, which the poets feign to be a river in the infernal regions, by which the gods swore.

518 By herald's voice explained.

An officer at arms, whose duty it is to denounce war; to proclaim peace; or to be employed by the king in martial messages: they are judges and examiners of gentlemen's coats of

arms; marshal all solemnities at the coronation of kings, funerals of princes, &c.

530 As at th' Olympian games.

530

Festivals, celebrated every fourth year, in Greece: this period of time was called Olympiad, and became a celebrated era among the Greeks, who computed their time by it. The computations by Olympiads ceased, as some supposed, after the 364th century, in the year 440, of the Christian era. It was universally adopted, not only by the Greeks, but by many of the neighbouring countries, though still the Pythian games served as an epoch to the people of Delphi, and the Botians; the Namaan games, to the Argives and Arcadians; and the Isthmian, to the Corinthians; and the inhabitants of the Peloponnesian isthmus. To the Olympiads, history is much indebted, as they have served to fix the time of many momentous events.

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or Pythian fields. The Pythian games were celebrated in honour of Apollo, near the temple of Delphi ; said to be instituted by Apollo himself, in commemoration of the victory he had obtained over the serpent, Python.

539 Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell.

Typhoeus, one of the rebel giants that warred against heaven. It is said, that Jupiter put him to flight with his thunderbolts, and crushed him under Mount Etna, in the island of Sicily. 542 As when Alcides.

A title of Hercules, who killed himself, in consequence of the pain experienced by the

542

poisoned garment, sent him from his wife, Dejanira, to regain his love, by the advice of Nessus, from whom she received it.

from Echalia crown'd.

A country of Peloponnesus, in Laconia, with a town of the same name, which Hercules destroyed, in the reign of Eurytus.

545 And Lichas from the top of Eta threw.

Hercules, with great violence, threw his servant, Lichas, whom he employed to bring the tunic from Deganira, from the mountain, Eta, into the Euboce Sea, now called the Straits of Negropont.

565 Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy.

Beware, lest any man spoil you, through philosophy and vain conceit. Col. ii. 8. 577 Abhorred Styx.

A river in the infernal regions, round which it flows nine times. According to some writers, the Styx was a small river in Arcadia, whose waters were so cold and venomous, that they proved fatal to such as drank. It is fabled, that the gods held the waters of the Styx in such veneration, that the oath which they swore by it, was held inviolable.

578 Acheron, Cocytus, and Phlegethon.

Rivers in the infernal regions.

583 Lethe, the river of oblivion rolls.

A river of Africa, near the Syrites, which runs under the ground, and some time after rises again; whence the origin of the fable of the Lethean streams of oblivion.

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