receiver, a nourisher, a countenancer, and a har- | do that which is good, and in so doing, a promise bourer of others of them, yea, of outlandish Dia- of happiness is annexed. bolonians; yea, of them that came from far, on purpose to cut off and destroy our Mansoul; this must not be borne. 2 Then the judge asked him if he would plead? But he said only this, That he conHis plea. fessed that he was an Electiondoubter, and that that was the religion that he had ever been brought up in. And said, moreover, If I must die for my religion, I trow, I shall die a martyr, and so I care the less. Judge. Then it was replied, To question election, is to overthrow a great doctrine of the gospel; to wit, the omniscience, and power, and will of God; to take away the liberty of God with his creature; to stumble the faith of the town of Mansoul; and to make salvation to depend upon works, and not upon grace. It also belied the word, and disquieted the minds of the men of Mansoul; therefore, by the best of laws he must die.3 The Court. The Vocationdoubter tried. Then was the Vocation-doubter called, and set to the bar; and his indictment for substance was the same with the other, only he was particularly charged with denying the calling of Mansoul. The judge asked him also what he had to say for himself? So he replied that he never believed that there was any such thing as a distinct and powerful call of God to Mansoul; otherwise than by the general voice of the Word; nor by that neither, otherwise than as it exhorted them to forbear evil, and to 1 Though ignorant persons cavil and object, we are bold to affirm, that election by free grace is consonant to the whole tenor of Scripture; a comfortable doctrine, exciting to obedience. 'We love him, because he first loved us.' 1 Jn. iv. 19. -(Mason.) 2A martyr' is a witness, generally applied among Christians to those who seal with their blood a testimony of love to Christ, and are put to death for their attachment to the gospel; not like the Jesuits under Elizabeth, they came to poison or destroy her, and to overturn the Government, and were put to death as traitors. But if any Christian was put to death for doubting the doctrine of election, he would be entitled to the crown of martyrdom.-(ED.) Then said the Judge, Thou art a Diabolonian ; and hast denied a great part of one of the most experimental truths of the Prince of the town of Mansoul; for he has called, and she has heard a most distinct and powerful call of her Emmanuel, by which she has been quickened, awakened, and possessed with heavenly grace to desire to have communion with her Prince, to serve him, and do his will, and to look for her happiness merely of his good pleasure. And for thine abhorrence of this good doctrine, thou must die the death. er tried. Then the Grace-doubter was called, and his indictment was read; and he replied The Grace-doubtthereto, That though he was of the land of Doubting, his father was the offspring of a Pharisee, and lived in good fashion among his neighbours, and that he taught him to believe, and believe it I do, and will, that Mansoul shall never be saved freely by grace. Then said the Judge, Why, the law of the Prince is plain: 1. Negatively, Not of works. 2. Positively, By grace you are saved. Ro. iii. Ep. ii. And thy religion settleth in and upon the works of the flesh; for the works of the law are the works of the flesh. Besides, in saying as thou hast done, thou hast robbed God of his glory, and given it to a sinful man; thou hast robbed Christ of the necessity of his undertaking, and the sufficiency thereof, and hast given both these to the works of the flesh. Thou hast despised the work of the Holy Ghost, and hast magnified the will of the flesh, and of the legal mind. Thou art a Diabolonian, the son of a Diabolonian; and for thy Diabolonian principles thou must die. The court then having proceeded thus far with them, sent out the jury, who forthwith brought them in guilty of death. Then stood up the Recorder, and addressed himself to the prisoners: You, the prisoners at the bar, you Their sentence have been here indicted, and proved guilty of high crimes against Emmanuel our Prince, and against the welfare of the famous town of Mansoul; crimes for which you must be put to death; and die ye accordingly." to die. Those who deny election deny, though perhaps unwittingly, the omniscience and sovereignty of God; and unavoidably as sert, sometimes without perceiving it, that salvation is not of grace but of works.-(Burder.) 4 The great mass of mankind in Christendom, because they were baptized in infancy, call themselves Christians, and find shelter under these pleas from the necessity of personal prayerful investigation. They never knew the pangs of the new birth, nor the cry, What must I do to be saved?' or, ‘Lord, save, I perish !' It is a most extensive and most fatal error, in which myriads of souls have met their doom.-(ED.) 5 Thus we are to lay aside every weight, and every besetting sin, He. xii. 12-whatsoever does not tend to promote The places of their death assigned. So they were sentenced to the death of the cross; | Now there was an honest poor man in Mansoul, The place assigned them for execution and his name was Mr. Meditation, one of no great was that where Diabolus drew up his account in the days of apostacy, but now of repute last army against Mansoul; save only with the best of the town. This man therefore that old Evil-questioning was hanged at the top of they were willing to prefer; now Mr. Let-good-slip Bad-street, just over against his own door.1 had a great deal of wealth heretofore in Mansoul, and at Emmanuel's coming it was sequestered to the use of the Prince, this therefore was now given to Mr. Meditation, to improve for the common good, and after him to his son Mr. Thinkwell; this Thinkwell he had by Mrs. Piety his wife, and she was the daughter of Mr. Recorder.2 [CHAPTER XVIII.] [CONTENTS:-More Diabolonians tried and condemned-The Work concludes with an admirable speech of Emmanuel, reciting his gracious acts, and informing his people of his intention to rebuild the town with the greatest splendour, and recommending a suitable conduct in the meantime.] A new warrant granted out a dren of Evilquestioning, with others. When the town of Mansoul had thus far rid themselves of their enemies, and of the troublers of their peace; in the next place, a strict commandment was given out, that yet my Lord Willbe-will should, with Diligence, his man, search for, and do his best to apprehend what town-Diabolonians were yet left alive in Mansoul. The names of several of them were- -Mr. Fooling, Mr. Let-goodslip, Mr. Slavishfear, Mr. Nolove, Mr. Mistrust, Mr. Flesh, and Mr. Sloth. It was also commanded that he should apprehend Mr. Evilquestioning's children that he left begainst the chil hind him, and that they should demolish his house. The children that he left behind were these-Mr. Doubt, and he was his eldest son; the next to him was Legal-life, Unbelief, Wrong-thoughts-of-Christ, Clip-promise, Carnal-sense, Live-by-feeling, Selflove. All these he had by one wife, and her name was Nohope. She was the kinswoman of old Incredulity; for he was her uncle, and, when her father, old Dark, was dead, he took her, and brought her up; and, when she was marriageable, he gave her to this old-Evil-questioning to wife. Now, the Lord Will-be-will did put into execution his commission, with great Dilihis warrant in- gence, his man. He took Fooling in to execution. the streets, and hanged him up in Want-wit-alley, over against his own house. This Fooling was he that would have had Fooling taken. the town of Mansoul deliver up Captain Credence into the hands of Diabolus, provided that then he would have withdrawn his force out Will-be-will puts Let-good-slip of the town. He also took Mr. Lettaken. good-slip one day as he was busy in the market, and executed him according to law. the glory of God, and our progress in the Divine life of faith. -(Mason.) The reader must keep in mind that the sentence and execution is not against the persons who held these errors, but allegorically the errors themselves must be eradicated or destroyed from the soul of the believer.—(ED.) 2 Great is the advantage of meditation; a practice, alas! in which Christians in general are too backward. Much is lost by letting the Word slip, which ought to be laid up and VOL. III. taken. After this my Lord apprehended Clip-promise, now because he was a notorious villain, Clip-promise for by his doings much of the King's coin was abused, therefore he was made a public example. He was arraigned and judged to be first set in the pillory, then to be whipt by all the children and servants in Mansoul, and then to be hanged till he was dead. Some may wonder at the severity of this man's punishment, but those that are honest traders in Mansoul, are sensible of the great abuse that one clipper of promises in little time may do to the town of Mansoul. truly my judgment is, that all those of his name and life should be served even as he.3 And Carnal sense taken. He also apprehended Carnal-sense, and put him in hold, but how it came about I cannot tell, but he brake prison and made his escape. Yea, and the bold villain will not yet quit the town, but lurks in the Diabolonian dens a days, and haunts like a ghost honest men's houses a nights. Wherefore there was a proclamation set up in the market-place in Mansoul, signifying that whosoever should discover Carnal-sense, and apprehend him and slay him, should be admitted daily to the Prince's table, and should be made keeper of the treasure of Mansoul. Many therefore did bend themselves to do this thing, but take him and slay him they could not, though often he was discovered.* But my Lord took Mr. Wrong-thoughts-ofChrist, and put him in prison, and Wrong-thoughtshe died there, though it was long of Christ taken. first, for he died of a lingering consumption. winked at in Mansoul, I will lay down my com- Lord. Then my Lord Self-denial took courage, and set to pursuing of the Diabolonians with my Lord Live-by-feeling Will-be-will; and they took Live-bytaken. feeling, and they took Legal-life, and put them in hold till they died. But Mr. Unbelief was a nimble jack, him they could never lay hold of, though they attempted to do it often. He therefore, and some few more of the subtilest of the Diabolonian tribe, did yet remain in Mansoul, to the time that Mansoul left off to dwell any longer in the kingdom of Universe. But they kept them to their dens and holes; if one of them did appear or happen to be seen in any of the streets of the town of Mansoul, the whole town would be up in arms after them, yea the very children in Mansoul would cry out after them as after a thief, and would wish that they might stone them to death with stones. And now did Mansoul The peace of arrive to some good degree of peace Mansoul, she minds her and quiet, her Prince also did abide trade. within her borders, her Captains also, and her soldiers did their duties, and Mansoul minded her trade that she had with the country that was afar off; also she was busy in her manufacture. Is. xxxiii. 17. Phi. iii. 20. Pr. xxxi. 2 chariot, and all his captains in their state attending of him on the right hand, and on the left. Then was an O yes made for silence, and after some mutual carriages of love, the Prince began, and thus proceeded— Emmanuel's Mansoul. You my Mansoul, and the beloved of mine heart, many and great are the privileges that I have bestowed upon you; I have speech to singled you out from others, and have chosen you to myself, not for your worthiness, but for mine own sake. I have also redeemed you, not only from the dread of my Father's law, but from the hand of Diabolus. This I have done because I loved you, and because I have set my heart upon you to do you good. I have also, that all things that might hinder thy way to the pleasures of paradise might be taken out of the way, laid down for thee, for thy soul, a plenary satisfaction, and have bought thee to myself; a price not of corruptible things as of silver and gold, but a price of blood, mine own blood, which I have freely spilt upon the ground to make thee mine. So I have reconciled thee, O my Mansoul, to my Father, and intrusted thee in the mansion-houses that are with my Father in the royal city where things are, O my Mansoul, that eye hath not seen, nor hath entered into the heart of man to conceive. 3 Besides, O my Mansoul, thou seest what I have done, and how I have taken thee out of the hands of thine enemies; unto whom thou hast deeply revolted from my Father, and by whom thou wast content to be possessed, and also to be destroyed. I came to thee first by my law, then by my gospel to awaken thee, and show thee my glory. And thou knowest what thou wast, what thou saidst, what thou didst, and how many times thou rebelledst against my Father and me; yet I left thee When the town of Mansoul had thus far rid not; as thou seest this day, but came to thee, have themselves of so many of their enemies, and the borne thy manners, have waited upon thee and after troublers of their peace; the Prince sent to them, all accepted of thee, even of my mere grace and and appointed a day wherein he would at the favour; and would not suffer thee to be lost, as market-place meet the whole people, and there thou most willingly wouldst have been. I also give them in charge concerning some further mat-compassed thee about, and afflicted thee on every ters, that if observed would tend to their further safety and comfort, and to the condemnation and destruction of their home-bred Diabolonians. So the day appointed was come, and the townsmen met together; Emmanuel also came down in his pilgrimage! Even the apostle complained of this foe-'I am carual.' The grave is the only secure prison in which he can be for ever shut up. He will never break prison from thence. -(ED.) i Self-love and self-denial can no more live together in the soul, than can the service of God and mammon. Reader, if a thought of self-love interferes with love to Christ, drag it to self-denial, and it will be brained without the formality of a trial, and God will approve the execution.-(ED.) 2 Self-denial must be opposed to self-love. If, through the Spirit, we mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live' and shall also happily experience that to be spiritually-minded is side, that I might make thee weary of thy ways, and bring down thy heart with molestation to a willingness to close with thy good and happiness. And when I had gotten a complete conquest over thee, I turned it to thy advantage.* life and peace.' But, after all, that villain Unbelief, the worst Across my peaceful breast.'-(Watts.) 4 Thus completely is boasting excluded. By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.' Ep. ii. 8.-(Ed.) Thou seest also what a company of my Father's | placed.1 I will even there set it up for my Father's host I have lodged within thy borders, captains habitation, for, for that purpose it was at first and rulers, soldiers and men of war, engines and erected in the kingdom of universe; and there will excellent devices to subdue and bring down thy I make it a spectacle of wonder, a monument of foes; thou knowest my meaning, O Mansoul. And mercy, and the admirer of its own mercy. There they are my servants, and thine too, Mansoul. shall the natives of Mansoul see all that of which Yea, my design of possessing of thee with them, they have seen nothing here; there shall they be and the natural tendency of each of them is to equal to those unto whom they have been inferior defend, purge, strengthen, and sweeten thee for here. And there shall thou, O my Mansoul, have myself, O Mansoul, and to make thee meet for my such communion with me, with my Father, and Father's presence, blessing, and glory; for thou, with your Lord Secretary, as is not possible here my Mansoul, art created to be prepared unto these. to be enjoyed, nor ever could be, shouldest thou Thou seest moreover, my Mansoul, how I have live in universe the space of a thousand years.2 passed by thy backslidings, and have healed thee. Indeed I was angry with thee, but I have turned mine anger away from thee, because I loved thee still, and mine anger and mine indignation is ceased in the destruction of thine enemies, O Mansoul. Nor did thy goodness fetch me again unto thee, after that I for thy transgressions have hid my face, and withdrawn my presence from thee. The way of backsliding was thine, but the way and means of thy recovery was mine. I invented the means of thy return; it was I that made an hedge and a wall, when thou wast beginning to turn to things in which I delighted not. It was I that made thy sweet, bitter; thy day, night; thy smooth ways thorny; and that also confounded all that sought thy destruction. It was I that set Mr. Godly-fear to work in Mansoul. It was I that stirred up thy conscience and understanding, thy will and thy affections, after thy great and woful decay. It was I that put life into thee, O Mansoul, to seek me, that thou mightest find me, and in thy finding, find thine own health, happiness, and salvation. It was I that fetched the second time the Diabolonians out of Mansoul; and it was I that overcame them, and that destroyed them before thy face. And now, my Mansoul, I am returned to thee in peace, and thy transgressions against me, are as if they had not been. Nor shall it be with thee as in former days, but I will do better for thee than at thy beginning. For yet a little while, O my Mansoul, even after a few more times are gone over thy head, I will, but be not thou troubled at what I say, I will take down this famous town of Mansoul, stick and stone to the ground. 1Ch. xxix. 30. And will carry the stones thereof, and the timber thereof, and the walls thereof, and the dust thereof, and the inhabitants thereof, into mine own country, even into the kingdom of my Father; and will there set it up in such strength and glory, as it never did see in the kingdom where now it is 1 For a most admirable treatise on the resurrection of the body, and its re-union with the soul in bliss unspeakable and eternal, see vol. ii. p. 83.-(ED.) And there, O my Mansoul, thou shalt be afraid of murderers no more; of Diabolonians, and their threats no more. There, there shall be no more plots, nor contrivances, nor designs against thee, O my Mansoul. There thou shalt no more hear the evil tidings, or the noise of the Diabolonian drum. There thou shalt not see the Diabolonian Standard-bearers, nor yet behold Diabolus his standard. No Diabolonian mount shall be cast up against thee there, nor shall there the Diabolonian standard be set up to make thee afraid. There thou shalt not need captains, engines, soldiers, and men of war. There thou shalt meet with no sorrow, nor grief, nor shall it be possible that any Diabolonian should again, for ever, be able to creep into thy skirts, burrow in thy walls, or be seen again within thy borders all the days of eternity. Life shall there last longer, than here you are able to desire it should, and yet it shall always be sweet and new, nor shall any impediment attend it for ever. There, O Mansoul, thou shalt meet with many of those that have been like thee, and that have been partakers of thy sorrows; even such as I have chosen, and redeemed and set apart as thou for my Father's court and city royal. All they will be glad in thee, and thou, when thou seest them, shall be glad in thine heart. There are things, O Mansoul, even things of thy Father's providing and mine, that never were seen since the beginning of the world, and they are laid up with my Father, and sealed up among his treasures for thee, till thou shalt come thither to enjoy them. I told you before that I would remove my Mansoul, and set it up elsewhere, and where I will set it, there are those that love thee, and those that rejoice in thee now, but how much more when they shall see thee exalted to honour. My Father will then send them for you to fetch you; and their bosoms are chariots to put you in. And you, O my Mansoul, shall ride upon the wings 2 'Blessings abound where'er he reigns, The prisoner leaps to lose his chains, And all the sons of want are blest.'-(Watts.) of the wind. They will come to convey, conduct, | mayest not die. And thus, O my Mansoul, I have showed unto thee what shall be done to thee hereafter, if thou canst hear, if thou canst understand; and now I will tell thee what at present must be thy duty and practice, until I shall come and fetch thee to myself, according as is related in the Scriptures of truth. First, I charge thee that thou dost hereafter keep more white and clean the liveries which I gave thee before my last withdrawing from thee. Do it, I say, for this will be thy wisdom. They are in themselves fine linen, but thou must keep them white and clean.1 This will be your wisdom, your honour, and will be greatly for my glory. When your garments are white, the world will count you mine. Also when your garments are white, then I am delighted in your ways; for then your goings to and fro will be like a flash of lightning, that those that are present must take notice of, also their eyes will be made to dazzle thereat. Deck thyself therefore according to my bidding, and make to thyself by my law straight steps for thy feet, so shall thy King greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him.2 Now that thou mayest keep them as I bid thee, I have, as I before did tell thee, provided for thee an open fountain to wash thy garments in. Look therefore that thou wash often in my fountain, and go not in defiled garments; for as it is to my dishonour and my disgrace, so it will be to thy discomfort, when you shall walk in filthy garments. Ze. iii. 3, 4. Let not therefore my garments, your garments, the garments that I gave thee, be defiled or spotted by the flesh. Jude 23. Keep thy garments always white, and let thy head lack no ointment. My Mansoul, I have oft-times delivered thee from the designs, plots, attempts, and conspiracies of Diabolus, and for all this I ask thee nothing, but that thou render not to me evil for my good, but that thou bear in mind my love, and the continuation of my kindness to my beloved Mansoul, so as to provoke thee to walk, in thy measure, according to the benefit bestowed on thee. Of old the sacrifices were bound with cords to the horns of the golden altar. Consider what is said to thee, O my blessed Mansoul. O my Mansoul, I have lived, I have died, I live, and will die no more for thee. I live that thou 1 Holiness of heart and life are indispensable of true discipleship to the holy Jesus; not to justify us, but to evidence our election to eternal life. 'As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.' 1 Pe. i. 15. A holy walk preserves communion with our Lord, who is our righteousness and strength.-(Mason.) 2 How blessed are those who are kept unspotted from the world! who live in the land of Beulah, waiting to be trans Because I live thou shalt live also. I reconciled thee to my Father by the blood of my cross, and being reconciled thou shalt live through me. I will pray for thee, I will fight for thee, I will yet do thee good. Nothing can hurt thee but sin; nothing can grieve me but sin; nothing can make thee base before thy foes but sin; Take heed of sin, my Mansoul. 3 And dost thou know why I at first, and do still suffer Diabolonians to dwell in thy walls, O Mansoul? It is to keep thee wakening, to try thy love, to make thee watchful, and to cause thee yet to prize my noble captains, their soldiers, and my mercy. It is also that yet thou mayest be made to remember what a deplorable condition thou once wast in. I mean when, not some, but all did dwell, not in thy walls, but in thy castle, and in thy strong hold, O Mansoul! O my Mansoul, should I slay all them within, many there be without that would bring thee into bondage; for were all those within cut off, those without would find thee sleeping, and then as in a moment they would swallow up my Mansoul. I therefore let them in thee, not to do thee hurt, the which they yet will, if thou hearken to them, and serve them; but to do thee good, the which they must, if thou watch and fight against them. Know therefore that whatever they shall tempt thee to, my design is that they should drive thee, not further off, but nearer to my Father, to learn thee war, to make petitioning desirable to thee, and to make thee little in thine own eyes. Hearken diligently to this, my Mansoul. Show me then thy love my Mansoul, and let not those that are within thy walls, take thy affections off from him that hath redeemed thy soul. Yea, let the sight of a Diabolonian heighten thy love to me. I came once, and twice, and thrice to save thee from the poison of those arrows that would have wrought thy death; stand for me, thy friend, my Mansoul, against the Diabolonians, and I will stand for thee before my Father, and all his court. Love me against temptation, and I will love thee notwithstanding thine infirmities. O my Mansoul, remember what my captains, my soldiers, and mine engines have done for thee. They have fought for thee, they have suffered by thee, they have born much at thy hands to do thee lated to the celestial city; and who, if defiled, are enabled to apply to the fountain opened, and wash away their stains. 'Blessed are the people that are in such a case.'-(Ed.) 3 Sin hurled the angels out of heaven; sin deprived man of paradise and the favour of God; sin crucified the Lord of life and glory; sin will confine myriads of devils and men in the bottomless pit of misery for ever. May we hate it with a perfect hatred; and the grace of Jesus eradicate the love, and destroy the dominion of it, in our hearts.—(Mason.) |