Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
I include the whole of these verses under one view, because they are all to the same effect. Where there is no regeneration of the heart, no grace, no principle, no teaching or influence of the Spirit there will be confusion and every evil work. And where there is no awakening of the Holy Ghost, the original death by sin, is followed by eternal death in that state from which there is no return. Oh! for a part in that blessed and holy state of the first resurrection, for on such the second death hath no power. Revelation 20:6.