Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/46

Upheave its tenuous crust, from soft congeal'd,
Or, as th' ethereal sky, glummy with clouds,
With fierce combustion rack'd, and nit'rous fumes,
Vibrates and roars, so shook the base of hell,
With their applause, on one side; while th' other,
With seething hisses boil'd, and public scorn.
Amidst the din tumultuous, up sprang
The monster Milcom, estuate, so named
In Indus and the East, where first his sway
Began, to Persia thence; but later known
As Moloch, supreme the Ammonites among;
Sons of Lot, who pitch'd their tents from Arnon
To Jeboc, and there his image worshipp'd,
Cruent from human sacrifices gorged,
Commingling shouts discordant, fitting well
Their dev'lish rites, best when discordant most.
Rabbath his chief seat, whose tribes, the demon,
Long adored with num'rous names and frequent rites—
Baal, Adramelech and Chemos, names,
But varied to deceive, demonic all.
'Twas he, for whom the wiseman, fool, the son
Of Israel's minstrel king, forsook the truth,
Built him a temple near the house of God,
Furnish'd a grove on sacred Olivet,
And heath'nish lusts in face of heav'n pursued;
Whose impious lead Manasses took, and caused
His son to pass through fire in Tophet,
Ennom's vale, where long after, when the cup
Of wrath was full, his wicked sons were slain,
Or captive led by Amalec, conjoin'd
With Ammon, Eglon, Moab's basest king.
A head and shoulders rising 'bove his peers,