After successfully infiltrating Mansoul with two Diabolonians, a message was sent to Diabolus by the hand of Mr. Profane. When Mr. Profane arrived at Hellgate Hill, He conversed with Cerberus, the wretched watchdog and hound of Hellgate. Their conversation continued, Mr. Profane saying, the contrivance is almost finished. The lords in Mansoul that are Diabolonians are at it day and night. The others are like silly doves, lacking a heart to be concerned with their state, to consider that ruin is at hand. Besides, you may, yes, even must think. When you put all things together, there are many reasons that prevail with Diabolus to make what haste he can. Cerberus said, You said it like it is. I am glad things have come to pass as they have. Go in my brave profane to my lords. They will give you for your welcome as good a chaotic and disorderly dance as the whole of this kingdom can afford. I have sent your letter in already. Then Mr. Profane went into the den, and his lord, Diabolus, met him and saluted him, saying, Welcome, my trusty servant. I have been made glad by your letter. The rest of the lords of the pit also gave him their salutations. Then Profane, after he bowed to them all, said, Let Mansoul be given to my lord, Diabolus, and let him be her king forever. And with that, the hollow belly and yawning gorge of hell gave so loud and hideous a groan, for that is the music of that place, that it made the mountains around it totter as if they would fall in pieces. Now, after they read and considered the letter, they consulted how they should respond. Lucifer was the first to speak. Then said he, the first project of the Diabolonians in Mansoul is likely to be lucky, and to take, namely, that they will, by all the ways and means they can, make Mansoul yet more vile and filthy. No way to destroy a soul like this. This is probatum est. It is tried, tested, and proved. Our old friend Balaam went this way and prospered many years ago. Let this therefore stand with us for a maxim and be to Diabolonians for a general rule in all ages. For nothing can make this to fail but grace, in which I would hope that this town has no share. But whether to fall upon them on a market day because of their burdens and busyness, I would prefer there be more discussion. And there is more reason why this opposition should be debated than why some others should. It is because everything that they Everything that we attempt pivots upon this scheme. If we do not time our business well, the whole project may fail. Our friends, the Diabolonians, say that a market day is best, for then will Mansoul be most busy. and have fewest thoughts of a surprise. But what if they should also double their guards in those days? And I'm of the opinion that nature and reason should teach them to do it. So what if they should keep such a watch on those days as the necessity of their present case has required? Yes, what if their men should always be armed in those days? Then said the great Beelzebub, There is something in what my Lord has said, but his conjecture may or may not fall out, nor has my Lord laid it down as that which must not be receded from. For I know he said it only to provoke a warm debate among us about it. Therefore, if we can, we must understand whether the town of Mansoul has such sense and knowledge of her decayed state, and of the plan we have designed to execute against her, and if her awareness has provoked her to set watch and ward at her gates, and to double them on market days. But after inquiry has been made, if it shall be found that they are asleep, then any day will do. But a market day is best, and this is my judgment in this case." A lesson for Christians. Then said Diabolus, how should we know this? And it was answered, inquire about it at the mouth of Mr. Profane. So Profane was called in and asked the question. He answered as follows. My Lords, so far as I can gather, this is at present the condition of the town of Mansoul. They are decayed in their faith and love. Emmanuel, their prince, has turned his back on them. They send often by petition to fetch him again, but he makes no haste to answer their requests, nor is there much reformation among them. Well, Diabolus answered, I am glad that they are backward in a reformation, but I am still afraid of their petitioning. However, their looseness of life is a sign that there is not much heart in what they do. And without the heart, things are little worth. But go on, my masters. I will distract you, my lords, no longer. So Beelzebub speaks and he says, And Apollyon said, when Beelzebub had ended his oration, Apollyon began his. My opinion," he said, concerning this matter, is that we go on fair and softly, not doing things in a hurry. Let our friends in Mansoul go on still to pollute and defile it, by seeking to draw it even more in this sin, for there is nothing like sin to devour Mansoul. If this is done, and it takes effect, Mansoul all by itself will forsake watching, petitioning, or anything else that should attend to her security and safety. For she will forget her Emmanuel. She will not desire his company. And if we can get her to live like this, her prince will not come to her speedily. Our trusty friend, Mr. Carnal Security, with one of his tricks, drove him out of the town. And why may not my Lord Covetousness and my Lord Lasciviousness, by what they may do, keep him out of town? And this I will tell you, not because you don't know it, because you do, that two or three Diabolonians, if entertained and countenanced by the town of Mansoul, will do more to the keeping of Emmanuel from them and towards making the town of Mansoul your own than any army of legion can in withstanding him should one be sent out from us. Therefore, Apollyon continued, let this first project that our friends in Mansoul have set up be strongly and diligently carried out with all cunning and craft imaginable, and let them send continually under one guise or another more men of various characters to play with the people of Mansoul. And then perhaps we shall not need to be at the charge of making a war upon them. Or if it is necessary to do so, still, the more sinful they are, the more unable they will surely be to resist us. And then the more easily we shall overcome them. And besides, suppose that Emmanuel should come to them, and that is the worst that can be supposed, why may not the same means or the like drive him from them once more? Yes, why may he not be driven from them forever by their laps into that sin again, for the sake of which he was at the first driven from them for a season? And if this should happen, then along with him go his rams, his slings, his captains, his soldiers, leaving Mansoul naked and bare. Indeed, when this town sees herself utterly forsaken of her prince, will she not of her own accord open her gates again to you and make of you as in the days of old? But this will take some time. A few days will not affect so great a work as this. As soon as Apollyon finished speaking, Diabolus began to blow out his own malice and to plead his own cause. He said, My lords and powers of the cave, my true and trusty friends, I have with much impatience as becomes me. give an ear to your long and tedious orations, but my furious gorge and empty paunch so lusts to repossess my famous town of Mansoul that whatever comes out, I can wait no longer to be continued. A couple points I will make. You'll notice that in the dialogue that Diabolus is also attended to in conversation with Beelzebub, with Lucifer, and with Apollyon, which from Scripture we know they're all Satan. And so it's not that he is a triunity or a quadrinity opposite of the Lord. By the dialogue and what the Puritans understood in those days was that in Ephesians 6 where it says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places, the rulers of darkness of this age. and so forth, that the reflection of whatever Satan does, who is a fallen angel and not omnipresent, the characteristics of Satan in the various forms, Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies, Lucifer, or the luminescent one, I guess you could say, Apollyon, the Destroyer, all those are reflections of of Satan's character which are taken on by the unseen realm around us. Another point of order on this is that it almost would seem when Napoleon in this last oration, it almost sounds like, if you have been following closely, it almost sounds like that they expect that a soul that has been saved and once they've backslidden that they could lose their salvation. You'll find as it carries on that that's not the case because the blind of this world, the demonic blind of this world, are blind to that and they think that they can overtake one who has been saved by God's grace. And then this backslidden state there as what we practice in the church and church discipline, if someone refuses to repent, we send them out so that they may find a place of repentance. We give them over unto Satan so that they can find a place of repentance and be brought back into fellowship. And this backslidden state is the spiritual side of that, whereas when we sin, that man's soul, the presence of Christ, the communion with Christ or with God in Christ seems to be on shaky grounds until we've repented and confessed our sins and the blood of Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Hopefully that'll be helpful to you. Keep that in mind as the lessons continue. So Bunyan will bring it quite around. And also, just as kind of a wink and a nod from Bunyan in the allegory, this is his wink also to those who believe that those Christians who believe that a soul can lose salvation. He is saying that they are under devilish influence. Interesting.