How the enemy loves to see us in this pit of passivity, frightened to do anything lest perchance we should move in the flesh, constantly trying to analyse ourselves to see whether we are in the flesh or in the Spirit. We may be quite as useless to the Lord in our futile passivity as in our fleshly activity. Of course, there is a true waiting upon and for the Lord. We have to learn to be, silent unto God (Psalm 62:1), but let us watch against that lack of faith that tends to spiritual limpness. Christ is to be expressed through real people, not colourless nonentities. While God has a tremendous work on to make us whole in Christ, we shall always be ourselves fundamentally. Human personality is a wonderful creation of God. The infinite variety in human personality, when redeemed and made whole by the miracle of transforming grace, is to provide the Lord with His chief means of expressing His glories. When. Paul wrote Galatians 2:20, he did not mean that Paul had ceased to exist. There will always be a real man called Paul ‘in Christ’. While Paul begins this verse, “I have been crucified with Christ … it is no longer I that live … Christ liveth in me,” he goes on to say that, “That life which I now live … I live in faith.” The fact is that until Paul was in Christ he was only the shadow of a real man. It is only in. Christ that we are really alive. Christ is our glorious destiny. Outside of Christ man is but a travesty of the real thing, a tragic passing shadow. Not until the Golden Prince, Emmanuel, came to dwell in Mansoul did the town begin to appreciate something of that high destiny for which it had been built by the good King Shaddai. The true work of the cross In our Key to the Characters in The Holy War we see that there are two sides to the cross. There is what we will call the redemptive aspect of the cross on the one hand, and on the other what we will call the destructive aspect. In the diagram we see that there are four groups of characters in Bunyan’s allegory. There are those that issue from Heaven, from the Court, and we need only say that the cross is a glory and a wonder in Heaven. On the other side we have the characters that issue from the Pit, headed by the Giant Diabolus. For them the cross spells ruin and destruction, and they know it. For the Diabolonians, the true Sons of the Pit, the offspring and allies of Diabolus in the town, the cross also means terror and destruction. But what of the Mansoulians: what did the cross mean to them? Redemption, not extinction. Now, here is something of the greatest importance. The Lord, by His cross, is making war upon the Diabolonians for the deliverance of the Mansoulians. The Lord purposes to exterminate the Diabolonians in us—that which is of Satan in us; but the power of His cross is established in our lives by the Holy Spirit, not to kill us, but to free us. This is a most important distinction. Because Satan has got such a terrible foothold in human nature, because we are so deeply involved in an unholy alliance with the evil one, it sometimes seems as if the Lord is killing us, whereas He is really destroying the works of the devil in us. Let us make no mistake about it: there is that in us which is going to die, which must die, which has no place in heaven. In the cross of the Lord Jesus a certain kind of person (the kind we are by nature) goes out for ever, but the grace of God is at work in us to make us of a different kind, like Christ. See how clear and helpful Bunyan is on this point. When Emmanuel was giving His captains their final orders prior to the capture of Mansoul, He told them, “To be sure to show themselves men of war against Diabolus and all Diabolonians; but favourable, merciful, and meek to the old inhabitants of Mansoul.” The Lord show us the far reaching significance of this distinction between Mansoulians and Diabolonians. The cross and the Diabolonians When Mansoul had been recaptured by Emmanuel, the cross was set up in the town, as a power against the lurking Diabolonians who still remained in their dens in and about the wall. Of these Diabolonians there were two species. There were the pure-bred variety who came with Diabolus from the Pit, such as Mr. Puff-up, who were easily recognised and therefore fairly easily brought to the cross. But there were also the home-bred Diabolonians, such as Mr. Carnal-Security, who. being born in the town, were much more difficult to discover and deal with, since they often looked like Mansoulians, and especially so if Mansoul was in a poor spiritual state. The case of Mr. Carnal-Security (confidence in the flesh) is a significant one, for it indicates the depth of Satan’s grip upon human nature. and helps us to understand why the Lord has sometimes to deal with us so drastically and so deeply. In the time of Mansoul’s rebellion, the Lord Willbewill, who was then a great one for Diabolus, was pleased to give his daughter, the Lady Fear-Nothing, to a Diabolonian. Mr. Self-Conceit, to wife. The fruit of their union was Mr. Carnal-Security, who presently did great injury to the town. Now, there is nothing wrong with fearlessness, but when fearlessness is wedded to self-conceit the result will be that spiritual plague of self-confidence. Well, the Lord’s answer to Diabolonians of whatever sort is the cross, and we must now quote Bunyan’s most illuminating report of the execution of some Diabolonians who had been caught, tried, and condemned in Mansoul after Emmanuel’s capture of the town. “Now, the day was come in which the prisoners in Mansoul were to be executed. So they were brought to the cross, and that by Manoul, in most solemn manner; for the Prince said that this should be done by the hand of Mansoul. Proof of sincerity pleases me well; let Mansoul, therefore, first lay their hands upon these Diabolonians to destroy them. “So the town of Mansoul slew them, according to the word of their Prince; but when the prisoners were brought to the cross to die, you can hardly believe what troublesome work Mansoul had of it to put the Diabolonians to death; for the men knowing that they must die, what did they but took courage at the cross, and there resisted the men of the town? Wherefore, the men of Mansoul were forced to cry out for help to the captains and men of war. Now the great Shaddai had a Secretary in the town, and he was a great lover of the men of Mansoul, and he was at the place of execution also; so he, hearing the men of Mansoul cry out against the strugglings and unruliness of the prisoners, rose up from his place, and came and put his hands upon the hands of the men of Mansoul. So they crucified the Diabolonians that had been a plague, a grief, and an offence to the town.” The cross and the Mansoulians We have said that for the: true inhabitants of Mansoul, that is, for man, created by God and recreated in Christ, the cross brings redemption, deliverance, cleansing and healing; but we shall be mistaken if we think that Emmanuel just overlooked the fact that the Mansoulians had been so deeply and willingly involved with His enemy. The cross has many aspects and the Lord is very wise in all His dealings with us. Let us take the case of the Lord Willbewill first, by way of illustrating what we mean. The Lord Willbewill, who, of course, represents the will of man, the human will, had been the most active Mansoulian in the service of Diabolus during Mansoul’s rebellion. Well do we know, as we have said before the strength of the enemy entrenched within the will of fallen man. The will is the key to man’s being. Now, when Emmanuel came in, Willbewill was not put to death, but he had a very bad time. We read that: “Captain Execution hunted the Lord Willbewill sorely; he suffered him not to rest in any corner. He pursued him so hard that he drove his men from him, and made him glad to thrust his head into a hole.” Now, Captain Execution really represents the cross in action. Human self-will must be chased until it buries its head in a hole. It takes the Lord a long time to get our wills completely over on to His side. Sometimes we sing: ‘Chase this self-will through all my heart, Through all its latent mazes there; Make me Thy duteous child, that I Ceaseless may Abba, Father, cry.’ And this really sums it up. But note: Willbewill is destined to live to serve Emmanuel. Mansoul would not be Mansoul without him; man would no longer be man without a will of his own: yet Heaven will be filled one day with happy slaves who have been conquered by the love of God and overcome by His grace. A further illustration of the way in which the Mansoulians learnt the meaning of the cross is to be found in the way in which Emmanuel dealt with the town after its capture. At first Emmanuel is very reserved and there is much heart-searching in Mansoul. The growing realisation of its sin confounds the town. Mr. Desires-Awake and Mr. Wet-Eyes are sent to petition the Prince, while the ruling powers in the town are kept in ward by Emmanuel’s captains. At length, the elders of the town, including Willbewill, are summoned by the Prince, and when they appear before Him as Man; soul’s representatives, they do so as self-condemned prisoners, with ropes about their necks. “Thou art just, for we have sinned,” is all they have to say; “These ropes are to bind us withal, to the place of execution, if mercy be not pleasing in thy sight.” Mansoul has at last realised that it deserves. nothing but death. The judicial meaning of the cross has been brought home to the town—the fact of guiltiness before the law. Up to this moment Emmanuel has withheld the shining forth of His grace, but now it is safe for the town to be overwhelmed with the wonder of forgiveness, the possibility of which Emmanuel has Himself secured in His cross. How. wise the Lord is! This is love’s wisdom, that it lets the prodigal come to himself. It was sentiment, not love, that brought Absalom back. Absalom never came to himself, with what tragic results we know. God’s love is very, very wise. He knows what is in man. The ministry of Lord Willbewill, governor of the town under Emmanuel Bunyan’s study of the Lord Willbewill is one of the most valuable things in his history of the war. We have already seen that Willbewill was Diabolus’ staunchest friend in Mansoul, and how strongly he came under Emmanuel’s hand of chastening at the town’s deliverance. We must now see the vital part he was called upon to play in Emmanuel’s new regime. Willbewill was appointed, “To rule under the Prince for the good of the Town”. The will is a ruling factor in man’s constitution. Decision and decisiveness are important factors in spiritual progress and warfare. Very often everything turns upon an act of will. Further, Willbewill was charged, “To take care of the Gates (the senses), the Wall (the body, the flesh), and Towers in Mansoul; also the Prince gave him the Militia into his hand, and a special charge to withstand all insurrections and tumults against the peace. He also gave him in commission, that if he found any of the Diabolonians lurking in any corner of Mansoul, he should apprehend them.” Willbewill had thus to rule over the gates, the senses. It is true that we sometimes need quite deliberately to shut our ears and our eyes and even our mouths! At other times the gates need to be thrown open. And Feel-Gate especially needs ruling. The Wall also needs careful watching. When Paul said, I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage,” (1 Cor. :27) he was just saying that as far as he was concerned Willbewill was continually patrolling the wall, since it was in the wall that so many of the Diabolonians had their dens. Then we come to Willbewill’s close comradeship with the heavenly Captains, and with Captain Credence in particular. While he enlisted the help of Judgment and Execution, that in the power of righteousness he might rule the town, it is his succouring of Captain Credence in the day of adversity that we shall find most instructive. Credence, the spirit of faith, had suffered defeat in an encounter with the enemy and lay wounded. It was a dark hour with the leading Captain out of action, but now it was that, “Willbewill did play the Man,” for he stood up and made a brave speech of defiance to the enemy, which, “Did somewhat abate the boldness of Diabolus, and … succour the townsmen and Captains: yea, it was as a plaister to the brave Captain Credence’s Wound.” How instructive this is! There are times when faith is baffled, defeated and wounded, and the enemy is on top of us. Then it is that we are inclined to wallow in our weakness and to give way. It is at such times that an act of will is needed. We shall find the Lord responds very swiftly if we say resolutely: “I will not give way to myself, my feelings, this impossible situation; I will be strong in the Lord; God is still on the throne!” It is not that our wills are adequate in themselves, It is not a question of being strong-willed. But heaven’s power is right behind us when we are positive, on the ground of all that Christ is. Our wills may provide heaven with the only channel in a hopeless situation. What Paul says in another connection, in Romans 7:18, is capable of a wider application: “For to will is present with me.“ There is so much in the Word about this matter. Again and again we have the exhortation to be strong (Joshua 1:6, 9, 18; 1 Chron. 28:20; Haggai 2:4; Eph. 6:10). The Lord does not say, “Feel strong, imagine yourself strong,” but, “Be strong in Me,” and that is a matter of the will. Consider also the implication of such verses as: “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14), “Set your mind on the things above” (Col. 3:2), “Put to death … your members … upon the earth” (Col. 3:5), and “Be ye doers of the word” (James 1:22). The Lord is just calling us to cooperate fully with the grace of life which is in us. On another notable occasion we find Willbewill wielding the cross to great effect against the enemy. Having discovered two young Diabolonians, “He has them to Eye-Gate, where he raised a very high cross, just in the face of Diabolus and of his army, and there he hanged the young villains, in defiance to Captain Past-Hope, and of the horrible Standard of the Tyrant.” The redeemed and renewed will should be a great factor in the war. Of Willbewill, Bunyan says:.”Now Willbewill’s blows were like the blows of a giant,” as he fought alongside of Captain Credence. Faith and Resolution must fight together. The Psalmist puts it in a nutshell: “Through Thee will we push down our adversaries: Through Thy Name will we tread them under that rise up against us” (Psalm 44:5). The significance of Captain Experience While the Nine Captains came from Heaven, Experience was born in the town. He was a Mansoulian, as was his fellow, Captain Self-Denial. Captain Experience was trained by Captain Credence and always closely associated with him. Faith and experience always go hand in hand. We read that, “Captain Experience came under command to Emmanuel, for the good of the town of Mansoul,“ and that, “His Scutcheon was the dead Lion and the dead Bear!” The significance of Captain Experience is just this: he did not come from heaven, he was born in the town. God does not give us experience as a gift. He give us the comprehensive gift of Christ and requires us to use and exploit what is in Him. Christ is like an inexhaustible mine of treasure which has to be exploited, like a vast and wealthy continent which has to be explored and possessed. Our experience is what we really possess of Christ, what we have discovered in Him for ourselves. “Work out your own salvation … for it is God who worketh in you” (Phil. 2:12, 13). Christ has come into our hearts, and in Him all the potentialities of eternal life, heaven itself. How wonderful! But we must use these inexhaustible resources, we must have a heart to ‘gain Christ’, we must go up and possess our possessions. God is dealing with us as real people; there is that which He will not do for us. He must have a full response from us. Then we shall find that ours is not a life of self-effort and strain, for like Joseph, our hands will be, “Made strong, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob” (Gen.49:24). God is with us when we are with Him. CHAPTER FIVE “Now there was in the Market-place in Mansoul, and also upon the Gates of the Castle, an image of the blessed King Shaddai. This image was so exactly ingraven (and it was ingraven in gold), that it did the most resemble Shaddai himself of anything that then was extant in the World. This Diabolus basely commanded to be defaced.” In these words Bunyan vividly brings before us one of the supreme issues in the gigantic controversy which has raged for so long in and around the town of Mansoul. The question of the image, which is in and upon the town, lies at the centre of Heaven’s controversy with Hell. In Genesis 1:26, 27 we read: “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’ … And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” What a wonderful, holy and unique destiny was man’s in his creation! Created in the image of God! But, alas, the image has been defaced, and we find, “Set up in its stead the horrid and formidable image of Diabolus, to the great contempt of the former king and debasing of his town of Mansoul.” How terribly true is Bunyan’s picture. Man, who was created in the image of God, to reveal what God is like, to be His unique channel of expressing Himself, is now a tragic caricature and the expression of another nature. Not all the feverish efforts of civilisation can cover over the fact that man now belongs to the under-world. “Ye are from beneath,” is the word of the Lord Jesus (John 8:23). But the Lord is jealous for His Name. In defacing God’s image in Mansoul, Diabolus has taken His Name in vain, so that when Emmanuel comes for the town’s deliverance He has this to say to Diabolus: “Oh, thou Master of Enmity, thou hast of spite defaced my Father’s Image in Mansoul, and set up thy own in its place, to the great contempt of my Father, the heightening of thy sin, and to the intolerable damage of the perishing town of Mansoul.” And when Diabolus has been cast out by one stronger than he, we read that Emmanuel, “Commanded that the Image of Diabolus should be taken down from the place where it was set up, and that they should destroy it utterly, beating of it into powder, and casting it into the wind, without the town wall; and that the Image of Shaddai, his Father, should be set up again, with his own, upon the Castle gates; and that it should be more fairly drawn than ever, forasmuch as both his Father and himself were come to Mansoul in more Grace and Mercy than heretofore. He would also that his Name should be fairly engraven upon the front of the town, and that it should be done in the best of Gold, for the honour of the town of Mansoul.” The Lord has clearly set His heart upon having. in man, that which reveals Him, that which represents Him, that which fully responds to Him. The Lord Jesus, of course, alone, has revealed what is in the heart of God for man. In Him alone is the meaning of manhood seen. In Him we see the Father’s perfect representative, for He said: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). In Him we see one fully responsive to the Father, for He said: “I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me,” and: “I do always the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 6:38; 8:29). Now, we are being conformed to the image of Him who is the image of the invisible God. We are destined, “To be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15). Thus, the Christian life has at its centre this matter of the removal of the usurper’s image and the bringing in of the image and likeness of Him who is all His Father’s delight. Our destiny is to be like him and to have His Name on our foreheads (1 John 3:2; Rev. 22:4). How immediate, ever-present and far reaching are the implications of our destiny in union with Christ! One of our deepest needs is an adequate sense of destiny. It will help us to a better understanding of Mansoul’s destiny if we spend time considering certain features of the town itself, and in particular the significance of the Gates, the Castle and the Market-place. The five gates of Mansoul “This famous town of Mansoul had five Gates, in at which to come, out at which to go; and these were made likewise answerable to the Walls: to wit, Impregnable, and such as could never be opened nor forced but by the will and leave of those within. The names of the Gates were these: Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate, Nose-gate, and Feel-gate.” The gates speak, in the first place, of the five senses, but it is a consideration of the spiritual counterparts of our physical senses that we shall find most instructive. If our outward ears and eyes are important, how much more the inward ears and eyes of the heart. By means of our physical senses we live in this world, but the Lord is concerned to develop spiritual faculties in us, whereby we shall live with Him above. He is not of the world and we are not of the world (John 17:16), but how shall we live as those who belong to Heaven without spiritual senses? Let us look more closely at these gates. Ear-gate “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15, etc.) Ear-gate, Bunyan tells us, was the chief Gate of Mansoul, and many were the battles that raged around it during the course of the war. By nature man is spiritually deaf. We hear with our outward ears, but the inner ear of the heart is stone deaf. This is what the Lord Jesus meant when He said again and again: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” This is what John meant when he said: “They are of the world: therefore speak they as of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us not” (1 John 4:5, 6). This is why it is possible to have a great store of Bible knowledge in the mind and at the same time to be a spiritual pauper. It is not enough to hear with the outward ear; we must hear the Lord speaking to our hearts, and this is only granted to those who are acutely aware of their need. Only as we are cast upon Him will the Lord teach us; He has nothing to say to the wise and prudent and self-sufficient. But while it is true that we have no ear for God by nature—and this is true of Christians in themselves as well as of the unregenerate (see Rev. 3:22)—the Lord is set upon having a people who know His voice: “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27). The Lord Jesus as a Man had an ear for His Father’s voice: “All things that I heard from my Father I have made known unto you” (John 15:15). By new birth the life of this one is in us, and the increase of His life in us will include the development of this faculty of spiritual hearing. How important it is to the Lord that He should have, in such a day as this, those in this world who are in tune with Him, those who know what He is saying and wanting. After all, a deaf servant is not very much use to his master. The great process of conforming us to the image of His Son, the perfect Man, includes the development of this faculty. Eye-gate “Having the eyes of your heart enlightened” (Ephesians 1:18). What a lot there is in the Word about our eyes, about spiritual sight and spiritual blindness. Eye-gate was regarded as of the greatest strategic importance in the war, both by Emmanuel and by Diabolus. Unfortunately the history of the gates is too detailed for us to attempt to trace it all out here. To put it in a nutshell, while the enemy is always seeking to draw our gaze to himself and the things which are seen, the temporal things, and to frighten us by the display of his power, the Lord is ever seeking to draw our eyes away to His glory and grace and sufficiency, to the things which are not seen, the eternal realities (2 Cor. 4:18). We must learn to look at the things which are not seen! Moses endured, as seeing him who is invisible (Heb. 11:27). In other words, his spiritual eyes were wide open toward Heaven. Moses had a single eye, a singleness of purpose toward God. He also had his eyes open to the greater riches to of Christ. This too is our need, to be people walking in the full light of Heaven, because we have no eyes for anything or anyone save the Lord Himself, to be people the eyes of whose hearts are being more and more enlightened to understand the glorious meaning of our being united to the Lord of glory (Matt. 6:22, 23 ; Ephesians 1:18, 19) Mouth-gate “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). By our mouths, of course, we are able to taste, to eat and to speak, but these natural functions immediately bring before us their deeper significance. We read: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good,” and: “If ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious to (Psalm 34:8; 1 Pet. 2:3). Well, we, who know the Lord, have tasted Him, that He is both good and gracious. And are we not learning, as we go on with Him, that there are many things in ourselves and in this world that leave a nasty taste in the mouth, things that are better left alone! Then again, we read in John 6:53, 54: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life.” Well, we who are the Lord’s know that He is our life and that we have to feed upon Him continually, and are we not also learning to keep off all food that does not agree with us! We need the true bread and the living bread which is Christ, and to keep off everything else. A wrong diet surely accounts for many spiritual ailments among the Lord’s people. It is the rich, nourishing food of the living Christ that we need. We all know the difference between home-made cakes and those we generally have to buy. It is the food that cometh down out of heaven, where we belong, that we need and must have. But Mouth-gate is also the gate by which we express ourselves, and quite naturally it is with this aspect of Mouth-gate that Bunyan is occupied in his story. He speaks of it as a sally-port, that is, an opening in the fortifications through which petitions could be sent to the Court above, and through which the enemy could be assailed with the Slings of the Word. In an earlier study we have seen something of the importance of the utterance of faith in assaulting the enemy and withstanding his assaults. But, as with the other gates, there is an inner meaning to Mouth-gate, for there is a language of the heart, a speaking with the Lord in our hearts. We commune with the Lord in our hearts, in the first instance; we worship Him in spirit. If this is not true, then no words that we may utter will be true or have any value. What a lot there is in the Word about Mouth-gate, about our talking! What we say gives us away. We are revealed by our words, and, “If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man” (James 3:2). But it is the inner Mouth-gate of our hearts that must be our chief concern, what we are saying in our hearts to the Lord and about people. How easily we fall into murmuring against the Lord in our trials, not with our lips, perhaps, but in our hearts; how easily criticism of others wells up within. The Lord would establish His victory in our hearts as well as at the door of our lips. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14). Nose-gate “We are a sweet savour of Christ unto God” (2 Corinthians 2:15). At first sight it seems strange that there should be any spiritual significance in Nose-gate! Perhaps the thought of Nose-gate makes us smile! Bur there is such a thing as a spiritual sense of smell. Consider what it says of Noah’s burnt-offerings in Genesis 8:21: “And the Lord smelled the sweet savour.” Then, Paul speaks about the savour of the knowledge of God, thus likening the knowledge of Christ to a fragrant smell. Again, Paul speaks of the cross as an offering and a sacrifice to. God for an odour of a sweet smell” (Eph. 5:2). Clearly, then, there is such a thing as a spiritual sense of smell. In Bunyan’s history of the war,. we read that Diabolus placed Captain Brimstone and Captain Sepulchre at Nose-gate. Well, we have probably all encountered at some time the stifling smell of fumes and fire, and the offensive smell of death and corruption. Captain Brimstone and Captain Sepulchre are terrible spiritual forces bent upon stifling and corrupting our spiritual lives. The powers of hell can be terribly real, pervading, as it were, the very atmosphere. Then again, a sense of smell can often be our salvation: but for it many of us would have been gassed long ago! If it is true—and it is—to speak of the fragrance of Christ, it is also true to speak of the noisome odour of the under-world. The Lord make us those who are quick to scent where the fragrance of Christ is, and those who carry His fragrance upon us; the Lord make us quick to scent and to avoid everything unsavoury or dangerous. “Wisdom … her ways are ways of pleasantness” (Proverbs 3:13, 17). Feel-gate “In all their affliction He was afflicted” (Isa. 63:9). “Captain Cruel and Captain Torment, these Diabolus drew up, and placed against Feel-gate, and commanded them to sit down there for the war. And he also appointed that, if need were, Captain No-Ease should come in to their relief.” “So the Night was come, and all things by the Tyrant made ready for the work, he suddenly makes his assault upon Feel-gate, and after he had a while struggled there he throws the Gates wide open: for the truth is, those Gates were but weak, and so most easily made to yield.” The enemy knows how to deploy his forces to the best advantage! How well he knows our weak points! He knows all about Feel-gate, and how to put the pressure on, using Cruel and Torment, and how to keep it on with the help of No-Ease. At one time in the campaign, the body of the town was overrun through Feel-gate. Oh, yes, we know a little of what Paul meant when he said: “We were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, in so much that we despaired even of life.” But then Paul also had the experience of a glorious deliverance: “Out of so great a death” (2 Cor. 1:1-10). The victorious Christian life is not a life in which we are always feeling happy and glibly praising the Lord—it is rather a life in which we triumph in His triumph in the face of overwhelming, impossible odds. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians throws a great deal of light on this. But Feel-gate also brings before us the spiritual faculty of touch, or spiritual sensitiveness. We all know how wonderfully the physical faculty of touch is developed in a person afflicted with blindness, so that it is even possible for him to read by touch. Spiritual sensitivity is a wonderful thing. We should be learning all the time, from the reactions of the Holy Spirit in our spirits, what we may and what we may not touch. Now the sum of what we have said is this: that the conforming of us to the image of Christ involves and includes the development in us of spiritual senses. In Adam we possess natural senses, in Christ we possess spiritual senses. Our natural faculties are inherent in human life, but they have to develop none the less. Our spiritual faculties are inherent in Christ’s life in us, but they too must develop. To this end the Holy Spirit is with us that we may grow up in all things into Him, that is, that His image may be increasingly found in us. The castle-palace in the midst of Mansoul “There was reared up in the midst of this town a most famous and stately Palace; for strength it might be called a Castle; for pleasantness a Paradise; for largeness a place so copious as to contain all the world. This place the King Shaddai intended but for himself alone.” In these graphic words Bunyan pictures to us the inward man (Eph. 3:16), the very heart of Mansoul, the inner citadel of the human spirit. It was in this Palace that Shaddai intended to dwell, for the human spirit constitutes man a being who is able to have communion with God, who is spirit. Man is fundamentally a spiritual being. When Diabolus captured the town, he made the Castle his headquarters. The human spirit has thus made possible an unholy alliance with the evil one, so that we read of, “The spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). We need to see that salvation involves a very deep work of grace in us, reaching down to the hidden recesses of our beings, far below the world of our consciousness. The Castle has got to be cleared of the enemy as well as the Market-place and the Walls. Our redemption includes that of our spirits, souls and bodies (1 Thess. 5:23). If we realised something of the magnitude of the Holy Spirit’s task to sanctify us wholly, we should understand better some of His deep ways with us. Bunyan speaks of the Castle as ‘the whole strength of the town’ and the ‘Prerogative-royal of Mansoul’; which means just this, that whoever possessed the Castle possessed the town. The Castle was the key to the town. How illuminating this is! Satan’s objective in assailing man at the beginning was to sever man’s link with God and to establish a spiritual link between man and his kingdom of darkness. The Lord’s first objective in seeking fallen man is to establish a bridgehead in the human spirit, and this is just what happens at new birth: the Holy Spirit establishes a bridgehead of life in the human spirit (John 3:6). Emmanuel knew that in order to gain the whole town He had to be. Master of the Castle. Now, here is something of the greatest importance. Until the Lord has captured the inner citadel of the heart, however much the outer defences may have been battered, the town remains in enemy hands. It is quite possible for a life to take a terrible battering, to feel the impact of Emmanuel’s slings, to have the emotions stirred, to have the mind convinced and to hear the booming voice of con science. to have reached a point of apparent surrender, and still to remain in the hands of the enemy. Until a life has capitulated to the Lord and He has taken up residence within there can be no certainty as to the issue of the battle. But once the Lord is Master of the castle the issue is settled. The Castle in contrast to the Market-place Now while the Castle pictures to us the spirit, the residence of the Holy Spirit and the seat of God-consciousness, the Market-place brings before us the sphere of conscious life, the soul, the sphere of self-conscious and world-conscious life. While we need to beware of the pitfall of self analysis, it is clearly possible to distinguish between soul and spirit, or the Word of God would not talk about the dividing of soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12). A very great deal is bound up with our so learning to distinguish, but only the Holy Spirit can explain the difference and this He will do largely in experience. The Market-place was the place where the townsmen congregated, where proclamations were read; it was the place of Audience. It was there that business was transacted, for Mansoul was a Market-town. How well the picture of a market portrays the human soul; a place of traffic, of turbulent desires and emotions, of eager self-interest, of incessant hubbub! How well we know the whirl of this life as it makes its impact upon us every day, and how great is the need of retiring into the castle, as it were, that is, into quiet communion with the Lord in our spirits, deeper down than all the turmoil. But our immediate point is this, that our souls are the vantage ground of the enemy. At one point in the war the enemy broke into the town and, “The body of the town was the Seat of War,” for about two years and a half. It may be that we have known times when the enemy has got right on top of us, when we have felt at the end of everything, when Conscience has been upon a rack, when Understanding has almost had his eyes put out and we have been battered into bewilderment. Then it is that we need to recall that in the hour of crisis the Castle held out. The Lord Secretary was still in the Castle, and with him the Heavenly captains and Willbewill also, and Godly-Fear was keeper of the Castle gates. When the enemy comes in like a flood we must learn to retire to the quiet strength of the Castle, and as we do we shall find that the Lord lifts up a standard against him (Isa. 59:19). We are united to the Lord much deeper down than our feelings and understanding. It is only the surface of the sea that is whipped up by the storm: the deep is quite unaffected by it. The Lord would have us learn to live with Him in the Castle: so will the rest of the town come under the power of His peace. The cross and the image, in the Market-place We have already said that the Market-place of the soul is in a particular way the haunt of the enemy. It was here that the disguised Diabolonians offered their services to the Mansoulians, and Mr. Mind hired Prudent-Thrifty (really Lord Covetousness), Mr. Godly-Fear hired Good-Zeal (really Lord Anger), and Willbewill hired Harmless-Mirth (really Lord Lasciviousness). It is in the realm of our feelings our emotions, our desires, our likes and dislikes, our ideas and opinions, that the enemy deceives us and takes us in. For this reason the cross was set up in the Market-place. Wherever the enemy is found the cross comes in to answer him. The power of the cross has to be planted deeply into our corrupted and deceivable souls for their recovery. Now, the soul is the man. It is written: “And man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). Man is a spiritual being but he is also a soul. We are real people, real individuals. Man’s soul is wonderful material for good or evil. While the enemy is out to degrade and to destroy us and to utilise us for his own ends, the Lord is out to recover and gain our souls, us, by His cross for His glory. See how Satan employs the souls of fallen men for his own ends: why, this world is serving Satan day and night, through its ambitions, longings, desires, thoughts, intentions and self-seeking. But the Lord’s concern is to set up His image in the Market. In the beginning the image was upon the castle gates and in the Market-place also. When Emmanuel recaptured the town, a still fairer image was set upon the Castle gates, and His Name engraven upon the front of the town, but there is no mention of the image in the Market-place. How significant is this omission! We may in a moment come to bear His image upon our spirits at new birth, for He has entered; we may in a moment come to bear His Name upon us when we become His; but the image in the Market-place involves a great work in us whereby we are changed in character, transformed into the same image from glory to glory, until we are conformed to the image of his Son, and to this great work the Lord the Spirit has set His hand. CHAPTER SIX “Remember, therefore, O my Mansoul, that thou art beloved of me: as I have, therefore, taught thee to watch, to fight, to pray, and to make war against my foes, so now I command thee to believe that my love is constant to thee. O my Mansoul, how have I set my Heart, my Love upon thee! Watch! Behold, I lay none other burden upon thee than what thou hast already. Hold fast till I come.” With these strong, loving, words from the lips of Emmanuel, Bunyan closes his history of ‘Holy War’, and it now remains for us, in this our concluding study, to round off, to sum up, and to hear the conclusion of the matter. Of course, the war will still go on, as far as we are concerned—very much so! We shall continue to experience the overwhelming strength of the enemy—and also to find that the Lord is greater. We shall be tested to breaking point, that patience may have its perfect work and that we, “May be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4). But the Lord will always have the last word, and that will be life and resurrection for us. The need will remain of our cooperation with the grace of life, moment by moment, and that immense work of recovery to which the Lord has set His hand will go on in the face of all the enemy can do, until heaven’s glorious design for Mansoul is accomplished, and it is, “A spectacle of wonder, a monument of mercy, and the admirer of its own mercy.” From the many things which we might still consider with profit (there seems to be no end to Bunyan’s treasure-house!), we must now select a few for our closing consideration. Time would fail to tell of Emmanuel’s shining livery, which the Mansoulians put on, “According to their size and stature;” nor can we speak of how the town, “Minded her trade that she had with the Country that was afar off,” and of how she, “Was busy in her Manufacture.” The story of the three young fellows that had a mind to go for soldiers’ must wait upon our interest. Their names, of course, were Mr. Tradition, Mr. Human-Wisdom, and Mr. Man’s-Invention: “Proper men they were, and men of courage and skill, to appearance.” We must also pass by the armoury of Diabolus, where he furnished enslaved Mansoul with such pieces as the breastplate of a hard heart, and the shield of unbelief. To Bunyan we must go for the full story of how Mr. Conscience became Junior Minister and Under-Secretary to the Lord Chief Secretary: of how this most noble Secretary helped the town to draw up its petition to Emmanuel, and of His close friendship with Captain Credence. Time indeed would fail to tell of the heavenly food and music that Emmanuel brought with Him into Mansoul; of the curious riddles of secrets drawn up by his Father’s Secretary; of how the roaring of Diabolus’ drum was answered by the melodious silver trumpets; of how Lord Reason was wounded in the head; of how the wounded Captain Experience went out to battle on his crutches, to the dismay of the enemy; and of much more besides. We must turn now to consider a few of Bunyan’s so pregnant phrases. “Spy out the weakness of the town.” The enemy is particularly interested in our weak points! Diabolus, bent upon regaining Mansoul, writes as follows to his allies within: “Endeavour to spy out the weakness of the town of Mansoul. Send us word also by what means you think we had best to attempt the regaining thereof: namely, whether by persuasion to a vain and loose life; or, whether by tempting them to doubt and despair; or, whether by blowing up the town by the gunpowder of pride and self-conceit.” The reply he received runs as follows: “We have concluded, that though to blow them up with the gunpowder of pride would do well, and to do it by tempting them to be loose and vain will help on, yet to contrive to bring them into the gulf of desperation we think will do best of all. And of all the nations that are at your whistle, we think that an army of doubters may be the most likely to attack and overcome the town of Mansoul.” Bunyan is, of course, writing out of his own history. For long years he was assailed by doubts, terrible doubts as to whether he had any part with Christ; doubts as to his election (he tells us that the Election-doubters were the life-guard of Diabolus); doubts as to his calling: doubts as to his salvation. His whole life was overshadowed by a terrible question-mark; he had no assurance of salvation. But this is the point: Bunyan did not realise then that the enemy was playing him up and concentrating on his weak spot. He was inclined to be introspective and melancholic, and the enemy knew it. That is why he employed his army of terrible Doubters against him, and that is why we find this particular form of assault in the ‘Holy War’. If Bunyan had been of, say, the proud type the story would doubtless have gone differently, and we should have found the enemy concentrating upon the use of the gunpowder of pride for the destruction of the town. Here, surely, is something of great importance. The enemy knows us and he will adapt his method of assault according to our vulnerability. Are we inclined to introspection and continually falling under condemnation? Then the enemy will keep us very busy with our wretchedness, and put us out of the fight in that way. Are we impulsive? Then he will trap us through our impulsiveness. Are we placid by nature? Then the enemy will lull us into a soul-destroying complacency. Are we among the light-hearted and easy-going? Then a spirit of superficiality will be our undoing. Of one thing we can be certain: the enemy will play upon our weaknesses, our temperaments, our make-up. Have we not all proved it again and again? Take the story of Samson, and watch the enemy plot his undoing: or take the history of Peter, and see him trapped in the net of his own impetuosity. What shall we do then? Let us ask the Lord to make us wise to our own vulnerable points and strong to abide in Him who has none. “Inventing a way to make them sin.” The enemy’s objective is to obtain and maintain a foothold in us. His ground in the saints is the measure of his strength in them. Our flesh is his ground: hence the great importance of the Lord’s word in Romans 6 and kindred passages. Satan has a great deal of ground, a terrible foothold, in everyone of us by nature; but the glory of Romans 6:6 is this, that the cross has robbed him of his ground, and we are now, “Alive unto God in Christ Jesus.” Of course, while we remain in this world, the enemy will always have potential ground in us, but he need have no actual ground in us. While the possibility of sin will remain to the end, the need to sin has gone for ever. Now, it was for this reason that Diabolus was so concerned to invent ways in which to make Mansoul sin. Through sin the town would become linked up with him, and provide him with a standing within it; further, sin would keep Emmanuel at a distance. How deeply we need to realise that only as we are separated from Satan and his kingdom by the Blood and the cross, can God be with us. God cannot be with us if we are in any way cooperating with His enemy. Let us listen to Bunyan’s record of the counsels of hell: “And this I will tell you, that two or three Diabolonians, if entertained and countenanced by the town of Mansoul, will do more to the keeping of Emmanuel from them, and towards making the town your own, there can an army of a legion … but this must be done by time.” “There is no way to bring them into bondage to us, like inventing a way to make them sin … you know Mansoul is a Market-town; what if some of our Diabolonians feign themselves far country men, and bring to the Market some of our wares to sell? May we not, by this means, so cumber Mansoul with abundance, that they shall be forced to make of their Castle a Warehouse? Thus, if we get our goods thither, I reckon that the Castle is more than half ours.” What shall we do then, in face of such insidious intrigue? Let us abide in Him in whom the enemy has no foothold; let us abide in the emancipating power of His cross; let us trust the Lord in His mercy and faithfulness to uncover to us any ground that the enemy may have or get in our lives, and let us be swift to take such ground from him. Only as we abide in Him, and cleave to one another in Him, as one body, one family, will the enemy be stripped of his power to make havoc of our lives and of our life together as the church. “That no advantage may be gained over us by Satan: for we are not ignorant of his devices” (1 Cor. 2:11). “Remember my captains; nourish them, my Mansoul” Here is the positive side. Not only must we watch to see that the enemy gains no ground in our flesh, but we must nourish, encourage and co-operate with the heavenly Captains, that is, with the ‘energies’ of divine life resident in us. What we have said before, we say again: that the Christian life is a holy communion between the grace of God and us. While, on the one hand, the Lord will take great pains to deliver us from everything of self effort, on the other He will always be seeking to draw us out in cooperation. He wants our cooperation and He needs it. It is a solemn thought that we have power over our destinies—that is, that we may despise or neglect our calling and resources in Christ. How easy it is for the spiritual life to become, “Choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life”. How many of the Lord’s people are languishing spiritually as the result of neglecting their life with the Lord, their calling in Him, or their life in His family, or both. Such neglect is always disastrous; we thereby weaken Emmanuel’s captains, and quench the Spirit. Let us listen again to Emmanuel’s charge to Mansoul as recorded by Bunyan: “These Captains are your Fence and your Guard, your Wall, your Gates, your Locks, and your Bars. If they be weak, Mansoul cannot be strong; if they be strong, then Mansoul cannot be weak: your safety, therefore, doth lie in their health, and in your countenancing them. Remember also that if they be sick, they catch that disease of the town itself.” “Thou seest what a company of my Father’s host I have lodged within thy borders; Captains and Rulers … they are my Servants, and thine, too, Mansoul. Yea, my design of possessing of thee with them, and the natural tendency of each of them, is to defend, purge, strengthen, and sweeten thee for myself.” “Remember my Captains; nourish them, my Mansoul.” May the Lord open our eyes, and show us how to sow to the Spirit and to cooperate with the grace of life. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth unto his own flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:7, 8). “Fast joyned together” This descriptive little phrase comes in Bunyan’s beautiful account of Mansoul’s beginnings, where we read: “There was not a Rascal, Rogue, or Traitorous person then within its Walls: They were all true men, and fast joyned together; and this, you know, is a great matter.” Truly, unity, harmony, is a great matter! Sin has brought discord into the universe and into our hearts. We, by nature, are out of tune with God, with ourselves and with one another. Grace is at work to restore the unity and harmony. In ourselves we are just one great discord, a bundle of divided loyalties, an agony of irreconcilable interests. Only in Christ, and as we are centred in Him, do our lives know any unity and harmony and order. The Lord Jesus embodies Heaven’s harmony—a Man in tune with God; a Man with a united heart; with no inward conflict; a Man poured out for others in self-less love. Oh, the effectiveness of such a life and of such a Church! Small wonder the enemy spends so much of his time creating chaos, disunity and discord. Well do we pray with David: “Unite my heart to fear thy name” (Psalm 86:11). Well do we seek with Paul, “To keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). Listen again to Bunyan’s description of Mansoul when Mr. God’s-Peace, one of Emmanuel’s officers, presided over all: “Now there were no jars, no chiding, no interferings, no unfaithful doings in all the town of Mansoul; every man in Mansoul kept close to his own imployment. The Gentry, the Officers, the Soldiers, and all in place, observed their order. And as for the Women and Children of the town, they followed their business joyfully: they would work and sing, work and sing, from morning till night: so that quite through the town of Mansoul now, nothing was to be found but Harmony, Quietness, Joy, and Health.” “Thou deceiving one didst put the lie upon my Father” The enemy in the role of slanderer is a notable feature of the ‘Holy War’. He delights to slander the Lord, to insinuate as to His motives, to cast doubts upon His love to us, to misinterpret His ways; in a word, to make the Lord out to be what He is not, to, “Put the lie upon Him.” We need to be very alive to this device, especially as the war draws on to its climax and close. The enemy is never more pleased than when he has managed to bring a cloud over our relationship with the Lord. If he can succeed here we are an easy prey. When Diabolus assaulted Mansoul at the first, he made out that the town was being kept in ignorance and slavery and poverty by an unreasonable tyrant. How many people have swallowed Satan’s lie and think of God in this way! Then, when Diabolus was entrenched in the town and heard that Shaddai was on the move for its recovery, he lied again in these words: “Your old King Shaddai is raising of an Army to come against you, to destroy you root and branch … do not believe him upon any terms.” What a master of misinterpretation is Satan! Then again, when Mansoul had sinned and Emmanuel had temporarily withdrawn, Diabolus came again with these sinister suggestions: “Do you hope, do you wait, do you look for help and deliverance? You have sent to Emmanuel, but your wickedness sticks too close in your skirts, to let innocent prayers come out of your lips. You will fail in your wish, you will fail in your attempts; for it is not only I, but your Emmanuel is against you: yea, it is he that hath sent me against you to subdue you. For what, then, do you hope? or by what means will you escape?” How the enemy loves to take hold of our failures and our experiences of chastening, and to make us feel God-forsaken, that the Lord is against us! No way to paralyse us like this! Oh, let us settle it in our hearts, that the Lord is always for us if we are cleaving to Christ, having no plea but His precious blood. Let us beware of that paralysing lie that hints otherwise, and listen to Emmanuel’s command: “Believe that my love is constant to thee.” “Live upon my word” “Nor must thou think always to live by sense: thou must live upon my Word. Thou must believe, O my Mansoul, when I am from thee, that yet I love thee, and bear thee upon my heart for ever.” As we walk by faith with the Lord, oft-times we have to pass through dark places where we cannot see Him; He is veiled from sight. It is at these times, when we seem to be alone, that we must learn to live in simple trust upon His Word, His promises. Such times are part of our training in trustworthiness. It is a great thing to be able to rise above our feelings, our fears and our problems. Old Evil-Questioning so frequently stalks our hearts; we must hang him. Or perchance it is his child, Live-by-Feeling, who is troubling us. Let us take note that he was arrested, with his brother Legal-Life, by Captain Self-Denial and Lord Willbewill, who, “Put them in hold till they died.” We not only live by faith in the Word, but by obedience to it. At one point in the campaign, when Mansoul had set the meaning of the cross aside and become familiar with the Diabolonians again, the townsmen came to the Lord Secretary for help: but He, being, “Ill at ease,” had nothing to say to them but this: “You must look to the Law of the Prince, and there see what is laid upon you to do.” We shall get no response from Heaven unless we abide in the meaning of the cross. Joshua may rend his clothes, fall upon his face and pour out his complaint to the Lord, but the Lord will only say: “Get thee up … Israel hath sinned … Up, sanctify the people” (Joshua 7:10, 11, 13). The Lord will not come down to us in our disobedience; He insists that we arise and do His will. “It was I!” “We are his workmanship” (Eph. 2:10). We have had occasion in earlier studies to remark upon the wonderful sovereignty of the Lord which lies behind the whole course of the conflict. As we contemplate the struggle in its details and parts, the issue would sometimes seem to be in doubt, but when we look off to the throne in Heaven the issue is gloriously certain. Listen to Emmanuel speaking to Mansoul at the end of the story: “Thou seest, my Mansoul, how I have passed by thy backslidings, and have healed thee … because I loved thee still. 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. ‘Twas I that made thy sweet bitter, thy day night, thy smooth way thorny, and that also confounded all that sought thy destruction. It was I that set Mr. Godly-Fear to work in Mansoul. ‘Twas I that stirred up thy Conscience and Understanding, thy Will and thy Affections, after thy great and woful decay. ‘Twas 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. ‘Twas I…” How wonderful are the Lord’s ways with our lives! When we see Him we shall have many surprises, for then all our questions will be answered. He will say to us, perhaps: “You remember that dark, puzzling experience, through which you passed in such anguish: well, it was I; I was behind that, doing a work in you and for you, which could be done in no other way. You know now that it was I; it was no cruel misfortune, it was I. You see, I love you.” Yes, we shall be amazed in that day, to discover just how wonderfully we have been in His hands. But shall we not here and now rejoice and rest in the fact that we are His workmanship, and that He is working all things—not just some things, but all things—together for good in our lives? “O My Mansoul!” There is a great heart behind this universe. The Lord loves Mansoul. “He built it for his own delight … He built it and beautified it for Himself.” No words can express what is in His heart toward us, His children, His people, but we know what is written: “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my resting-place for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. (Psalm 132:13, 14). “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it … that He might present the church to Himself a glorious church” (Eph. 5:25, 27). The Lord is concerned not merely to oust the enemy, but to win Mansoul. The Lord wants to win our hearts, to find a full and intelligent love in us. This is the supreme issue of the war. The Lord wants us wholly for Himself. How far has the Lord captured our hearts? The Lord is calling us on into ever deeper fellowship with Himself. He will not be content until from full hearts we cry: “Come and dwell in the midst of us, and let us be thy people … accept of our Palace for thy place of residence … conquer us with thy love, and overcome us with thy grace.” The prize for which Heaven and hell contend is man. In the Lord Jesus, God has revealed His thought and will for humanity, for man-kind—for us. What a conception! What a destiny, to be conformed to such a Man, a glorified Man! God is at war to secure a race of people like His Son—a glorious, harmonious, ordered race. His own satisfaction and vindication in the eternal ages, and His Son’s inheritance, are bound up with this race, this new creation, this glorious church: that is, with us! What a destiny! Mansoul is destined to be God’s masterpiece, the top-piece, a spectacle of wonder, a monument of mercy, and the admirer of its own mercy. May the Lord enlighten us. “You, my Mansoul, and the beloved of my heart … have I singled out from others, and have chosen you to myself … I have also redeemed you … I have bought thee for myself … bear in mind my love … 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 … Show me, then, thy Love, my Mansoul … Love me against temptation, and I will love thee notwithstanding thine infirmities … Remember, therefore, O my Mansoul, that thou art beloved of me … Hold fast till I come.”