Then Christian fell down at his foot as dead, crying, "Woe is me,
for I am undone!" At the sight of which, Evangelist caught him by
the right hand, saying, "All manner of sin and blasphemies shall
be forgiven unto men" (Matt. 12:31; Mark 3:28); "Be not faithless,
but believing" (John 20:27). Then did Christian again a little
revive, and stood up trembling, as at first, before Evangelist.[25]

Then Evangelist proceeded, saying, Give more earnest heed to the
things that I shall tell thee of. I will now show thee who it was
that deluded thee, and who it was also to whom he sent thee.-The
man that met thee is one Worldly-wiseman, and rightly is he so called;
partly, because he savoureth only the doctrine of this world (1
John 4:5), (therefore he always goes to the town of Morality to
church); and partly because he loveth that doctrine best, for
it saveth him best from the cross (Gal. 6:12). And because he is
of this carnal temper, therefore he seeketh to prevent my ways,
though right. Now there are three things in this man's counsel,
that thou must utterly abhor.

1. His turning thee out of the way. 2. His labouring to render
the cross odious to thee. And, 3. His setting thy feet in that
way that leadeth unto the administration of death.

First, Thou must abhor his turning thee out of the way; yea, and
thine own consenting thereto: because this is to reject the counsel
of God for the sake of the counsel of a Worldly-wiseman. The Lord
says, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate" (Luke 13:24), the
gate to which I send thee; for "strait is the gate which leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:14). From this
little wicket-gate, and from the way thereto, hath this wicked