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
Then the Recorder stood up upon his feet, and, first beckoning with his
hand for silence, he read out with a loud voice the pardon. But when he
came to these words: ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
pardoning iniquity, transgressions, and sins, and to them all manner of
sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven,’ etc., they could not forbear
leaping for joy. For this you must know, that there was conjoined
herewith every man’s name in Mansoul; also the seals of the pardon made a
brave show.
When the Recorder had made an end of reading the pardon, the townsmen ran
up upon the walls of the town, and leaped and skipped thereon for joy,
and bowed themselves seven times with their faces toward Emmanuel’s
pavilion, and shouted out aloud for joy, and said, ‘Let Emmanuel live for
ever!’ Then order was given to the young men in Mansoul that they should
ring the bells for joy. So the bells did ring, and the people sing, and
the music go in every house in Mansoul.
When the Prince had sent home the three prisoners of Mansoul with joy,
and pipe and tabor, he commanded his captains, with all the field
officers and soldiers throughout his army, to be ready in that morning,
that the Recorder should read the pardon in Mansoul, to do his further
pleasure. So the morning, as I have showed, being come, just as the
Recorder had made an end of reading the pardon, Emmanuel commanded that
all the trumpets in the camp should sound, that the colours should be
displayed, half of them upon Mount Gracious, and half of them upon Mount
Justice. He commanded also that all the captains should show themselves
in all their harness, and that the soldiers should shout for joy. Nor
was Captain Credence, though in the castle, silent in such a day; but he,
from the top of the hold, showed himself with sound of trumpet to Mansoul
and to the Prince’s camp.
Thus have I showed you the manner and way that Emmanuel took to recover
the town of Mansoul from under the hand and power of the tyrant Diabolus.
Now, when the Prince had completed these, the outward ceremonies of his
joy, he again commanded that his captains and soldiers should show unto
Mansoul some feats of war: so they presently addressed themselves to this
work. But oh! with what agility, nimbleness, dexterity, and bravery did
these military men discover their skill in feats of war to the now gazing
town of Mansoul!
They marched, they counter-marched; they opened to the right and left;
they divided and subdivided; they closed, they wheeled, made good their
front and rear with their right and left wings, and twenty things more,
with that aptness, and then were all as the were again, that they
took—yea, ravished, the hearts that were in Mansoul to behold it. But
add to this, the handling of their arms, the managing of their weapons of
war, were marvellously taking to Mansoul and me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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