Chapter 11 11
And Devils to adore for Deities:
Then were they known to men by various Names,
And various Idols through the Heathen World. [375]
Say, Muse, thir Names then known, who first, who last,
Rousd from the slumber, on that fiery Couch,
At thir great Emperors call, as next in worth
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,
While the promiscuous croud stood yet aloof? [ 380 ]
The chief were those who from the Pit of Hell
Roaming to seek thir prey on earth, durst fix
Thir Seats long after next the Seat of God,
Thir Altars by his Altar, Gods adord
Among the Nations round, and durst abide [ 385 ]
Jehovah thundring out of Sion, thrond
Between the Cherubim; yea, often placd
Within his Sanctuary it self thir Shrines,
Abominations; and with cursed things
His holy Rites, and solemn Feasts profand, [ 390 ]
And with thir darkness durst against his light.
First Moloch, horrid King besmeard with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,
Though for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud
Thir children cries unheard, that past through fire [ 395 ]
To his grim Idol. Him the Ammonite
Worship in Rabba and her watry Plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart [ 400 ]
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His Temple right against the Temple of God
On that opprobious Hill, and made his Grove
The pleasant Vally of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna calld, the Type of Hell. [405]
Next Chemos, th obscene dread of Moabs Sons,
From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild
Of Southmost Abarim; in Hesebon
And Horonaim, Seons Realm, beyond
The flowry Dale of Sibma clad with Vines, [ 410 ]
And Eleale to th Asphaltick Pool.
Peor his other Name, when he enticed
Israel in Sittim on thir march from Nile
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.