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
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.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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