A RELATION OF THE HOLY WAR (42)

Then the grace doubter was called, and his indictment was read and he replied thereto: ‘That though he was of the land of doubting, his father was the offspring of a Pharisee, and lived in good fashion among his neighbours, and that he taught him to believe, and believe it I do, and will, that Mansoul shall never be saved freely by grace.’

Then said the judge: ‘Why, the law of the Prince is plain: 1. Negatively, “not of works:” 2. Positively, “by grace you are saved.”  And thy religion settleth in and upon the works of the flesh; for the works of the law are the works of the flesh.  Besides, in saying as thou hast done, thou hast robbed God of His glory, and given it to a sinful man; thou hast robbed Christ of the necessity of His undertaking, and the sufficiency thereof, and hast given both these to the works of the flesh.  Thou hast despised the work of the Holy Ghost, and hast magnified the will of the flesh, and of the legal mind.  Thou art a Diabolonian, the son of a Diabolonian; and for thy Diabolonian principles thou must die.’

The court then, having proceeded thus far with them, sent out the jury, who forthwith brought them in guilty of death.  Then stood up the Recorder, and addressed himself to the prisoners: ‘You, the prisoners at the bar, you have been here indicted, and proved guilty of high crimes against Emmanuel our Prince, and against the welfare of the famous town of Mansoul, crimes for which you must be put to death, and die ye accordingly.’  So they were sentenced to the death of the cross.  The place assigned them for execution, was that where Diabolus drew up his last army against Mansoul; save only that old Evil-Questioning was hanged at the top of Bad Street, just over against his own door.

When the town of Mansoul had thus far rid themselves of their enemies, and of the troublers of their peace, in the next place a strict commandment was given out, that yet my Lord Willbewill should, with Diligence his man, search for, and do his best to apprehend what town Diabolonians were yet left alive in Mansoul.  The names of several of them were, Mr. Fooling, Mr. Let-Good-Slip, Mr. Slavish-Fear, Mr. No-Love, Mr. Mistrust, Mr. Flesh, and Mr. Sloth.  It was also commanded, that he should apprehend Mr. Evil-Questioning’s children, that he left behind him, and that they should demolish his house.  The children that he left behind him were these: Mr. Doubt, and he was his eldest son; the next to him was Legal-Life, Unbelief, Wrong-Thoughts-of-Christ, Clip-Promise, Carnal-Sense, Live-by-Feeling, Self-Love.  All these he had by one wife, and her name was No-Hope; she was the kinswoman of old Incredulity, for he was her uncle; and when her father, old Dark, was dead, he took her and brought her up, and when she was marriageable, he gave her to this old Evil-Questioning to wife.

Now the Lord Willbewill did put into execution his commission, with great Diligence, his man.  He took Fooling in the streets, and hanged him up in Want-wit-Alley, over against his own house.  This Fooling was he that would have had the town of Mansoul deliver up Captain Credence into the hands of Diabolus, provided that then he would have withdrawn his force out of the town.  He also took Mr. Let-Good-Slip one day as he was busy in the market, and executed him according to law.  Now there was an honest poor man in Mansoul, and his name was Mr. Meditation, one of no great account in the days of apostasy, but now of repute with the best of the town.  This man, therefore, they were willing to prefer.  Now Mr. Let-Good-Slip had a great deal of wealth heretofore in Mansoul, and, at Emmanuel’s coming, it was sequestered to the use of the Prince: this, therefore, was now given to Mr. Meditation, to improve for the common good, and after him to his son, Mr. Think-Well; this Think-Well he had by Mrs. Piety his wife, and she was the daughter of Mr. Recorder.

After this, my lord apprehended Clip-Promise: now because he was a notorious villain, for by his doings much of the King’s coin was abused, therefore he was made a public example.  He was arraigned and judged to be first set in the pillory, then to be whipped by all the children and servants in Mansoul, and then to be hanged till he was dead.  Some may wonder at the severity of this man’s punishment; but those that are honest traders in Mansoul, are sensible of the great abuse that one clipper of promises in little time may do to the town of Mansoul.  And truly my judgment is, that all those of his name and life should be served even as he.

He also apprehended Carnal-Sense, and put him in hold; but how it came about, I cannot tell, but he brake prison, and made his escape: yea, and the bold villain will not yet quit the town, but lurks in the Diabolonian dens a days, and haunts like a ghost honest men’s houses a nights.  Wherefore, there was a proclamation set up in the market-place in Mansoul, signifying that whosoever could discover Carnal-Sense, and apprehend him and slay him, should be admitted daily to the Prince’s table, and should be made keeper of the treasure of Mansoul.  Many, therefore, did bend themselves to do this thing, but take him and slay him they could not, though often he was discovered.

But my lord took Mr. Wrong-Thoughts-of-Christ, and put him in prison, and he died there; though it was long first, for he died of a lingering consumption.

Self-Love was also taken and committed to custody; but there were many that were allied to him in Mansoul, so his judgment was deferred.  But at last Mr. Self-Denial stood up, and said: ‘If such villains as these may be winked at in Mansoul, I will lay down my commission.’  He also took him from the crowd, and had him among his soldiers, and there he was brained.  But some in Mansoul muttered at it, though none durst speak plainly, because Emmanuel was in town.  But this brave act of Captain Self-Denial came to the Prince’s ears; so he sent for him, and made him a lord in Mansoul.  My Lord Willbewill also obtained great commendations of Emmanuel, for what he had done for the town of Mansoul.

Then my Lord Self-Denial took courage, and set to the pursuing of the Diabolonians, with my Lord Willbewill; and they took Live-by-Feeling, and they took Legal-Life, and put them in hold till they died.  But Mr. Unbelief was a nimble Jack: him they could never lay hold of, though they attempted to do it often.  He therefore, and some few more of the subtlest of the Diabolonian tribe, did yet remain in Mansoul, to the time that Mansoul left off to dwell any longer in the kingdom of Universe.  But they kept them to their dens and holes: if one of them did appear, or happen to be seen in any of the streets of the town of Mansoul, the whole town would be up in arms after them; yea, the very children in Mansoul would cry out after them as after a thief, and would wish that they might stone them to death with stones.  And now did Mansoul arrive to some good degree of peace and quiet; her Prince also did abide within her borders; her captains, also, and her soldiers did their duties; and Mansoul minded her trade that she had with the country that was afar off; also she was busy in her manufacture.

When the town of Mansoul had thus far rid themselves of so many of their enemies, and the troublers of their peace, the Prince sent to them, and appointed a day wherein he would, at the market-place, meet the whole people, and there give them in charge concerning some further matters, that, if observed, would tend to their further safety and comfort, and to the condemnation and destruction of their home-bred Diabolonians.  So the day appointed was come, and the townsmen met together; Emmanuel also came down in his chariot, and all his captains in their state attending him, on the right hand and on the left.  Then was an oyes made for silence, and, after some mutual carriages of love, the Prince began, and thus proceeded:—

‘You, my Mansoul, and the beloved of mine heart, many and great are the privileges that I have bestowed upon you; I have singled you out from others, and have chosen you to myself, not for your worthiness, but for mine own sake.  I have also redeemed you, not only from the dread of my Father’s law, but from the hand of Diabolus.  This I have done because I loved you, and because I have set my heart upon you to do you good.  I have also, that all things, that might hinder thy way to the pleasures of paradise might be taken out of the way, laid down for thee for thy soul a plenary satisfaction, and have bought thee to myself; a price not of corruptible things, as of silver and gold, but a price of blood, mine own blood, which I have freely spilled upon the ground to make thee mine.  So I have reconciled thee, O my Mansoul, to my Father, and entrusted thee in the mansion houses that are with my Father in the royal city, where things are, O my Mansoul, that eye hath not seen, nor hath entered into the heart of man to conceive.

‘Besides, O my Mansoul, thou seest what I have done, and how I have taken thee out of the hands of thine enemies: unto whom thou hadst deeply revolted from my Father, and by whom thou wast content to be possessed, and also to be destroyed.  I came to thee first by my law, then by my gospel, to awaken thee, and show thee my glory.  And thou knowest what thou wast, what thou saidst, what thou didst, and how many times thou rebelledst against my Father and me; yet I left thee not as thou seest this day, but came to thee, have borne thy manners, have waited upon thee, and, after all, accepted of thee, even of my mere grace and favour; and would not suffer thee to be lost, as thou most willingly wouldst have been.  I also compassed thee about, and afflicted thee on every side, that I might make thee weary of thy ways, and bring down thy heart with molestation to a willingness to close with thy good and happiness.  And when I had gotten a complete conquest over thee, I turned it to thy advantage.

‘Thou seest, also, what a company of my Father’s host I have lodged within thy borders: captains and rulers, soldiers and men of war, engines and excellent devices to subdue and bring down thy foes; thou knowest my meaning, O Mansoul.  And they are my servants, and thine, too, Mansoul.  Yea, my design of possessing of thee with them, and the natural tendency of each of them is to defend, purge, strengthen, and sweeten thee for myself, O Mansoul, and to make thee meet for my Father’s presence, blessing, and glory; for thou, my Mansoul, art created to be prepared unto these.

‘Thou seest, moreover, my Mansoul, how I have passed by thy backslidings, and have healed thee.  Indeed I was angry with thee, but I have turned mine anger away from thee, because I loved thee still, and mine anger and mine indignation is ceased in the destruction of thine enemies, O Mansoul.  Nor did thy goodness fetch me again unto thee, after that I for thy transgressions have hid my face, and withdrawn my presence from thee.  The way of backsliding was thine, but the way and means of thy recovery was mine.  I invented the means of thy return; it was I that made an hedge and a wall, when thou wast beginning to turn to things in which I delighted not.  It was I that made thy sweet bitter, thy day night, thy smooth way thorny, and that also confounded all that sought thy destruction.  It was I that set Mr. Godly-Fear to work in Mansoul.  It was I that stirred up thy conscience and understanding, thy will and thy affections, after thy great and woful decay.  It was I that put life into thee, O Mansoul, to seek me, that thou mightest find me, and in thy finding find thine own health, happiness, and salvation.  It was I that fetched the second time the Diabolonians out of Mansoul; and it was I that overcame them, and that destroyed them before thy face.

‘And now, my Mansoul, I am returned to thee in peace, and thy transgressions against me are as if they had not been.  Nor shall it be with thee as in former days, but I will do better for thee than at thy beginning.