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Diabolus

marches up to the town.

So they drew up, and fat down before Ear-gate; for that was the place of hearing for all without the town, as Eye-gate was the place of perception. So,. as I faid, he came up with his train to the gate, and laid his ambuscade for captain Refiftance, within bowfhot of the town. This done, the giant afcended up close to the gate, and called to the town of Manfoul for audience. Nor took he any with him but one Ill-paufe, who was his orator in all difficult matters. Now, as I faid, he being come up to the gate (as the manner of those times was), founded his trumpet for auThe lords of dience; at which the chief of the town of Manfoul ap- Manfoul, fuch as my lord Innocent, my lord Will-be-will, (a) my Lord-mayor, Mr. Recorder, (b) and captain Refiftance, came down to the wall to see who was there, and what was the matter. And my lord Will-be-will, when he looked over, and faw who ftood at the gate, demanded what he was, and wherefore he was come, and why he roufed the town of Manfoul with fo unusual a found?

peared.

Diabolus's oration.

Diabolus then, as if he had been a lamb, began his oration, and faid, "Gentlemen of the famous town of Manfoul, I am, as

you

(a) The will. While that remained unshaken, as before obferved, the enemy could gain no advantage: man's will, and God's, were originally one; but are now in a state of oppofition and contrariety. However, when grace has rectified the will, and given it a bias to what is holy, juft, and good, it is then in a measure brought into a conformity to the will of God; the Lord having made us willing, in the day of his power, Pf. cx. 3. and God accepts our imperfect services, when performed in faith, through the prevailing interceffion of Chrift, if there be first a willing mind. See 2 Cor. viii.

12.

(b) The confcience. It evidently appears from many places in fcripture, that there is in man a confcience; fee Rom. ix. 1, &c. which is as a light, or witnefs for God in the foul: the book of confcience is one of thofe out of which the ungodly world will be judged at the great day. St. Paul, fpeaking of the heathens, obferves, that their confcience bears them witness, either by accufing, or else excufing them, Rom. ii. 15.-Sins againft that faithful monitor, confcience, will be feverely fmarted for by the believer,

you may perceive, 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, firft, I will affure 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 manifeft, by that I have opened my mind to you. For, Gentlemen, I am (to tell you the truth) come to fhew you how you may obtain great and ample deliverance from a bondage that unawares to yourselves you are captivated and enflaved under.' At this the town of Manfoul began

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Manfoul en

to prick up it's ears. "And what is it,. gaged. pray? what is it?" thought they. And he faid, "I have fomething to fay to you concerning your King, concerning his law, and alfo touching yourselves. Touching your King, I know he is great and potent; but yet, all that he has faid to you is neither true, not yet for your advantage. (a) 1. It is not true; for Diabolus's subthat wherewith he hath hitherto awed you, tilty made up fhall not come to pafs, 'tho' you do the of lyes. thing he hath forbidden. But if there was danger, what a flavery is it to live always in fear of the greatest of punifhments, for doing so small and trivial a thing as eating a little fruit is! 2. Touching his laws, this I fay, further, they are both unreasonable, intricate, and intolerable. Unreasonable, as was hinted before, for that the punish

ment

(a) Here our Saviour's remark was verified, that Satan is a lyar, and the father of lyes, John viii. 44. for, in the beginning of the temptation, he gives the God of truth the lye, by denying that his threatened punishment on disobedience would enfue; and artfully infinuated, that the prohibition was only intended to with-held fome real good from the foul, as fuperior knowledge, liberty, &c.-but our too credulous ancestors were foon fatally convinced, that, by their tranfgreflion of the divine command, all good was loft, and all evil got; even ípiritual, temperal, and eternal death.

• Falfe reafoning by Diabolus.

ment is not proportioned to the offence: there is a great difference and difproportion betwixt 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 faith, firft, you may eat of all; and yet, after, forbids the eating of one. And then, in the last place, it must needs be intolerable; forafmuch 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 minifter you a good as yet unknown by you. This is manifeft 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 defired to make one wife, it is, fo long as you ftand by your King's commandment. Why fhould you be holden in ignorance and blindnefs? Why thould you not be enlarged in knowledge and understanding? And now, O ́ye inhabitants of the famous town of Manfoul, to speak more particularly to yourselves, ye are not He holds out a a free people: (a) ye are kept both in bondage and flavery, and that by a grievous threat,

falfe liberty.

по

(a) This bafe and falfe fuggeftion of Satan,-that the divine injunction, not to taste the fruit, debarred man of a degree of wisdom effential to his happiness, and laid a restraint on the freedom of his will-injected pride, and a defire of independence, into the breaft of Eve: whereas, on the -contrary, the beneficent. Creator, knowing that the tranfgreflon of his command could only impart the knowledge that they fhould thereby become the fubjects of fin and mifery, gracioufly warned them by the threatened penalty.The true and nobler freedom and rectitude of the will was totally deftroyed as foon as fin had perverted it: it was then free to nothing but evil continually, and ever rebellious against God. Hence we fee, and feel too, the dire effects of not implicitly obeying the precept iffued by Goodness itself, and the dreadful confequences of reafoning with the temptation.Reader, note well, that all the commands and threatenings of God, if duly attended to, will be found, in the end, to be tokens of love and kindness to thy too impatient and unstable foul.

Diabolus, in the form of a Dragon, attended by Ill-pause, harangu· ing the Town of Mansoul, while Capt Resistance is fulling from the Walls, having been shot by Tisiphone in Ambascade?

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