"This place hath been our second stage:
Here we have heard and seen
Those good things that from age to age
To others hid have been.
The Dunghill-raker, Spider, Hen,
The Chicken, too, to me
Have taught a lesson: let me then
Conformèd to it be.
"The Butcher, Garden, and the Field,
The Robin and his bait,
Also the Rotten Tree, doth yield
Me argument of weight:
To move me for to watch and pray,
To strive to be sincere,
To take my cross up day by day,
And serve the Lord with fear."
CHAPTER IV.
THE CROSS AND THE CONSEQUENCES.
Now, I saw in my dream that they went on, and Great-heart before them. So they went, and came to the place where Christian's burden fell off his back and tumbled into a sepulchre. Here, then, they made a pause, and here also they blessed God. "Now," said Christiana, "comes to my mind what was said to us at the gate, to wit, that we should have pardon by word and deed: by word, that is, by the promise; by deed, that is, in the way it was obtained. What the promise is, of that I know something; but what it is to have pardon by deed, or in the way that it was obtained, Mr. Great-heart, I suppose you know; wherefore, if you please, let us hear you speak thereof."
GREAT-HEART DISCOURSES
Great. Pardon by the deed done, is pardon obtained by some one for another that hath need thereof; not by the person pardoned, but in the way, saith another, in which I have obtained it. So then, to speak to the question at large, the pardon that you, and Mercy, and these boys have obtained, was obtained by another; to wit, by Him that let you in at the gate. And He hath obtained it in this double way: He has shown righteousness to cover you, and spilt His blood to wash you in.
Chr. This is brave! Now I see that there was something to be learnt by our being pardoned by word and deed. Good Mercy, let us labor to keep this in mind; and, my children, do you remember it also. But, sir, was not this it that made my good Christian's burden fall from off his shoulders, and that made him give three leaps for joy?