selves, ye are not a free people: ye are kept He holds out both in bondage and slavery, and that by a a false liberty. grievous threat, no reason being annexed, but, so I will have it, so it shall be. And is it not grievous to think on, that the very thing you are forbidden to do, might you but do it, would yield you both wisdom and honour? for then your eyes will be opened, and you shall be as gods. Now, since this is thus, quoth he, can you be kept by any prince in more slavery, and in greater bondage than you are under this day? You are made underlings, and are wrapt up in inconveniences, as I have well made appear: for what bondage greater than to be kept in blindness! Will not reason tell you, that it is better to have eyes, than to be without them? and that to be at liberty, is better than to be shut in a dark and stinking cave."* And just now, while Diabolus was speaking these words to Mansoul, Tisiphone shot at Captain ResistCaptain Resistance slain. ance, where he stood on the gate, and mortally wounded him in the head: so that he, to the amazement of the townsmen, and the encouragement of Diabolus, fell down dead quite over the wall.† Now when Captain Resistance was dead (and he was the only man of war in the town,) poor Mansoul was wholly left naked of courage, nor had she now any heart to resist: but this was as the devil would have it. Then stood forth that He, Mr. Ill-pause, that Diabolus brought with him, who was his orator, and he addressed himself to speak to the town of Mansoul the tenour of whose speech here follows: ILL-PAUSE." Gentlemen," quoth he, "it is my master's happiness, that he has this day a quiet and teachable auMr. Ill-pause, ditory; and it is hoped by us, that we shall his speech to prevail with you not to cast off good advice: the town of my master has a very great love for you; and Mansoul. although he very well knows that he runs the hazard of the anger of King Shaddai, yet love to you will make him do more than that. Nor doth there need that *This artful speech of Diabolus is founded upon the scriptural account of the first temptation, Gen. iii. 1-4, "and the serpent said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat," &c. In this passage the prohibition is represented as too strict, as intended to abridge their happiness, and that disobedience would be attended with no danger, but rather with great advantage. The devil, the father of lies, finding this method so successful, still persists in it. God says-Sinner, thou shalt die; Satan says-Thou shalt not die; which of these ought we to believe? Resistance to the suggestions of Satan failed in our first mother. She parleyed with the temptation which she ought to have resisted and rejected with abhorrence. She paused: and it was an ill-pause. There was no occasion to pause or ponder on what the Devil had said, for he had given the lie to the God of truth. Whatever contradicts the word of God should be instantly resisted as diabolical. tation. a word more should be spoken to confirm for truth what he hath said; there is not a word but carries with itself evidence in its bowels; the very name of the tree may put an end to all controversy in this matter. I therefore at this time shall only add this advice to you, under and by the leave of my lord (and with that he made Diabolus a very low congee:) consider his words; look on the tree, and the promising fruit thereof; remember also, that yet you know but little, and this is the way to know more: and if your reason be not conquered to accept of such good counsel, you are not the men I, Strong temp took you to be." But when the towns-folk saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, they did as old Ill-pause advised, they took and did eat thereof. Now this I should have told you before, that even then, when this Ill-pause was making this speech to the townsmen, my Lord Innocency (whether by a shot from the camp of the giant, or from some My Lord Innoqualm that suddenly took him, or whether by the stinking breath of that treacherous villain old Illpause, for so I am most apt to think) sunk down in the place where he stood, nor could he be brought to life again. Thus these two brave men died; brave men I call them, for they were the beauty and glory of Mansoul, so long as they lived therein: nor did. there now remain any more a noble spirit in Mansoul; they all fell down and yielded obedience to Diabolus, and became his slaves and vassals, as you shall hear. cency's death Now these being dead, what do the rest of the townsfolk, but as men that had found a fool's paradise, they presently, as afore was hinted, fell to prove the truth of The town ta the giant's words; and first; they did as Ill- ken by Diapause had taught them, they looked, they con- bolus and his sidered, they were taken with the forbidden fruit, "they took thereof, and did eat;"† and having eaten, bands. * The very breath of temptation, received and entertained a single mo ment, destroyed primitive innocence. When the lies of Satan were admitted, unbelief entered and innocence died. "Thou shalt surely die," said Jehovah. In a spiritual sense, man did indeed die immediately. He died spiritually, he died to God. "Lust conceived, and brought forth sin, and sin when fin ished, brought forth death," Jam. i. 5. By this one fatal act of disobedience, the whole world was ruined. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners." "By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation." Rom. v. 19, 19. Milton finely represents the fatal act: "So saying, her rash hand in evil hour "Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck'd, she eats they became immediately drunken there with; so they opened the gates, both Ear-gate and Eye-gate, and let in Diabolus with all his bands, quite forgetting their good Shaddai, his law, and the judgment that he had annexed with solemn threatening to the breach thereof. CHAPTER II. Diabolus takes possession of the Castle. Mr. Understanding, the Lord Mayor, is deposed, and a wall built before his house to darken it. Mr. Conscience the Recorder is displaced. My Lord Will-be-will is appointed Governor. The image of Shaddai defaced. A new corporation chosen, and forts, erected. DIABOLUS having now obtained entrance in at the gates of the town, marches up to the middle thereof, to make his conquest as sure as he could; and finding, by this time, the affections of the people warmly inclining to him, he, thinking it was best striking while the iron is hot, made this further deceivable speech unto them, saying: "Alas, my poor Mansoul! I have done thee indeed this service, as to promote thee to honour, and to greaten thy liberty; but alas! alas! poor Mansoul, thou wantest now one to defend thee; for assure thyself, when Shaddai shall hear what is done, he will come; for sorry will he be that thou hast broken his bonds, and cast his cords away from thee. What wilt thou do? Wilt thou, after enlargement, suffer thy privileges to be invaded and taken away? or what wilt thou resolve with thyself?" Then they all with one consent said to this bramble, "Do thou reign over us." So he Diabolus is accepted the motion, and became the king of entertained the town of Mansoul. This being done, the for their king. next thing was, to give him possession of the castle, and so of the whole strength of the town. Wherefore into the castle he goes (it was that which Shaddai built in Mansoul, for his own delight and pleasure:) this was now become a den and hold for the giant Diabolus. He is possessNow having got possession of this stately paed of the castle, lace or castle, what doth he, but make it a and fortifieth it garrison for himself, and strengthens and fortifies it with all sorts of provisions against for himself. "Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat, That all was lost." Book IX. 1. 790. the king Shaddai, or those that should endeavour the regaining of it to him and his obedience again.* This done, but not thinking himself yet secure enough, in the next place he bethinks himself of new Diabolus modelling the town: and so he does, setting up new-models one and putting down another at pleasure. the town. Wherefore my Lord Mayor, whose name was my Lord Understanding, and Mr. Recorder, whose name was Mr. Conscience, these he put out of place and power. As for my Lord Mayor, though he was an understanding man, and one too that had complied with the rest of the town of Mansoul in admitting the giant into The lord the town, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5; yet Diabolus thought Mayor put out not fit to let him abide in his former lustre and of place. glory, because he was a seeing man, Eph. iv. 18, 19, wherefore he had darkened him not only by taking from him his office and power, but by building of an high and strong tower, just between the sun's reflection and the windows of my lord's palace; by which means the house, and the whole of his habitation, was made as dark as darkness itself: and thus, being alienated from the light, he became as one that was born blind. To this house my lord was confined, as to a prison; nor might he, upon his parole, go further than within his own bounds. And now, had he had an heart to do for Mansoul, what could he do for it, or wherein could he be profitable to her? So then, so long as Mansoul was under the power and government of Diabolus (and so long it was under him, as it was obedient to him; which was even until by a war it was rescued out of his hand;) so long my Lord Mayor was rather an impediment in, than an advantage to, the famous town of Mansoul.f As for Mr. Recorder, before the town was taken, he was a man well read in the laws of his king, and also a man of courage and faithfulness to speak truth on The Recordevery occasion; and he had a tongue as brave- er put out of ly hung, as he had an head filled with judg- place. ment. Now this man, Diabolus could by no means abide, *The Heart of fallen man, signified by the castle, is in the possession of Satan ; "the strong man armed" keepeth this palace, which was erected for the habitation of God. The powers of the soul are perverted, and made "strong holds" against God, 2 Cor. x. 4. Satan is become "the prince of this world," and powerfully works in the children of disobedience, Eph. ii. Yea, he is called the god of this world," and is not only obeyed by sinners universally, but under various forms, is worshipped by many of the heathen. The understanding, which was once full of light, is now most miserably darkened by sin and Satan; so that man is "alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance and blindness of his heart." The understanding, which took the lead in the heart, as chief magistrate, is now deposed and the corrupted will takes his place. because, though he gave his consent to his coming into the town, yet he could not, by all wiles, trials, stratagems, and devices that he could use, make him his own. True, he was much degenerated from his former king, and also much pleased with the giant's service, and many of his laws. But this would not do, forasmuch as he was not wholly his; he would now and then think upon Shaddai, He sometimes and have a dread of his law upon him, and then speaks for the he would speak against Diabolus with a voice first king. as great as when a lion roareth: yea, and would also at certain times, when his fits were upon him, (for you must know, that sometimes he had terrible fits,) make the whole town of Mansoul shake with his voice; and therefore the new king of Mansoul could not abidé him.* Diabolus therefore feared the Recorder more than any that was left alive in the town of Mansoul, because, as I said, his words did shake the whole town; they were like the rattling of thunder, and also like thunder-claps. Since therefore the giant could not make him wholly his own, what doth he do, but studies all that he could to debauch the old gentleman, and by debauchery, to stupify his mind, and more harden his heart in the ways of vanity. And as he He is more attempted so he accomplished his design: he debauched debauched the man, and by little and little so than before. drew him into sin and wickedness, that at last he was not only debauched as at first, and so by consequence defiled, but was almost (at last, I say) past all conscience of sin. And this was the farthest Diabolus could go. Wherefore he bethinks himself of another project, and that was to persuade the men of the town that Mr. Recorder was mad, and so not to be regarded. And for this he urged his fits, and said, If he be himself, why doth he not do thus always? But, quoth he, all mad folks have their fits, and in them raving language; so hath this The town ta- old and doating gentleman. Thus by one ken off from means or other he quickly got Mansoul to slight, heeding him. neglect and despise whatever Mr. Recorder could say.-For, besides what you have already heard, Diabolus had a way to make the old gentleman, when he was merry, unsay, and deny what he in his fits had affirmed. And indeed this was the next way to make himself ridiculous, and to cause that no man should regard him. Also now *The office and power of conscience (or the old recorder) is beautifully de scribed. He will sometimes speak, yea, roar aloud, testifying for God, and against sin. But it is the interest of Satan to debauch the conscience, and if possible, to silence it; and, if this cannot be done, to represent its faithful remonstrances as the ravings of madness. |