Chapter 12 12
Yet therece his lustful Orgies he enlargd [ 415 ]
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 bordring flood
Of old Euphrates to the Brook that parts [ 420 ]
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general Names
Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those males,
These Feminine. For Spirits when they please
Can either Sex assume, or both;
And uncompounded is thir Essence pure, [ 425 ]
Not tid or manacld with joynt or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose
Dilated or condensed, bright or obscured,
Can execute thir aerie purposes, [ 430 ]
And works of love or enmity fulfillment.
For those the Race of Israel oft forsook
Thir living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous Altar, bowing lowly down
To bestial Gods; for which thir heads as low [ 435 ]
Bowd down in Battel, sunk before the Spear
Of despicable foes. With these in troop
Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call
Astarte, Queen of Heavn, with crescent Horns;
To whose bright Image nightly by the Moon [ 440 ]
Sidonian Virgins paid thir Vows and Songs,
In Sion also not unsung, where stood
Her Temple on th offensive Mountain, built
By that uxorious King, whose heart though large,
Beguild by fair Idolaresses, fell [445]
To Idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allurd
The Syrian Damsels to lament his fate
In amorous dittyes all a Summers day,
While smooth Adonis from his native Rock [ 450 ]
Ran purple to the Sea, supposd with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the Love-tale
Infected Sions daughters with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred Porch
Ezekiel saw, when by the Vision led [ 455 ]
His eye survayd the dark Idolatries
Of alienated Judah. Next came one
Who mourn in earnest, when the Captive Ark
Maimd his brute Image, head and hands lopt off
In his own Temple, on the grunsel edge, [ 460 ]