Transcribed from the 1907 Religious Tract Society edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org THE HOLY WAR MADE BY SHADDI UPON DIABOLUS FOR THE REGAINING OF THE METROPOLIS OF THE WORLD OR THE LOSING AND TAKING AGAIN OF THE TOWN OF MANSOUL. BY JOHN BUNYAN * * * * * WITH THREE COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS BY VICTOR PROUT {0} * * * * * “I have used similitudes.” Hosea xii. 10 * * * * * [Picture: Decorative design] London THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 4 Bouverie Street and 65 St Paul’s Churchyard 1907 * * * * * PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD. LONDON AND AYLESBURY. PREFACE. _IN the year 1682 there was published by Dorman Newman_, ‘_at the King’s Arms in the Poultry_,’_ and Benjamin Alsop_, ‘_at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry_,’_ a volume entitled_ ‘_The Holy War_, _made by Shaddai upon Diabolus for the regaining of the Metropolis of the World; or the Losing and Taking again of the Town of Mansoul_.’_ It was the work of John Bunyan_, _who_, _sixteen years before_, _had published the story of his own spiritual struggle under the title of_ ‘_Grace abounding to the Chief of Sinners_’;_ and_, _but four years before_, _had produced_ ‘_The Pilgrim’s Progress_’ (_Part I_). _Bunyan had speedily followed the issue of the_ ‘_Pilgrim’s Progress_’ _with the_ ‘_Life and Death of Mr. Badman_,’_ picture of English life and character as he had seen it_, _grimly faithful to fact_. _In_ ‘_The Holy War_’_ Bunyan returned to allegory_. _As a piece of literature the book is in no way inferior to the_ ‘_Pilgrim’s Progress_.’_ If Bunyan had written nothing else_, ‘_The Holy War_’ _would have sufficed to establish his claim to a place amongst the masters of English prose_. _As an appeal to the conscience it is not a whit less effective than the_ ‘_Pilgrim’s Progress_’; _but in the power of seizing and retaining the reader’s attention it is scarcely so successful_. _Nevertheless Macaulay held that_ ‘_if there had been no_ “_Pilgrim’s Progress_” “_The Holy War_” _would have been the first of religious allegories_.’