Transcribed from the 1907 Religious Tract Society edition byDavid Price,

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 JOHNBUNYAN

WITHTHREE
COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS
BY VICTOR PROUT [0]

“I have usedsimilitudes.”  Hosea xii. 10

London
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
4 Bouverie Street and 65 St Paul’s Churchyard
1907

PRINTEDBY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

PREFACE.

In the year 1682 therewas published by Dorman Newman, ‘at the King’sArms in the Poultry,’ and Benjamin Alsop,‘at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry,’ avolume entitled ‘The Holy War, made byShaddai upon Diabolus for the regaining of the Metropolis of theWorld; or the Losing and Taking again of the Town ofMansoul.’  It was the work of John Bunyan,who, sixteen years before, had published thestory 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’ (PartI).  Bunyan had speedily followed the issue ofthe ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ withthe ‘Life and Death of Mr. Badman,’picture of English life and character as he had seen it,grimly faithful to fact.  In ‘TheHoly War’ Bunyan returned to allegory. As a piece of literature the book is in no way inferior tothe ‘Pilgrim’s Progress.’ If Bunyan had written nothing else, ‘The HolyWar’ would have sufficed to establish his claim to aplace amongst the masters of English prose.  As anappeal to the conscience it is not a whit less effective thanthe ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’; but inthe power of seizing and retaining the reader’s attentionit is scarcely so successful.  Nevertheless Macaulayheld that ‘if there had been no“Pilgrim’s Progress” “The HolyWar” would have been the first of religiousallegories.’

In working out the details of ‘The HolyWar’ Bunyan seems to have kept in mind his ownexperience.  The fortifications of the city,the movements of the opposing forces, the changes inthe municipal offices of Mansoul were reproductions of scenes andevents that had but recently gone on under Bunyan’seyes.  He adapted them with extraordinary success tothe presentation both of the doctrines of grace and of thetemptations which attend the Christian life.  Thecharacters and the incidents are, in effect, thecharacters and incidents of every age.  It is thiswhich gives to the story of Mansoul its undying freshness,and suits