The Works of John Bunyan, vol 3 by John Bunyan (summer books .TXT) 📕

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 they 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 marvellous taking to Mansoul and me.[212]

When this action was over, the whole town of Mansoul came out as one man to the Prince in the camp to thank him, and praise him for his abundant favour, and to beg that it would please his grace to come unto Mansoul with his men, and there to take up their quarters for ever. And this they did in most humble manner, bowing themselves seven times to the ground before him. Then said he, All peace be to you. So the town came nigh, and touched with the hand the top of his golden scepter, and they said, Oh that the Prince Emmanuel, with his captains and men of war, would dwell in Mansoul for ever; and that his battering-rams and slings might be lodged in her for the use and service of the Prince, and for the help and strength of Mansoul. ‘For,’ said they, ‘we have room for thee, we have room for thy men, we have also room for thy weapons of war, and a place to make a magazine for thy carriages. Do it, Emmanuel, and thou shalt be King and Captain in Mansoul for ever. Yea govern thou also according to all the desire of thy soul, and make thou governors and princes under thee of thy captains and men of war, and we will become thy servants, and thy laws shall be our direction.’

They added, moreover, and prayed his Majesty to consider thereof; ‘for,’ said they, ‘if now, after all this grace bestowed upon us thy miserable town of Mansoul, thou shouldest withdraw, thou and thy captains from us, the town of Mansoul will die.[213] Yea,’ said they, ‘our blessed Emmanuel, if thou shouldest depart from us now thou hast done so much good for us, and showed so much mercy unto us; what will follow but that our joy will be as if it had not been, and our enemies will a second time come upon us with more rage than at the first. Wherefore, we beseech thee, O thou the desire of our eyes, and the strength and life of our poor town, accept of this motion that now we have made unto our Lord, and come and dwell in the midst of us, and let us be thy people. Besides, Lord, we do not know but that to this day many Diabolonians may be yet lurking in the town of Mansoul, and they will betray us when thou shalt leave us, into the hand of Diabolus again; and who knows what designs, plots, or contrivances have passed betwixt them about these things already; loth we are to fall again into his horrible hands. Wherefore, let it please thee to accept of our palace for thy place of residence, and of the houses of the best men in our town for the reception of thy soldiers, and their furniture.’[214]

Then said the Prince, ‘If I come to your town, will you suffer me further to prosecute that which is in mine heart against mine enemies and yours, yea, will you help me in such undertakings?’

They answered, ‘We know not what we shall do; we did not think once that we should have been such traitors to Shaddai as we have proved to be; what then shall we say to our Lord? Let him put no trust in his saints, let the Prince dwell in our castle, and make of our town a garrison, let him set his noble captains, and his warlike soldiers over us. Yea, let him conquer us with his love, and overcome us with his grace, and then surely shall he be but with us, and help us, as he was, and did that morning that our pardon was read unto us, we shall comply with this, our Lord, and with his ways, and fall in with his word against the mighty.

‘One word more, and thy servants have done, and in this will trouble our Lord no more. We know not the depth of the wisdom of thee our Prince. Who could have thought that had been ruled by his reason, that so much sweet as we do now enjoy should have come out of those bitter trials wherewith we were tried at the first?

but, Lord, let light go before, and let love come after; yea, take us by the hand, and lead us by thy counsels, and let this always abide upon us, that all things shall be for the best for thy servants, and come to our Mansoul, and do as it pleaseth thee. Or, Lord, come to our Mansoul, do what thou wilt, so thou keepest us from sinning, and makest us serviceable to thy Majesty.’[215]

Then said the Prince to the town of Mansoul again, ‘Go, return to your houses in peace, I will willingly in this comply with your desires. I will remove my royal pavilion, I will draw up my forces before Eye-gate to-morrow, and so will march forwards into the town of Mansoul. I will possess myself of your castle of Mansoul, and will set my soldiers over you; yea, I will yet do things in Mansoul that cannot be paralleled in any nation, country or kingdom under heaven.’

Then did the men of Mansoul give a shout, and returned unto their houses in peace; they also told to their kindred and friends the good that Emmanuel had promised to Mansoul. And to-morrow, said they, he will march into our town, and take up his dwelling, he and his men in Mansoul.

Then went out the inhabitants of the town of Mansoul with haste to the green trees, and to the meadows, to gather boughs and flowers, therewith to strew the streets against their Prince, the Son of Shaddai, should come; they also made garlands, and other fine works, to betoken how joyful they were, and should be to receive their Emmanuel into Mansoul; yea, they strewed the street quite from Eye-gate to the castle-gate, the place where the Prince should be.

They also prepared for his coming what music the town of Mansoul would afford, that they might play before him to the palace, his habitation.

So, at the time appointed, he makes his approach to Mansoul, and the gates were set open for him, there also the ancients and elders of Mansoul met him, to salute him with a thousand welcomes. Then he arose and entered Mansoul, he and all his servants. The elders of Mansoul did also go dancing before him till he came to the castle gates. And this was the manner of his going up thither. He was clad in his golden armour, he rode in his royal chariot, the trumpets sounded about him, the colours were displayed, his ten thousands went up at his feet, and the elders of Mansoul danced before him.[216] And now were the walls of the famous town of Mansoul filled with the tramplings of the inhabitants thereof, who went up thither to view the approach of the blessed Prince, and his royal army. Also the casements, windows, balconies, and tops of the houses were all now filled with persons of all sorts to behold how their town was to be filled with good. [217] Now when he was come so far into the town as to the Recorder’s house, he commanded that one should go to Captain Credence, to know whether the castle of Mansoul was prepared to entertain his Royal Presence, for the preparation of that was left to that captain, and word was brought that it was (Acts 15:9).[218] Then was Captain Credence commanded also to come forth with his power to meet the Prince, the which was, as he had commanded, done, and he conducted him into the castle (Eph 3:17).

This done, the Prince that night did lodge in the castle with his mighty captains and men of war, to the joy of the town of Mansoul.

Now the next care of the townsfolk was how the captains and soldiers of the Prince’s army should be quartered among them, and the care was not how they should shut their hands of them, but how they should fill their houses with them; for every man in Mansoul now had that esteem of Emmanuel and his men, that nothing grieved them more than because they were not enlarged enough, every one of them to receive the whole army of the Prince, yea, they counted it their glory to be waiting upon them, and would in those days run at their bidding like lackeys. At last they came to this result:—1. That Captain Innocency should quarter at Mr. Reason’s. 2. That Captain Patience should quarter at Mr. Mind’s. This Mr. Mind was formerly the Lord Will-be-will’s clerk, in time of the late rebellion. 3. It was ordered that Captain Charity should quarter at Mr. Affection’s house. 4. That Captain Good-hope should quarter at my Lord Mayor’s.

Now for the house of the Recorder, himself desired, because his house was next to the castle, and because from him it was ordered by the Prince, that, if need be, the alarm should be given to Mansoul; it was, I say, desired by him that Captain Boanerges and Captain Conviction should take up their quarters with him, even they and all their men. 5. As for Captain Judgment and Captain Execution, my Lord Will-be-will took them, and their men to him, because he was to rule under the Prince for the good of the town of Mansoul now, as he had before, under the tyrant Diabolus for the hurt and damage thereof (Rom 6:19; Eph 3:17). 6. And throughout the rest of the town were quartered Emmanuel’s forces, but Captain Credence with his men abode still in the castle. So the Prince, his captains, and his soldiers were lodged in the town of Mansoul.[219] Now the ancients and elders of the town of Mansoul thought that they never should have enough of the Prince Emmanuel; his person, his actions, his words, and behaviour, were so pleasing, so taking, so desirable to them.

Wherefore, they prayed him, that though the castle of Mansoul was his place of residence, and they desired that he might dwell there for ever, yet that he would often visit the streets, houses, and people of Mansoul. For, said they, Dread Sovereign, thy presence, thy looks, thy smiles, thy words, are the life, and strength, and sinews of the town of Mansoul.[220] Besides this, they craved that they might have, without difficulty or interruption, continual access unto him, so for that very purpose he commanded that the gates should stand open, that they might there see the manner of his doings, the fortifications of the place,