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 MansoulBunyan, John
ReligionChristian
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
Bunyan, John
Christian fiction; Soul; Spiritual warfare -- Fiction
The captains therefore being fled into the castle, the enemy, without
much resistance, possess themselves of the rest of the town, and
spreading themselves as they went into every corner, they cried out as
they marched, according to the command of the tyrant, ‘Hell-fire!
Hell-fire! Hell-fire!’ so that nothing for a while throughout the town of
Mansoul could be heard but the direful noise of ‘Hell-fire!’ together
with the roaring of Diabolus’s drum. And now did the clouds hang black
over Mansoul, nor to reason did anything but ruin seem to attend it.
Diabolus also quartered his soldiers in the houses of the inhabitants of
the town of Mansoul. Yea, the subordinate preacher’s house was as full
of these outlandish doubters as ever it could hold, and so was my Lord
Mayor’s, and my Lord Willbewill’s also. Yea, where was there a corner, a
cottage, a barn, or a hogstye, that now was not full of these vermin?
Yea, they turned the men of the town out of their houses, and would lie
in their beds, and sit at their tables themselves. Ah, poor Mansoul! now
thou feelest the fruits of sin, yea, what venom was in the flattering
words of Mr. Carnal-Security! They made great havoc of whatever they
laid their hands on; yea, they fired the town in several places; many
young children also were by them dashed in pieces; and those that were
yet unborn they destroyed in their mothers’ wombs: for you must needs
think that it could not now be otherwise; for what conscience, what pity,
what bowels of compassion can any expect at the hands of outlandish
doubters? Many in Mansoul that were women, both young and old, they
forced, ravished, and beastlike abused, so that they swooned, miscarried,
and many of them died, and so lay at the top of every street, and in all
by-places of the town.
And now did Mansoul seem to be nothing but a den of dragons, an emblem of
hell, and a place of total darkness. Now did Mansoul lie almost like the
barren wilderness; nothing but nettles, briars, thorns, weeds, and
stinking things seemed now to cover the face of Mansoul. I told you
before, how that these Diabolonian doubters turned the men of Mansoul out
of their beds, and now I will add, they wounded them, they mauled them,
yea, and almost brained many of them. Many did I say, yea most, if not
all of them. Mr. Conscience they so wounded, yea, and his wounds so
festered, that he could have no ease day nor night, but lay as if
continually upon a rack; but that Shaddai rules all, certainly they had
slain him outright. Mr. Lord Mayor they so abused that they almost put
out his eyes; and had not my Lord Willbewill got into the castle, they
intended to have chopped him all to pieces; for they did look upon him,
as his heart now stood, to be one of the very worst that was in Mansoul
against Diabolus and his crew. And indeed he hath shown himself a man,
and more of his exploits you will hear of afterwards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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