ABOUT THE EDITOR Part 3
'I have used similitudes.'—Hosea 12:10.
The heart at first trembles lest punishment should be justly poured out upon her for treason, but it becomes the throne of its lawful King; and instead of God's anger, his pardon and blessings are proclaimed, and Mansoul is filled with joy, happiness, and glory.
Reader, can you call to mind the peace and holy enjoyment which took possession of your soul, when—having passed through the fears and hopes, the terrors and alarms, of the new birth—you sat down, for the first time, at the table of the Lord, to celebrate the wonders of his grace? Then you rejoiced in hope full of immortality; then you could exclaim, 'O tidings! Glad tidings! good tidings of good, and of great joy to my soul!' 'Then they leaped and skipped upon the walls for joy, and shouted, Let Emmanuel live for ever!' And then you fondly thought that happiness was secure for the rest of your pilgrimage, until your glorified spirit should enter into the celestial city.
Alas! your enemies were not dead. They insidiously seized an unguarded moment. Remiss in watchfulness and formal in prayer, carnal security invades the mind. Your ardent love is cooled—intercourse with heaven is slight—and by slow degrees, and almost unperceived, Emmanuel leaves Heart-castle; and the prince of the power of the air promotes the treason, and foments rebellion, by the introduction of loose thoughts, under the name of harmless mirth. The news soon reached Diabolus, and an infernal conference, or dialogue of devils, is revealed by our author, who had watched the course and causes of spiritual declension, and was not 'ignorant of Satan's devices.'
The malignant craft and subtlety displayed in Satan's counsel are described in a manner far beyond an ordinary imagination. They display the almost unbounded resources of genius and invention so richly possessed by the prince of allegorists, John Bunyan. It reminds us of the dialogue between Lucifer and Beelzebub, in that rare work by Barnardine Ochine, a reformer, published in 1549, called A Tragedy or Dialogue of the unjust usurped Primacy of the Bishop of Rome. This is represented, in very popular language, by the designs of Lucifer to ruin Christianity by the establishment of Popery. Lucifer thus addresses his diabolical conclave—' I have devised to make a certain new kingdom, replenished with idolatry, superstition, ignorance, error, falsehoods, deceit, compulsion, extortion, treason, contention, discord, tyranny, and cruelty; with spoiling, murder, ambition, filthiness, injuries, factions, sects, wickedness, and mischief; in the which kingdom all kinds of abomination shall be committed. And notwithstanding that it shall be heaped up with all kinds of wickedness, yet shall the [professed] Christian men think it to be a spiritual kingdom, most holy and most godly.
The supreme head of this kingdom shall be a man who is not only sinful and an abominable robber and thief, but he shall be sin and abomination itself; and yet, for all that, shall be thought of Christian men a God in earth, and his members, being most wicked, shall be called of men most holy. God sent his Son into the world, who, for the salvation of mankind, hath humbled himself even to the death of the cross. I will send my son into the world, who, for the destruction and condemnation of mankind, shall so advance himself that he shall take upon him to be made equal with God.' 'I will, by craft and diligence, shadow and cover superstition and idolatry with a fair face, and beauty of holy ceremonies, that men shall be made so drunken and so amazed with this outward pomp and show, that they shall not be able to discern truth from falsehood, when they be drowned in the flood of idolatry and superstition.' 'I will cause them to be the most cruel tyrants and butchers of Christ and his members, under a pretense of zeal to the house of God. They shall hide their uncleanness and filthy behavior with an exceeding wide cloak of hypocrisy, and with glorious shining titles.'
Thus, this intrepid reformer opened up the origin, the development, the desolations of Popery; and, with a similar knowledge of Satan's devices, the Nonconformist Bunyan shows the means by which Diabolus urges the young Christian into a backsliding state. 'Let our Diabolonian friends in Mansoul draw it into sin, for there is nothing like sin to devour Mansoul; while we will send against it an army of twenty or thirty thousand sturdy, terrible doubters. Sin renders Mansoul sick and faint, while doubts are by it made fierce and strong.' At length, Diabolus and his army of doubts march from Hellgate Hill to Mansoul: the order in which they are placed, and the names of the officers, are very instructive, as well as curious. Election-doubters, under Captain Rage—Vocation-doubters, commanded by Captain Fury—Grace-doubters, led by Captain Damnation—Faith-doubters, under Captain Brimstone—Resurrection-doubters, by Captain Torment—Salvation-doubters, under Captain Noease—Glory-doubters, commanded by Captain Sepulcher—Felicity-doubters, led by Captain Pasthope. Incredulity was Lord-general, and Diabolus was King and Commander-in-chief. The roaring of the drum—their alarming outcries, Hell-fire! Hell-fire!—their furious assaults—the multitude of doubts—and the perplexity of poor, distracted Mansoul, are admirably and truly narrated. The town makes a sortie in the night, but Diabolus and his legions, experienced in night work, drive them back, and severely wound Captains Faith, Hope, and Experience.
Again, the gates are assaulted, and Diabolus and his doubters gain an entrance, by the senses, into the town, but cannot force the heart; and Mansoul is reduced to the greatest straits and sadness. In this extremity, prayers are incessantly offered up to Emmanuel, but, for a long time, they can obtain no satisfactory answers. Both parties are on the alert, but Diabolus finds it impossible, either by treachery or by storming with his legion of doubts, to gain possession of Heart-castle. Being worsted in a general engagement, the doubters are slain, and are buried with their armor; yea, all that did but smell of a Diabolonian Doubter. The arch-fiend now enters upon a new mode of assault—he sends for a reinforcement, to try the effect of persecution; and obtains an army of fifteen thousand Bloodmen, from the province of Loathgood. To these were added ten thousand new Doubters, under their commander, old Incredulity. These Bloodmen were 'rugged villains, and had done feats heretofore'; they were mastiffs, and would fasten upon father, mother, brother, yea, upon the Prince of princes. Among their officers is Captain Pope, whose colors were the stake, the flame, and the good man in it.' To these I would humbly suggest the propriety of adding one more—it is Captain State-religion, upon whose standard should be represented the Nonconformist John Bunyan in a damp, dreary dungeon, writing his 'Pilgrim's Progress,' with his poor blind child at his feet.
O persecutor, whether you burn or imprison a Nonconformist, or harass him in Ecclesiastical courts, or seize his goods to support forms or ceremonies which he believes to be Antichristian, your commander is old Incredulity—your king is Diabolus! The Bloodmen send a summons to Mansoul, 'as hot as a red-hot iron,' threatening fire and sword, and utter destruction; but the God who visited our pious author in prison, and cherished and comforted him in his twelve years' sufferings under persecution, came to the relief of Mansoul. The Diabolonian army is routed—the Doubters are slain, excepting a few who escaped—the Bloodmen or persecutors were not to be slain, but to be taken alive. The prisoners are brought to trial, with all the forms and solemnities of law, and the narrative concludes with a most admirable charge from Emmanuel to keep Mansoul in the most prayerful vigilance. Enemies still lurk within, to keep her humble; that she may feel her dependence upon God, and be found much in communion with him. 'Believe that my love,' says Emmanuel, 'is constant to thee. Watch, hold fast, till I come.'
In the whole detail of this war, a very singular skill is manifested. A keen observer of all that passed before him, aided by a most retentive memory and a fertile imagination, enabled our pilgrim forefather to gain much knowledge in a short time. He had been engaged, as a private soldier, in the Civil War and was at the siege of Leicester when it was taken by Prince Rupert. This gave him a knowledge of the meaning of trumpet or bugle sounds; so that, when the trumpeters made their best music, in the expectation of Emmanuel's speedy assistance to help Mansoul, Diabolus exclaims, 'What do these madmen mean? they neither sound to boot and saddle, nor horse and away, nor a charge.'
Bunyan had been released from his tedious and cruel imprisonment for conscience's sake about ten years, when he published the 'Holy War.' In this interval of time, although laboring incessantly to win souls to Christ, being a very popular preacher, yet he must have found time to gratify his incessant thirst for knowledge; gaining that he might communicate, and in imparting it, receiving into his own mind a rich increase. This would doubtless lead him to read the best of our Puritan and Nonconformists' works, so that we find him using the Latin words primum mobile, carefully noting in the margin that he meant 'the soul'; and from hence he must have scraped acquaintance with Python, Cerberus, and the furies of mythology, whom he uses in this war, describing accurately their names and qualities.
At first sight, it may seem strange that the armies, both within and without the city, should be so numerous, as it is but one man who is the object of attack and defense, one human body, containing one immortal Mansoul; but if the reader reflects that every soldier represents a thought, who can number them? At one time, by the sin-sickness, eleven thousand men, women, and children died in Mansoul! This is interpreted by Bunyan to mean that the men represented 'good thoughts'—the women, 'good conceptions'—and the children, 'good desires.' The town is assaulted by thirty or forty thousand doubts, very curiously and methodically arranged.
The value of the marginal notes is very great, throwing immediate light upon many difficult passages. Every reader should make free use of the key which lieth in the window [the margin]. The value of this key is seen in a few quotations. Thus, when Diabolus beat a charge against the town, my Lord Reason was wounded in the head—the brave Lord Mayor, Mr. Understanding, in the eye—and 'many also of the inferior sort were not only wounded, but slain outright.' The margin explains this as meaning 'Hopeful thoughts.' When the enemy broke into the town at Feelgate, during a night of terror, and got possession, it is described as being accompanied by all the horrors of war—by atrocities probably even greater than those perpetrated by Rupert's cavaliers at Leicester. 'Young children were dashed in pieces, yea, those unborn were destroyed.' 'The women were beastly abused.' This is interpreted by two marginal notes—'Good and tender thoughts,' 'Holy conceptions of good.'
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