_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_.