Anything receives vice. use of them against Shaddai and his men. Fare- be running round the walls of Mansoul at midnight, Incredulity's house beat down. They of the camp did also some execution upon The roof of old the town, for they did beat down the roof of the old Lord Mayor's house, and so laid him more open than he was before. They had almost, with a sling, slain my Lord Will-be-will outright; but he made a shift to recover again. But they made a notable slaughter among the aldermen, for with one only Six aldermen shot they cut off six of them; to wit, slain. Mr. Swearing, Mr. Whoring, Mr. Fury, Mr. Stand-to-lies, Mr. Drunkenness, and Mr. Cheating. dismounted. 2 They also dismounted the two guns that stood The two great guns upon the tower over Eargate, and laid them flat in the dirt.3 I told you before, that the King's noble captains had drawn off to their winter quarters, and had there intrenched themselves and their carriages, so as with the best advantage to their King, and the greatest annoyance to the enemy, they might give seasonable and warm alarms to the town of Mansoul. And this design of them did so hit, that, I may say, they did almost what they would to the molestation of the corporation. convictions, though com For now could not Mansoul sleep securely as Continual alarms before, nor could they now go to given to Mansoul. their debaucheries with that quietness as in times past. For they had from the camp of Shaddai such frequent, warm, and terriThe effects of fying alarms; yea, alarms upon alarms, first at one gate, and then at another, mon, if abiding. and again at all the gates at once, that they were broken as to former peace. Yea, they had their alarms so frequently, and that when the nights were at longest, the weather coldest, and so consequently the season most unseasonable; that that winter was to the town of Mansoul a winter by itself. Sometimes the trumpets would sound, and sometimes the slings would whirl the The town much stones into the town. Sometimes ten thousand of the King's soldiers would molested. 1 Tradition, Human Wisdom, and Man's Invention have too often been enlisted into the service of religion, but they are in their element when engaged on the contrary side. Let Diaboles and his Captain Anything have them, and welcome; the gospel of Jesus needs no such services.—(Burder.) It is curious to note the order in which open profanity hides its ugly heads under the powerful alarms of conscience. Outward reformation gives up very gross sins, but change of heart abhors them all.-(ED.) 3 Called 'Highmind and Heady,' founded by Mr. Puffup. —(ED.) Under awful convictions of sin, Bunyan suffered alarms in the night. See Grace Abounding, No. 139.-(ED.) In these days, as I was informed, new thoughts, and thoughts that began to run counter Change of one to another, began to possess the thoughts in minds of the men of the town of Man 15 Mansoul. Conscience soul. Some would say, 'There is no living thus ;' A famine in Mansoul; the pleasures of sin fail; the prodigal would be glad of the meanest service in his father's house; the dreary winter of affliction succeeds the summer of gaiety; the messages of mercy are renewed, but. unbelief yet prevails. (ED.) Now was I both a burden and a terror to myself, weary of life, afraid to die; gladly would I have been anything but a man.' I counted the state of a dog and toad far better than mine.'-Grace Abounding, No. 104 and 149. Painful and most distressing were the feelings of Bunyan, but it was 'the bitter before the sweet, to make the sweet the sweeter.'—(ED.) conditions of agreement. the colour of an invitation to do it under. Yea, | men then told the captains that they had heard so far as I could gather, the town had been sur- and considered their summons, and They propound rendered up to them before now, had it not been would come to an agreement with for the opposition of old Incredulity, and the fickle- them, and with their King Shaddai, ness of the thoughts of my Lord Will-be-will. upon such certain terms, articles, and propositions Diabolus also began to rave, wherefore Mansoul, as, with and by the order of their Prince, they to as to yielding, was not yet all of one mind, there- them were appointed to propound to wit, they Mansoul in dis- fore, they still lay distressed under these would agree upon these grounds to be one people tress. perplexing fears.1 with them. I told you but now that they of the King's army had this winter sent three times to Mansoul, to submit herself. The contents of mons. First. The first time the trumpeter went, he went with words of peace, telling of them, the first sum-That the captains, the noble captains of Shaddai, did pity and bewail the misery of the now perishing town of Mansoul; and was troubled to see them so much to stand in the way of their own deliverance.' He said, moreover, That the captains bid him tell them, that if now poor Mansoul would humble herself, and turn, her former rebellions and most notorious treasons should, by their merciful King, be forgiven them, yea, and forgotten too.' And having bid them 'beware that they stood not in their own way, that they opposed not themselves, nor made themselves their own losers,' he returned again into the camp. Second. The second time the trumpeter went, he did treat them a little more roughly. The contents of the summons. Second For after sound of trumpet, he told them, That their continuing in their rebellion did but chafe and heat the spirit of the captains, and that they were resolved to make a conquest of Mansoul, or to lay their bones before the town walls.' first. second. 1. If that those of their own company, as the now Lord Mayor, and their Mr. For- Proposition the get-good, with their brave Lord Willbe-will, might, under Shaddai, be still the governors of the town, castle, and gates of Mansoul. 2. Provided that no man that now serveth Proposition the under their great giant Diabolus, be by Shaddai cast out of house, harbour, or the freedom that he hath hitherto enjoyed in the famous town of Mansoul. 3. That it shall be granted them, that they of the town of Mansoul Proposition the shall enjoy certain of their rights and privileges-to wit, such as have formerly been granted them; and that they have long lived in the enjoyment of, under the reign of their king Diabolus, that now is, and long has been, their only lord, and great defender. 4. That no Proposition the new law, officer, or executioner of law or office, shall have any power over them, without their own choice and consent. third. fourth. But when the captains had heard this weak and feeble offer of the town of Mansoul, and their high and bold demands, they made to them again, by their noble captain, the Captain Boanerges, this speech following: was answer. '0 ye inhabitants of the town of Mansoul, when I heard your trumpet sound for a par- Boanerges, his ley with us, I can truly say I glad; but when you said you were willing to submit yourselves to our King and Lord, then I was yet more glad. But when by your silly provisoes, and foolish cavils, you lay the stumbling-block of your iniquity before your own faces, then was my gladness turned into sorrows, and my hopeful beginnings of your return into languishing, fainting fears. I count that old Illpause, the ancient enemy of Mansoul, did draw up those proposals that now you present us with as terms of an agreement, but they deserve not to be admitted to sound in the ear of any man that pretends to have service for Shaddai. We do, therefore, jointly, and that 3 Sinners, when alarmed by the fears of hell, are willing to become religious externally, provided they may retain their lordly lusts: they are ready to assume the form of godliness, but dislike its power.-(Burder.) with the highest disdain, refuse and reject such | Captains of Shaddai, and thus and thus said I. things as the greatest of iniquities.1 2 Ti. ii. 19. 'But, O Mansoul! If you will give yourselves into our hands, or rather into the hands of our King; and will trust him to make such terms with, and for you, as shall seem good in his eyes-and I dare say they shall be such as you shall find to be most profitable to you—then we will receive you, and be at peace with you. But if you like not to trust yourselves in the arms of Shaddai our King, then things are but where they were before, and we know also what we have to do.' Unbelief never talk, but al Then cried out old Incredulity, the Lord Mayor, Old Incredu- and said, ' And who, being out of the lity's reply. hands of their enemies, as you see we are now, will be so foolish as to put the staff out of their own hands, into the hand of they know not who? I, for my part, will never yield to so unlimited a proposition. Do we know the manner and temper of their King? It is said by some, that he will be angry with his subjects if but the breadth of a hair they chance to step out of is profitable in the way; and of others, that he reways speaks quireth of them much more than they mischievously. can perform. Wherefore it seems, O Mansoul, to be thy wisdom, to take good heed what thou dost in this matter; for if you once yield, you give up yourselves to another, and so you are no more your own! Wherefore to give up yourselves to an unlimited power, is the greatest folly in the world. For now you indeed may repent; but can never justly complain. But do you indeed know, when you are his, which of you he will kill, and which of you he will save alive; or whether he will not cut off every one of us, and send out of his own country, another new people, and cause them to inhabit this town?"2 In the uproar which soon after followed, upon Lord Understanding's speech, we find a plain declaration of the third of these terms of peace; it was, that Mansoul should still live in all lewdness and vanity. This occasioned Boanerges, with the highest disdain, to give his decided refusal, referring to 2 Ti. ii. 19.-(Ed.) The which when it was told to Diabolus, he was very glad to hear it, and said, 'My Lord Mayor, my faithful Incredulity, I have proved thy fidelity above ten times already, but never yet found thee false. I do promise thee, if we rub over this brunt, to prefer thee to a place of honour, a place far better than to be Lord Mayor of Mansoul. I will make thee my Universal Deputy, and thou shalt, next to me, have all nations under thy hand; yea, and thou shalt lay bands upon them that they may not resist thee, nor shall any of our vassals walk more at liberty, but those that shall be content to walk in thy fetters.' Now came the Lord Mayor out from Diabolus, as if he had obtained a favour indeed; wherefore to his habitation he goes in great state, and thinks to feed himself well enough with hopes, until the time came that his greatness should be enlarged. The under standing and conscience begin to receive conviction; and soul they set the in a hubbub. But now, though the Lord Mayor and Diabolus did thus well agree, yet this repulse to the brave captains put Mansoul into a mutiny. For while old Incredulity went into the castle to congratulate his lord with what had passed, the old Lord Mayor that was so before Diabolus came to the town, to wit, my Lord Understanding, and the old Recorder Mr. Conscience, getting intelligence of what had passed at Eargate, for you must know that they might not be suffered to be at that debate, lest they should then have mutinied for the captains. But, I say, they got intelligence what had passed there, and were much concerned therewith, wherefore, they, getting some of the town together, began to possess them with the reasonableness of the noble captains' demands, and with the bad consequences that would follow upon the speech of old Incredulity, the Lord Mayor to wit, how little reverence he showed therein, either to the captains, or to their King; also, how he implicitly charged them with unfaithfulness, and treachery: for what less, quoth he, could be made of his words, when he said he would not yield to their proposition, and added, moreover, a supposition that he would destroy us when before he had sent us word that he would show us mercy.* The multitude being now possessed with the conviction of the evil that old Incredulity had done, began to run together by companies in A mutiny in all places, and in every corner of the Mansoul. 3A low congé,' a low flattering servile salutation or bow; thus, in the Pilgrim's Progress, when Byeends meets Holdthe-world and Moneylove, he made them a very low congé, and they also gave him a compliment.'—(ED.) + Unbelief slanders the gospel, as though it proclaimed nothing but wrath, whereas, while it denounces destruction to the obUnbelief ever suggests hard thoughts of God, and repre-stinately rebellious, it proclaims free, sovereign, boundless sents his service as an intolerable burden. This is hateful to mercy and everlasting love, through Jesus Christ, to sensible God, but pleaseth the devil.-(Burder.) returning sinners.—(slason.) streets of Mansoul; and first they began to mutter, | by your unlawful actions you have this day set to mutiny against us.' then to talk openly, and after that they run to and fro, and cried as they run, O the brave captains of Shaddai! Would we were under the government of the captains, and of Shaddai their King." When the Lord Mayor had intelligence that Mansoul was in an uproar, down he comes to appease the people, and thought to have quashed their heat with the bigness and the show of his countenance. But when they saw him, they came running upon him, and had doubtless done him a mischief, had he not betaken himself to house. However, they strongly assaulted the house where he was, to have pulled it down about his ears; but the place was too strong, so they failed of that. So he taking some courage addressed himself, out at a window, to the people in this manner: CONS. Then replied the old Recorder, whose name was Mr. Conscience, and said, 'Sir, you ought not thus to retort upon what my Lord Understanding hath said. It is evident enough that he hath spoken the truth, and that you are an enemy to Mansoul; be convinced, then, of the evil of your saucy and malapert language, and of the grief that you have put the captains to; yea, and of the damages that you have done to Mansoul thereby. Had you accepted of the conditions, the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war had now ceased about the town of Mansoul; but that dreadful sound abides, and your want of wisdom in your speech has been the cause of it.' INCRED. Then said old Incredulity: Sir, If I 'Gentlemen, what is the reason that there is live I will do your errand to Diabolus, and there here such an uproar to day?' you shall have an answer to your words. Meanwhile we will seek the good of the town, and not ask council of you.' ple. My Lord answers him. UND. Then answered my Lord Understanding: 'It is even because that thou and thy Incredulity seeks to quiet the peo- master have carried it not rightly, and Understanding as you should, to the captains of Shaddai; for in three things you are faulty:-First, In that you would not let Mr. Conscience and myself be at the hearing of your discourse. Secondly, In that you propounded such terms of peace, to the captains, that by no means could be granted, unless they had intended that their Shaddai should have been only a titular prince, and that Mansoul should still have had power by law, to have lived in all lewdness and vanity before him, and so by consequence Diabolus should still here be king in power, and the other only King in name. Thirdly, For that thou didst thyself, after the captains had showed us upon what conditions they would have received us to mercy, even undo all again with thy unsavoury, and unscasonable, and ungodly speech.' UND. Sir, your prince and you are both foreigners to Mansoul, and not the natives thereof. And who can tell but that when you have brought us into greater straits, when you also shall see that yourselves can be safe by no other means than by flight, you may leave us and shift for yourselves, or set us on fire, and go away in the smoke, or by the light of our burning, and so leave us in our ruins.' INCRED. Sir, you forget that you are under a governor, and that you ought to demean yourself like a subject, and know ye, when my Lord the King shall hear of this day's work, he will give you but little thanks for your labour.' Men of arms come down. Now while these gentlemen were thus in their chiding words, down come, from the walls and gates of the town, the Lord Will-bewill, Mr. Prejudice, Old Illpause, and several of the new-made aldermen and burgesses, and they asked the reason of the hubbub and tumult. And with that every man began to tell his own tale, so that nothing could be heard distinctly. Then was a silence commanded, and the old fox Incredulity began to speak. 'My Lord,' quoth he, here are a couple of peevish gentlemen, that have, as a fruit of their bad dispositions, and, as I fear, through the advice of one Mr. Discontent, tumultuously gathered this company against me this day; and also attempted to run the town into acts of rebellion against our prince.' 3 This is the true language of antichrist to this day; when governors or laws infringe upon the rights of conscience in matters of the soul's health, and salvation; it is the Christian's duty to resist such wicked statutes. The answer is, 'It is the law, and whether right or wrong, if it even lead your souls to perdition, you must obey; "demean yourself like a subject." -(ED.) 36 1 Now when they that took part with my Lord Understanding, and with Mr. Conscience, perceived that they were like to come to the worst, for that force and power was on the other side, they came in for their help and relief. So a great company was on both sides. Then they on Incredulity's side would have had the two old gentlemen presently away to prison; but they on the other side said they should not. Then they began to cry up parties again; the Diabolonians cried up old Incredulity, Forget-good, the new aldermen, and their great one Diabolus; and the other party, they as fast cried up Shaddai, the captains, his laws, their mercifulness, and applauded their conditions and ways. Thus the bickerment went a They fall from while, at last they passed from words words to blows. to blows, and now there were knocks on both sides. The good old gentleman, Mr. Conscience, was knocked down twice by one of the Diabolonians, whose name was Mr. Benumming. And my Lord Understanding had like to have been slain with a harquebus, but that he that shot wanted to take his aim aright. Nor did the other side wholly escape, for there was one Mr. Rashhead, a Diabolonian, that had his brains beaten out by Mr. Mind, the Lord Will-be-will's servant; and it made me laugh to see how old Mr. Prejudice was kicked and tumbled about in the dirt. For though a while since he was made captain of a company of the Diabolonians, to the hurt and damage of the town; yet now they had got him under their feet; and I will assure you he had by some of the Lord Understanding's party his crown soundly cracked to boot. Mr. Anything also, he became a brisk man in the broil, but both sides were against him, because he was true to none. Yet he had for his malapertness one of his legs broken, and he that did it wished it had been his neck. Much harm Harm done on more was done on both sides, but this both sides. must not be forgotten, it was now a wonder to see my Lord Will-be-will so indifferent as he was; he did not seem to take one side more than another, only it was perceived that he smiled to see how old Prejudice was tumbled up and down in the dirt. Also when Captain Anything came halting up before him, he seemed to take but little notice of him.2 A hot skirmish. 1 See this solemn inward struggle faithfully narrated in Grace Abounding, No. 86. No small advantage is gained when sinful rashness is destroyed, prejudice thrown down into the dirt, and indifference about religion is discarded; while the will, that before was wholly on the part of Satan, begins rather to take the other side.-(Burder.) 3 The efforts of an enlightened understanding and a renewed | [CHAPTER VI.] [CONTENTS:-Lord Understanding and Mr. Conscience imprisoned as authors of the disturbance-A conference of the besieging officers, who agree to petition Shaddai for further assistance The petition approved at court-Emmanuel, the King's son, is appointed to conquer the townMarches with a great army and surrounds Mansoul, which is strongly fortified against him.] The two old gentlemen put in prison, as the authors of this revel rout. But Now when the uproar was over, Diabolus sends for my Lord Understanding, and Mr. Conscience, and claps them both up in prison, as the ring-leaders and managers of this most heavy riotous rout in Mansoul. So now the town began to be quiet again, and the prisoners were used hardly; yea, he thought to have made them away, but that the present juncture did not serve for that purpose, for that war was in all their gates. let us return again to our story. The captains, when they were gone back from the gate, and were come into the camp again, called The captains a council of war, to consult what was further for them to do. Now some said, Let us go up presently and fall upon the town, but the greatest part thought rather better it would be to give them another summons to yield; and the reason why they thought this to be best was, because, that so far as could be perceived, the town of Mansoul now was more inclinable than heretofore. And if, said they, while some of them are in a way of inclination, we should by ruggedness give them distaste, we may set them further from closing with our summons, than we would be willing they should.* call a council and consult what to do. The result is, other trumpeter to summon the town to yield. Wherefore to this advice they agreed, and called a trumpeter, put words into his mouth, set him his time, and bid him God they send anspeed. Well, many hours were not expired before the trumpeter addressed himself to his journey. Wherefore, coming up to the wall of the town, he steereth his course to Eargate, and there sounded, as he was commanded. They, then, that were within came out to see what was the matter, and the trumpeter made them this speech following: ‘O hard-hearted, and deplorable town of Mansoul, how long wilt thou love thy sin- The summons ful, sinful simplicity, and ye fools itself. delight in your scorning? As yet despise you the offers of peace, and deliverance? As yet will ye conscience are offensive to Satan, as threatening to subvert his authority in the soul, and he would kill them if he could, but where the good work of grace is begun, they cannot be destroyed.—(Burder.) 4 Ministers should deal gently with awakened sinners. Their great Master will not break the bruised reed,' nor should they. Roughness discourages-gentleness attracts.— (Burder.) |