The Holy War | Page 7

no far dweller from you, but near,
and one that is bound by the king to do you my homage and what service I can;
wherefore, that I may be faithful to myself and to you, I have somewhat of concern to
impart unto you. Wherefore, grant me your audience, and hear me patiently. And first, I
will assure you, it is not myself, but you--not mine, but your advantage that I seek by
what I now do, as will full well be made manifest, by that I have opened my mind unto
you. For, gentlemen, I am (to tell you the truth) come to show you how you may obtain
great and ample deliverance from a bondage that, unawares to yourselves, you are
captivated and enslaved under.' At this the town of Mansoul began to prick up its ears.
And 'What is it? Pray what is it?' thought they. And he said, 'I have somewhat to say to
you concerning your King, concerning his law, and also touching yourselves. Touching
your King, I know he is great and potent; but yet all that he hath said to you is neither
true nor yet for your advantage. 1. It is not true, for that wherewith he hath hitherto awed
you, shall not come to pass, nor be fulfilled, though you do the thing that he hath
forbidden. But if there was danger, what a slavery is it to live always in fear of the
greatest of punishments, for doing so small and trivial a thing as eating of a little fruit is.
2. Touching his laws, this I say further, they are both unreasonable, intricate, and
intolerable. Unreasonable, as was hinted before; for that the punishment is not
proportioned to the offence: there is great difference and disproportion between the life
and an apple; yet the one must go for the other by the law of your Shaddai. But it is also
intricate, in that he saith, first, you may eat of all; and yet after forbids the eating of one.
And then, in the last place, it must needs be intolerable, forasmuch as that fruit which you
are forbidden to eat of (if you are forbidden any) is that, and that alone, which is able, by
your eating, to minister to you a good as yet unknown by you. This is manifest by the
very name of the tree; it is called the "tree of knowledge of good and evil;" and have you
that knowledge as yet? No, no; nor can you conceive how good, how pleasant, and how
much to be desired to make one wise it is, so long as you stand by your King's
commandment. Why should you be holden in ignorance and blindness? Why should you
not be enlarged in knowledge and understanding? And now, O ye inhabitants of the

famous town of Mansoul, to speak more particularly to yourselves you are not a free
people! You are kept both in bondage and slavery, and that by a 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 that very thing which 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
wrapped 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 so to be at liberty to be better than to be shut up in a dark and
stinking cave?'
And just now, while Diabolus was speaking these words to Mansoul, Tisiphone shot at
Captain Resistance, 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 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:-
'Gentlemen,' quoth he, 'it is my master's happiness that he has this day a quiet and
teachable auditory; and it is hoped by