'Then I was there, and grieved for to see
Diabolus and Mansoul so agree.'
This alteration, which perverts the author's meaning, appears in a London edition, 1752, and has been copied into many modern editions, even into those by Mason and Burder.[2]
The author having in the above lines described his unconverted state, goes on to delineate his convictions in these words:—
'What is here in view,
Of mine own knowledge, I dare say is true.
I saw the Prince's armed men come down,
I saw the captains, heard the trumpets sound;
Yea, how they set themselves in battle-ray,
I shall remember to my dying day.'
The whole of this address is descriptive of what the author saw, felt, or heard—
'What shall I say? I heard the people's cries,
And saw the Prince wipe tears from Mansoul's eyes;
I heard the groans, and saw the joy of many,
Tell you of all, I neither will, nor can I;
But by what here I say, you well may see
That Mansoul's matchless wars no fables be.'
The narrative of this eventful war is authenticated by his personal feelings while under the chastising, correcting, hand of his heavenly Father; in his new birth and subsequent experience; in bringing his soul from darkness to marvellous light, and from the wretched bondage of sin to the glorious liberty of the gospel. This address is closed with a very important notice, which all our readers should keep constantly in mind—it is to attend to the author's key to the allegory, and that is his marginal notes—
'Nor do thou go to work without my key,
(In mysteries men soon do lose their way),
And also turn it right, if thou would'st know
My riddle, and would'st with my heifer plough,
It lies there in the window, fare thee well,
My next may be to ring thy passing-bell.'
The last line strongly reminds us of the author's difficulty to quit the gin and beer-drinking practice of bell-ringing, to which in his youth he was so much addicted. It is recorded in his 'Grace Abounding,' Nos. 33 and 34.[3]
The form and order of the narrative is exceedingly beautiful, and deeply interesting to those who have been engaged in a similar warfare. Passing over the short and vivid narration of the fall of man, our personal feelings are excited by witnessing the methods of grace, adapted by a covenant-keeping God and Father, to rescue his people from their natural state of Diabolonian slavery. Many of the incidents will bring, to the enlightened reader's recollection, the solemn and powerful impressions under which he struggled, when opposing the invitations of Emmanuel. His holy joy, when a sense of pardoning love and mercy came over his soul; and his anxieties, when in conflict with doubts, and fears, and bloodmen.