None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
Ver. 19. None that go unto her return again.] Some of the ancients have herehence concluded that adultery is an unpardonable sin; but "all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men," saith our Saviour, "save only the sin against the Holy Ghost." Mat 12:31 True it is, that "a whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit"; - that Pro 23:27 "whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart"; - that Hos 4:11 such are said to be "destitute of understanding," and to have lost even the light of nature; Pro 6:32 Rom 1:28 to be "past feeling, and given up to a dead and dedolent disposition"; Eph 4:18-19 to be "impudent," Jer 2:3 - wherefore also they are compared to dogs a Deu 23:18 2Sa 3:8 - and for the most part impenitent. Ecc 7:28 Grace, as one well observeth, is seated in the powers of nature. Now carnal sins disable nature, and so set us in a greater distance from grace, as taking away the heart, &c. Howbeit "all things are possible with God"; Mark 9:23 ; Mar 9:27 and though few have awakened out of this snare of the devil, yet some have, as David, and that woman in Luke 7:37; Luke 7:50, lest any humbled sinners should despair.
a κυνος ομματ εχων. - Hom.