The Holy War – John Bunyan

Then said Emmanuel to him, 'O full of deceit, how movable are thy
ways! How often hast thou changed and rechanged, if so be thou mightest
still keep possession of my Mansoul, though, as has been plainly declared
before, I am the right heir thereof? Often hast thou made thy proposals
already, nor is this last a whit better than they. And failing to deceive when
thou showedst thyself in thy black, thou hast now transformed thyself into an
angel of light, and wouldest, to deceive, be now as a minister of
righteousness (2 Cor 11:14).
'But know thou, O Diabolus, that nothing must be regarded that thou
canst propound, for nothing is done by thee but to deceive; thou neither hast
conscience to God, nor love to the town of Mansoul; whence then should
these thy sayings arise, but from sinful craft and deceit? He that can of list
and will propound what he pleases, and that wherewith he may destroy them
that believe him, is to be abandoned with all that he shall say. But if
righteousness be such a beauty-spot in thine eyes now, how is it that
wickedness was so closely stuck to by thee before. But this is by the by.
Thou talkest now of a reformation in Mansoul, and that thou thyself, if I will
please, will be at the head of that reformation, all the while knowing that the
greatest proficiency that man can make in the law, and the righteousness
thereof, will amount to no more for the taking away of the curse from
Mansoul than just nothing at all; for a law being broken by Mansoul, that had
before, upon a supposition of the breach thereof, a curse pronounced against
him for it of God, can never, by his obeying of the law, deliver himself
therefrom. To say nothing of what a reformation is like to be set up in
Mansoul, when the devil is become corrector of vice. Thou knowest that all
that thou hast now said in this matter is nothing but guile and deceit; and is,
as it was the first, so is it the last card that thou hast to play. Many there be
that do soon discern thee when thou showest them thy cloven foot; but in thy
white, thy light, and in thy transformation thou art seen but of a few. But
thou shalt not do thus with my Mansoul, O Diabolus, for I do still love my
Mansoul.
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