and gold,

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Oft to the image of a brute,] Alluding to Rom. i. 23. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God, into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.

372. With gay religions full of pomp and gold,] By religions Milton means religious rites, as Cicero uses the word, when he joins religiones et ceremonias. De Legib. lib. i. c. 15. and elsewhere. Pearce.

376. Say, Muse, &c.] The catalogue of evil Spirits has abundance of learning in it, and a very agreeable turn of poetry, which rises in a great measure from its describing the places where they were worshipped, by those beautiful marks of rivers, so frequent among the ancient poets. The author had doubtless in this place Homer's catalogue of ships, and Virgil's list of warriors in his view. Addison. Dr. Bentley says that this is not the finest part of the poem: but I think it is, in the design and drawing, if not in the colouring; for the Paradise Lost

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being a religious epic, nothing could be more artful than thus deducing the original of superstition. This gives it a great advantage over the catalogues he has imitated; for Milton's becomes thereby a necessary part of the work, as the original of superstition, an essential part of a religious epic, could not have been shewn without it. Had Virgil's or Homer's been omitted, their poems would not have suffered materially, because in their relations of the following actions we find the soldiers, who were before catalogued: but by no following history of superstition that Milton could have brought in, could we find out these devils' agency, it was therefore necessary he should inform us of the fact. Warburton.

Say, Muse, &c. Homer at the beginning of his catalogue invokes his Muse afresh in a very pompous manner. Virgil does the like, and Milton follows both so far as to make a fresh invocation, though short; because he had already made a large and solemn address in this very book, at the beginning of

First after Satan and Beelzebub. The name Moloch signifies king, and be is called horrid king, because of the human sacrifices which were made to him. This idol is supposed by some to be the same as Saturn, to whom the heathens sacrificed their children, and by others to be the Sun. It is said in Scripture that the children passed through the fire to Moloch, and our author employs the same expression, by which we must understand not that they always actually burnt their children in honour of this idol, but sometimes made them only leap over the flames, or pass nimbly between two fires, to purify them by that lustration, and consecrate them to this false deity. The Rabbins assure us that the idol Moloch was of brass, sitting on a throne of the same metal, and wearing a royal crown, having the head of a calf, and his arms extended to receive the miserable victims which were to be consumed in the flames; and therefore it is very probably styled here his grim idol. He was the God of the Ammonites, and is called the abomination of the children of Ammon, 1 Kings xi. 7. and was worshipped in Rabba, the capital city of the Ammonites, which David conquered, and took from thence the crown of their God Milcolm, as some render the words 2 Sam.

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xii. 30. and this Rabba being called the city of waters, 2 Sam. xii. 27. it is here said Rabba and her watery plain and likewise in Argob and in Basan, neighbouring countries to Rabba and subject to the Ammonites, as far as to the stream of utmost Arnon, which river was the boundary of their country on the south. Solomon built a temple to Moloch on the mount of Olives, 1 Kings xi. 7. therefore called that opprobrious hill; and high places and sacrifices were made to him in the pleasant valley of Hinnom, Jer. vii. 31. which lay south-east of Jerusalem, and was called likewise Tophet from the Hebrew Toph a drum, drums and such like noisy instruments being used to drown the cries of the miserable children who were offered to this idol; and Gehenna or the valley of Hinnom is in several places of the New Testament, and by our Saviour himself, made the name and type of hell, by reason of the fire that was kept up there to Moloch, and of the horrid groans and outcries of human sacrifices. We might enlarge much more upon each of these idols, and produce a heap of learned authorities and quotations; but we endeavour to be as short as we can, and say no more than may serve as a sufficient commentary to explain and illustrate our author.

406. Next Chemos, &c.] He is rightly mentioned next after Moloch, as their names are joined together in Scripture 1 Kings xi. 7. and it was a natural transition from the God of the Ammonites to the God of their neighbours the Moabites. St. Jerom and several learned men assert Chemos and Baal Peor to be only different names for the same idol, and suppose him to be the same with Priapus or the idol of turpitude, and therefore called here th obscene dread of Moab's sons, from Aroar, a city upon the river Arnon, the boundary of their country to the north, afterwards belonging to the tribe of Gad, to Nebo, a city eastward, afterwards belonging to the tribe of Reuben, and the wild of southmost Abarim, a ridge of mountains the boundary of their country to the south; in Hesebon or Heshbon, and Horonaim, Seon's realm, two cities of the Moabites, taken from them by Sihon King of the Amorites, Numb. xxi. 26. beyond the flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, a place famous for vineyards, as appears from Jer. xlviii. 32. O

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vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee, and Eleülé, another city of the Moabites not far from Heshbon, to the Asphaltic pool, the Dead Sea, so called from the Asphaltus or bitumen abounding in it; the river Jordan empties itself into it, and that river and this sea were the boundary of the Moabites to the west. It was this God under the name of Baal Peor, that the Israelites were induced to worship in Sittim, and committed whoredom with the daughters of Moab, for which there died of the plague twenty and four thousand, as we read in Numb. xxv. His high places were adjoining to those of Moloch on the mount of Olives, therefore called here that hill of scandal as before that opprobrious hill, for Solomon did build an high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Moloch the abomination of the children of Ammon, 1 Kings xi. 7. But good Josiah brake in pieces their images, and cut down their groves. See 2 Kings xxiii. 13,

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