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,’ thought they, ‘what time so fit to do this in as now, when he has
the bridle of Mansoul in his hand?’ And this I took special notice of,
that the inhabitants, notwithstanding all this, could not—no, they could
not, when they see him march through the town, but cringe, bow, bend, and
were ready to lick the dust of his feet. They also wished a thousand
times over that he would become their Prince and Captain, and would
become their protection. They would also one to another talk of the
comeliness of his person, and how much for glory and valour he
outstripped the great ones of the world. But, poor hearts, as to
themselves, their thoughts would chance, and go upon all manner of
extremes. Yea, through the working of them backward and forward, Mansoul
became as a ball tossed, and as a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
Now, when he was come to the castle gates, he commanded Diabolus to
appear, and to surrender himself into his hands. But, oh! how loath was
the beast to appear! how he stuck at it! how he shrank! how he cringed!
yet out he came to the Prince. Then Emmanuel commanded, and they took
Diabolus and bound him fast in chains, the better to reserve him to the
judgment that he had appointed for him. But Diabolus stood up to entreat
for himself that Emmanuel would not send him into the deep, but suffer
him to depart out of Mansoul in peace.
When Emmanuel had taken him and bound him in chains, he led him into the
marketplace, and there, before Mansoul, stripped him of his armour in
which he boasted so much before. This now was one of the acts of triumph
of Emmanuel over his enemy; and all the while that the giant was
stripping, the trumpets of the golden Prince did sound amain; the
captains also shouted, and the soldiers did sing for joy.
Then was Mansoul called upon to behold the beginning of Emmanuel’s
triumph over him in whom they so much had trusted, and of whom they so
much had boasted in the days when he flattered them.
Thus having made Diabolus naked in the eyes of Mansoul, and before the
commanders of the Prince, in the next place, he commands that Diabolus
should be bound with chains to his chariot wheels. Then leaving some of
his forces, to wit, Captain Boanerges and Captain Conviction, as a guard
for the castle-gates, that resistance might be made on his behalf, (if
any that heretofore followed Diabolus should make an attempt to possess
it,) he did ride in triumph over him quite through the town of Mansoul,
and so out at and before the gate called Eye-gate, to the plain where his
camp did lie.
But you cannot think, unless you had been there, as I was, what a shout
there was in Emmanuel’s camp when they saw the tyrant bound by the hand
of their noble Prince, and tied to his chariot wheels!
And they said, ‘He hath led captivity captive, he hath spoiled
principalities and powers. Diabolus is subjected to the power of his
sword, and made the object of all derision.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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