Transcribed from the 1907 Religious Tract Society edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org
THE HOLY WAR MADE
BY SHADDI UPON
DIABOLUS FOR THE
REGAINING OF THE METROPOLIS
OF THE WORLD OR THE LOSING
AND TAKING AGAIN OF THE TOWN
OF MANSOUL. BY JOHN BUNYAN
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WITH THREE
COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS
BY VICTOR PROUT {0}
* * * * *
“I have used similitudes.” Hosea xii. 10
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[Picture: Decorative design]
London
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
4 Bouverie Street and 65 St Paul’s Churchyard
1907
* * * * *
PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
PREFACE.
_IN the year 1682 there was published by Dorman Newman_, ‘_at the King’s
Arms in the Poultry_,’_ and Benjamin Alsop_, ‘_at the Angel and Bible in
the Poultry_,’_ a volume entitled_ ‘_The Holy War_, _made by Shaddai upon
Diabolus for the regaining of the Metropolis of the World; or the Losing
and Taking again of the Town of Mansoul_.’_ It was the work of John
Bunyan_, _who_, _sixteen years before_, _had published the story of his
own spiritual struggle under the title of_ ‘_Grace abounding to the Chief
of Sinners_’;_ and_, _but four years before_, _had produced_ ‘_The
Pilgrim’s Progress_’ (_Part I_). _Bunyan had speedily followed the issue
of the_ ‘_Pilgrim’s Progress_’ _with the_ ‘_Life and Death of Mr.
Badman_,’_ picture of English life and character as he had seen it_,
_grimly faithful to fact_. _In_ ‘_The Holy War_’_ Bunyan returned to
allegory_. _As a piece of literature the book is in no way inferior to
the_ ‘_Pilgrim’s Progress_.’_ If Bunyan had written nothing else_, ‘_The
Holy War_’ _would have sufficed to establish his claim to a place amongst
the masters of English prose_. _As an appeal to the conscience it is not
a whit less effective than the_ ‘_Pilgrim’s Progress_’; _but in the power
of seizing and retaining the reader’s attention it is scarcely so
successful_. _Nevertheless Macaulay held that_ ‘_if there had been no_
“_Pilgrim’s Progress_” “_The Holy War_” _would have been the first of
religious allegories_.’
_In working out the details of_ ‘_The Holy War_’ _Bunyan seems to have
kept in mind his own experience_. _The fortifications of the city_, _the
movements of the opposing forces_, _the changes in the municipal offices
of Mansoul were reproductions of scenes and events that had but recently
gone on under Bunyan’s eyes_. _He adapted them with extraordinary
success to the presentation both of the doctrines of grace and of the
temptations which attend the Christian life_. _The characters and the
incidents are_, _in effect_, _the characters and incidents of every age_.
_It is this which gives to the story of Mansoul its undying freshness_,
_and suits it to the needs of men in all climes_. ‘_The Holy War_’ _has
been translated into many languages_, _including some of those with the
scantiest of literature_. _Indeed_, _as this edition is being prepared
for the press_, _assistance is being rendered by the Religious Tract
Society in the printing of_ ‘_The Holy War_’ _in Kongo_.
_A. R. BUCKLAND_.