The Holy War, Made by King Shaddai Upon Diabolus, for the Regaining of the Metropolis of the World; Or, The Losing and Taking Again of the Town of Mansoul

And thus much concerning this second army that was sent by Diabolus to overthrow Mansoul.

But there were three of those that came from the land of Doubting, who, after they had wandered and ranged the country a while, and perceived that they had escaped, were so hardy as to thrust themselves, knowing that yet there were in the town Diabolonians,—I say, they were so hardy as to thrust themselves into Mansoul among them.  (Three, did I say?  I think there were four.)  Now, to whose house should these Diabolonian doubters go, but to the house of an old Diabolonian in Mansoul, whose name was Evil-Questioning, a very great enemy he was to Mansoul, and a great doer among the Diabolonians there.  Well, to this Evil-Questioning’s house, as was said, did these Diabolonians come (you may be sure that they had directions how to find the way thither), so he made them welcome, pitied their misfortune, and succoured them with the best that he had in his house.  Now, after a little acquaintance (and it was not long before they had that), this old Evil-Questioning asked the doubters if they were all of a town (he knew that they were all of one kingdom), and they answered: ‘No, nor not of one shire neither; for I,’ said one, ‘am an election doubter:’  ‘I,’ said another, ‘am a vocation doubter:’ then said the third, ‘I am a salvation doubter:’ and the fourth said he was a grace doubter.  ‘Well,’ quoth the old gentleman, ‘be of what shire you will, I am persuaded that you are down, boys: you have the very length of my foot, are one with my heart, and shall be welcome to me.’  So they thanked him, and were glad that they had found themselves an harbour in Mansoul.

Then said Evil-Questioning to them: ‘How many of your company might there be that came with you to the siege of Mansoul?’ and they answered: ‘There were but ten thousand doubters in all, for the rest of the army consisted of fifteen thousand blood-men.  These blood-men,’ quoth they, ‘border upon our country; but, poor men! as we hear, they were every one taken by Emmanuel’s forces.’  ‘Ten thousand!’ quoth the old gentleman; ‘I will promise you, that is a round company.  But how came it to pass, since you were so mighty a number, that you fainted, and durst not fight your foes?’  ‘Our general,’ said they, ‘was the first man that did run for it.’  ‘Pray,’ quoth their landlord, ‘who was that, your cowardly general?’  ‘He was once the Lord Mayor of Mansoul,’ said they: ‘but pray call him not a cowardly general; for whether any from the east to the west has done more service for our prince Diabolus, than has my Lord Incredulity, will be a hard question for you to answer.  But had they catched him, they would for certain have hanged him; and we promise you, hanging is but a bad business.’  Then said the old gentleman, ‘I would that all the ten thousand doubters were now well armed in Mansoul, and myself at the head of them; I would see what I could do.’  ‘Ay,’ said they, ‘that would be well if we could see that; but wishes, alas! what are they?’ and these words were spoken aloud.  ‘Well,’ said old Evil-Questioning, ‘take heed that you talk not too loud; you must be quat and close, and must take care of yourselves while you are here, or, I will assure you, you will be snapped.’  ‘Why?’ quoth the doubters.  ‘Why!’ quoth the old gentleman; ‘why! because both the Prince and Lord Secretary, and their captains and soldiers, are all at present in town; yea, the town is as full of them as ever it can hold.  And besides, there is one whose name is Willbewill, a most cruel enemy of ours, and him the Prince has made keeper of the gates, and has commanded him that, with all the diligence he can, he should look for, search out, and destroy all, and all manner of Diabolonians.  And if he lighteth upon you, down you go, though your heads were made of gold.’

And now, to see how it happened, one of the Lord Willbewill’s faithful soldiers, whose name was Mr. Diligence, stood all this while listening under old Evil-Questioning’s eaves, and heard all the talk that had been betwixt him and the doubters that he entertained under his roof.

The soldier was a man that my lord had much confidence in, and that he loved dearly; and that both because he was a man of courage, and also a man that was unwearied in seeking after Diabolonians to apprehend them.

Now this man, as I told you, heard all the talk that was between old Evil-Questioning and these Diabolonians; wherefore what does he but goes to his lord, and tells him what he had heard.  ‘And sayest thou so, my trusty?’ quoth my lord.  ‘Ay,’ quoth Diligence, ‘that I do; and if your lordship will be pleased to go with me, you shall find it as I have said.’  ‘And are they there?’ quoth my lord.  ‘I know Evil-Questioning well, for he and I were great in the time of our apostasy: but I know not now where he dwells.’  ‘But I do,’ said his man, ‘and if your lordship will go, I will lead you the way to his den.’  ‘Go!’ quoth my lord, ‘that I will.  Come, my Diligence, let us go find them out.’

So my lord and his man went together the direct way to his house.  Now his man went before to show him his way, and they went till they came even under old Mr. Evil-Questioning’s wall.  Then said Diligence, ‘Hark! my lord, do you know the old gentleman’s tongue when you hear it?’  ‘Yes,’ said my lord, ‘I know it well, but I have not seen him many a day.  This I know, he is cunning; I wish he doth not give us the slip.’  ‘Let me alone for that,’ said his servant Diligence.  ‘But how shall we find the door?’ quoth my lord.  ‘Let me alone for that, too,’ said his man.  So he had my Lord Willbewill about, and showed him the way to the door.  Then my lord, without more ado, broke open the door, rushed into the house, and caught them all five together, even as Diligence his man had told him.  So my lord apprehended them, and led them away, and committed them to the hand of Mr. Trueman, the gaoler, and commanded, and he did put them in ward.  This done, my Lord Mayor was acquainted in the morning with what my Lord Willbewill had done over night, and his lordship rejoiced much at the news, not only because there were doubters apprehended, but because that old Evil-Questioning was taken; for he had been a very great trouble to Mansoul, and much affliction to my Lord Mayor himself.  He had also been sought for often, but no hand could ever be laid upon him till now.

Well, the next thing was to make preparation to try these five that by my lord had been apprehended, and that were in the hands of Mr. Trueman, the gaoler.  So the day was set, and the court called and come together, and the prisoners brought to the bar.  My Lord Willbewill had power to have slain them when at first he took them, and that without any more ado; but he thought it at this time more for the honour of the Prince, the comfort of Mansoul, and the discouragement of the enemy, to bring them forth to public judgment.

But, I say, Mr. Trueman brought them in chains to the bar; to the town-hall, for that was the place of judgment.  So, to be short, the jury was panelled, the witnesses sworn, and the prisoners tried for their lives: the jury was the same that tried Mr. No-Truth, Pitiless, Haughty, and the rest of their companions.

And, first, old Questioning himself was set to the bar for he was the receiver, the entertainer, and comforter of these doubters, that by nation were outlandish men: then he was bid to hearken to his charge, and was told that he had liberty to object, if he had ought to say for himself.  So his indictment was read: the manner and form here follows.

‘Mr. Questioning, Thou art here indicted by the name of Evil-Questioning, an intruder upon the town of Mansoul, for that thou art a Diabolonian by nature, and also a hater of the Prince Emmanuel, and one that hast studied the ruin of the town of Mansoul.  Thou art also here indicted for countenancing the King’s enemies, after wholesome laws made to the contrary: for, 1. Thou hast questioned the truth of her doctrine and state: 2. In wishing that ten thousand doubters were in her: 3. In receiving, in entertaining, and encouraging of her enemies, that came from their army unto thee.  What sayest thou to this indictment? art thou guilty or not guilty?’

‘My lord,’ quoth he, ‘I know not the meaning of this indictment, forasmuch as I am not the man concerned in it; the man that standeth by this charge accused before this bench is called by the name of Evil-Questioning, which name I deny to be mine, mine being Honest-Inquiry.  The one indeed sounds like the other; but, I trow, your lordships know that between these two there is a wide difference; for I hope that a man, even in the worst of times, and that, too, amongst the worst of men, may make an honest inquiry after things, without running the danger of death.’

Then spake my Lord Willbewill, for he was one of the witnesses: ‘My lord, and you the honourable bench and magistrates of the town of Mansoul, you all have heard with your ears that the prisoner at the bar has denied his name, and so thinks to shift from the charge of the indictment.  But I know him to be the man concerned, and that his proper name is Evil-Questioning.  I have known him, my lord, above these thirty years, for he and I (a shame it is for me to speak it) were great acquaintance, when Diabolus, that tyrant, had the government of Mansoul; and I testify that he is a Diabolonian by nature, an enemy to our Prince, and a hater of the blessed town of Mansoul.  He has, in times of rebellion, been at and lain in my house, my lord, not so little as twenty nights together, and we did use to talk then, for the substance of talk, as he and his doubters have talked of late: true, I have not seen him many a day.  I suppose that the coming of Emmanuel to Mansoul has made him change his lodgings, as this indictment has driven him to change his name; but this is the man, my lord.’

Then said the court unto him, ‘Hast thou any more to say?’

‘Yes,’ quoth the old gentleman, ‘that I have; for all that as yet has been said against me, is but by the mouth of one witness; and it is not lawful for the famous town of Mansoul, at the mouth of one witness, to put any man to death.’

Then stood forth Mr. Diligence, and said, ‘My lord, as I was upon my watch such a night at the head of Bad Street, in this town, I chanced to hear a muttering within this gentleman’s house.  Then, thought I, what is to do here?  So I went up close, but very softly, to the side of the house to listen, thinking, as indeed it fell out, that there I might light upon some Diabolonian conventicle.  So, as I said, I drew nearer and nearer; and when I was got up close to the wall, it was but a while before I perceived that there were outlandish men in the house; but I did well understand their speech, for I have been a traveller myself.  Now, hearing such language in such a tottering cottage as this old gentleman dwelt in, I clapped mine ear to a hole in the window, and there heard them talk as followeth.  This old Mr. Questioning asked these doubters what they were, whence they came, and what was their business in these parts; and they told him to all these questions, yet he did entertain them.  He also asked what numbers there were of them; and they told him ten thousand men.  He then asked them, why they made no more manly assault upon Mansoul; and they told him: so he called their general coward, for marching off when he should have fought for his prince.  Further, this old Evil-Questioning wished, and I heard him wish, would all the ten thousand doubters were now in Mansoul, and himself at the head of them.  He bid them also to take heed and lie quat; for if they were taken they must die, although they had heads of gold.’  Then said the court: ‘Mr. Evil-Questioning, here is now another witness against you, and his testimony is full: 1. He swears that you did receive these men into your house, and that you did nourish them there, though you knew that they were Diabolonians, and the King’s enemies.  2. He swears that you did wish ten thousand of them in Mansoul.  3. He swears that you did give them advice to be quat and close, lest they were taken by the King’s servants.  All which manifesteth that thou art a Diabolonian; but hadst thou been a friend to the King, thou wouldst have apprehended them.’

Then said Evil-Questioning: ‘To the first of these I answer, The men that came into mine house were strangers, and I took them in; and is it now become a crime in Mansoul for a man to entertain strangers?  That I did also nourish them is true; and why should my charity be blamed?  As for the reason why I wished ten thousand of them in Mansoul, I never told it to the witnesses, nor to themselves.  I might wish them to be taken, and so my wish might mean well to Mansoul, for aught that any yet knows.  I did also bid them take heed that they fell not into the captains’ hands; but that might be because I am unwilling that any man should be slain, and not because I would have the King’s enemies as such escape.’

My Lord Mayor then replied: ‘That though it was a virtue to entertain strangers, yet it was treason to entertain the King’s enemies.  And for what else thou hast said, thou dost by words but labour to evade and defer the execution of judgment.  But could there be no more proved against thee but that thou art a Diabolonian, thou must for that die the death by the law; but to be a receiver, a nourisher, a countenancer, and a harbourer of others of them, yea, of outlandish Diabolonians, yea, of them that came from far on purpose to cut off and destroy our Mansoul—this must not be borne.’

Then said Evil-Questioning: ‘I see how the game will go: I must die for my name, and for my charity.’  And so he held his peace.

Then they called the outlandish doubters to the bar, and the first of them that was arraigned was the election doubter.  So his indictment was read; and because he was an outlandish man, the substance of it was told him by an interpreter; namely, ‘That he was there charged with being an enemy of Emmanuel the Prince, a hater of the town of Mansoul, and an opposer of her most wholesome doctrine.’

Then the judge asked him if he would plead? but he said only this—That he confessed that he was an election doubter, and that that was the religion that he had ever been brought up in.  And said, moreover, ‘If I must die for my religion, I trow, I shall die a martyr, and so I care the less.’

Judge.  Then it was replied: ‘To question election, is to overthrow a great doctrine of the gospel, namely, the omnisciency, and power, and will of God; to take away the liberty of God with his creature, to stumble the faith of the town of Mansoul, and to make salvation to depend upon works, and not upon grace.  It also belied the word, and disquieted the minds of the men of Mansoul; therefore by the best of laws he must die.’

Then was the vocation doubter called, and set to the bar; and his indictment for substance was the same with the other, only he was particularly charged with denying the calling of Mansoul.

The judge asked him also what he had to say for himself?

So he replied: ‘That he never believed that there was any such thing as a distinct and powerful call of God to Mansoul; otherwise than by the general voice of the word, nor by that neither, otherwise than as it exhorted them to forbear evil, and to do that which is good, and in so doing a promise of happiness is annexed.’

Then said the judge: ‘Thou art a Diabolonian, and hast denied a great part of one of the most experimental truths of the Prince of the town of Mansoul; for he has called, and she has heard a most distinct and powerful call of her Emmanuel, by which she has been quickened, awakened, and possessed with heavenly grace to desire to have communion with her Prince, to serve him, and to do his will, and to look for her happiness merely of his good pleasure.  And for thine abhorrence of this good doctrine, thou must die the death.’

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.