*

not caft out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. Sea the foundation on which they pretended to build this calumny explained in the note on Luke xi. 15. § 86. It oftentimes happens, that through ignorance or weakness, men form wrong judgments of things; a misfortune which because it neceffarily fprings from the imperfection of human nature, does not deferve the very harfheft cenfure. But when wrong judgments proceed from evil difpofitions, then indeed do they become highly culpable. Wherefore, to fhew that the judgment which the Pharifees paffed at this time upon our Lord's miracles was of the latter kind, the evangelift Matthew puts his readers in mind, that Jefus was perfectly acquainted with the most secret thoughts of these men, and accommodated his answer and rebuke to the temper of their mind. Matt. xii. 25. And Jefus knew their thoughts: He knew that the wickedness of their hearts, and not the weakness of their understandings, had led them to form the opinion they had uttered, if it was their real opinion; or rather to affirm it contrary to their conviction, which was the reason that at the conclufion of his defence, he reprimanded them in the sharpest manner. Accordingly, addreffing himself both to them and the people, he demonftrated the abfurdity of their calumny, by an argument drawn from the common affairs of life: And faid unto them, (Mark, And be called them unto him, and faid unto them in parables, How can Satan caft out Satan?) Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to defolation, (Mark, that kingdom cannot ftand;) and every city or boufe divided against itself shall not fland. 26. And if Satan caft out Satan, (Mark, if Satan rife up against himself, and be divided) he is divided against himself, bow ball then his kingdom ftand? (Mark, be cannot ftand, but bath an end.) If evil fpirits afflift me in working miracles for the confirmation of my doctrine, they do what they can to promote the spiritual worship and ardent love of the true God, and as effectually as poffible excite men to the practice of univerfal juftice, benevolence, temperance, and felf-government; all these virtues being powerfully recommended by my doctrine. VOL. II.

H

But

thus

Ver 24, By Beelzebub ] Beelzebub was the great idol of the Eckronites, 2 Kings i. 2. From his name, which properly fignifies the lord or mafler of flies, it would appear that the Eckionites confidered him as having the command of the various infects where with in those warm climates they were infelted, and which oft-times gathered into fuch fwarms as proved both a noifome and deadly plague The Greeks likewife had a god whose title was vagy&, Muscarum venator, The deftroyer of fier. But he was in no great reputation among them, the country not being fubject to this fort of calamity. The Eckronites being near neighbours to the Jews, the great veneration which they had for this idol, made him the object both of the horror and deteftation of the devout worshippers of the true God. Accordingly, to exprefs in what deteflation they held him, they appropriated his name to the moft hateful being in the univerfe, calling the devil, or the prince of the evil angels, Beelzebub,

*

thus to make the evil spirits fight against themselves, is evidently to make them ruin their own intereft; unless it can be thought, that the ftrength and welfare of a fociety is advanced by jarring difcord, and deftructive civil wars. Your judgment therefore of my conduct, is palpably malicious and abfurd.—27. And if I by Beelzebub caft out devils, by whom do your children caft them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. This is the fecond argument made ufe of by Jefus for confuting the calumny of the Pharifees; as if he had faid: For the fame reason that you attribute my miracles to the devil, you may attribute all the miracles that ever were wrought in the world, to the devil, and particularly the miracles of your own prophets, which nevertheless you acknowledge to be divine. Dr Chandler's ingenious paraphrase of this verse deserves a place here: "Ye do not impute the miracles of your prophets to Beelzebub, but on the evidence of these miracles, ye received them as the meffengers of God. Nevertheless, ye reject me who work greater and more numerous miracles than they, and impute them to the power of evil spirits. Is this conduct of a piece? Wherefore these prophets fhall be your judges, they fhall condemn you." On Miracles, p. 120. See on Luke xi. 19, 20. § 86. for a different expofition of this paffage. 28. But if I caft out devils by the fpirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you: fince therefore it is plain, that I caft out devils by the divine affiftance, the time is certainly come which God has fet, for taking the power out of the hands of the devil, in order that he may himself rule both in the bodies and fouls of men. The Meffiah's kingdom is come, and you ought with joy to enter into it. 29. Or elfe how can one † enter into a Strong

*Ver. 27. By whom do your children caft them out] That many of the Jews did at this time attempt to caft out devils, is plain from Mark ix. 38. Acts xix. 13. Jof. Antiq. viii. 2. Calvin thinks that God conferred a power of this kind on fome particular perfons among the Jews anciently, that by thus proving his prefence among them, he might retain the nation in the faith of his covenant; and that the people having experienced God's, power in thofe inftances, came foolishly to inftitute for themselves the ot fice of an exorcift. Agreeably to this it may be observed, that our Lord's argument does not require that the demons were actually expelled by these exorcifts. It is fufficient that the Jews thought they were expelled, and did not find fault with thofe pretended miracles, as they did with Chrift's real ones.

+ Ver. 29. Enter into a frong man's boufe.] The house of the firong man into which Chrift entered, was the world, fitly called Beelzebub's houfe or palace, because there he is ferved by luxury, luft, covetoufnels, pride, an ger, and the other evil paffions of men. The goods or veffels belonging to this frong man which Chrift spoiled, are the wicked, called Beelzebub's vesels metaphorically, as Paul is called by Chrift "his chofen veffel," Acts ix. 15. Or, if we chufe to pursue the allegory more closely, by the veffels or furniture of Beelzebub's house, we may understand the lufts and paffions of mens hearts, the inftruments by which he keeps poffeffion of them.

-283 ftrong man's house and Spoil his goods, except he first bind the Atrong man? and then be will spoil bis boufe: if you deny my inference, you should confider, that though fome perhaps have caft out devils by the affiftance of Beelzebub, they never hurt his kingdom by it; they never carried matters fo far as to extirpate fin out of the minds of men. Whereas, I not only expel the devils, but I spoil them of their power; confequently I act by a power fuperior and oppofite to theirs, even by the affistance of the Spirit of God. Wherefore, the kingdom of God is certainly come unto you. 30. He that is not with me, is against me ; and be that gathereth not with me, fcattereth abroad: if, according to the maxims of the world, thofe are reckoned enemies who do not affift us against our foes, I who am fo deeply engaged in the oppofition to Satan, ought much rather to be reckoned his enemy. That Jefus is here reasoning from the maxims of the world only, and not upon any principle of his own, is plain; because on other occafions he declared the very reverse of this maxim to be the rule of his judgment, particularly Mark ix. 40. "He that is not against us, is for us." Matth. xii. 31. Wherefore I fay unto you, All manner of fin and blafphemy shall be forgiven unto men (Mark, All fins fhall be forgiven unto the fons of men, and blafphemies wherewith foever they shall blafpheme,) but the blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft, fhall not be forgiven unto men. (Mark, But be that shall blafpheme against the Holy Ghoft hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.) 32. And whofoever fpeaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whofoever speaketh against the Holy Ghoft, it fball not be forgiven bim, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. This inference is not particularly connected with the member of the difcourfe immediately preceding it, but it arifes from the whole feries of the reafoning; as if Jefus had faid, Since all these arguments make it evident, that I perform my miracles by the Spirit of God, you should not afcribe them to the devil. Yet this blafphemy may be forgiven you, because you may repent and believe, upon receiving ftronger proofs of my miffion from God. When that period cometh, namely, after I am raised from the dead by the Holy Ghost, and the miraculous gifts are fhed down upon almost all believers, and the nature of Meffiah's kingdom is more fully made known, the foundation of your prejudices against me fhall be removed. Where

fore,

* The prejudices which alleviated the fin of the Jews, who reje&ed Jefus during his own life time, and which in the period here referred to were to be removed, arofe from fuch caufes as thefe:-1. His parentage and place of abode; for his countrymen being well acquainted with both, would not allow him to be Meffiah, because they imagined when Meffiah came, no man would know from whence he was, John vii. 27. 2. The old prophet Elias had not appeared to usher in the Meffiah, as they expected, ac.

cording

fore, if you fhall then speak against the Holy Ghoft, by malicioully affirming, that his gifts and miracles come from the devil, it fhall not be forgiven you, because it is a fin which you cannot poffibly repent of, in as much as farther evidence fhall not be offered you; but you fhall be punished for it, both in this world, and in the world to come. Or we may tranflate the clause differently, It shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age, neither in the age to come, importing that no expiation was provided for the blafphemy of the Spirit, either under the Jewish or Christian difpenfations. Mark iii. 30. Because they faid be bath an unclean Spirit: That is, to ufe Mark's own words, (ver. 32.) Becaufe they faid, "He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils cafteth he out devils." Our Lord declared the irremiffibleness of the fin against the Holy Ghoft on this occafion, that the Pharifees might be awakened to a sense of their danger, in approaching fo near as they did to that fin, when being unable to deny his miracles, they reprefented them as performed by the affiftance of the devil. Matt. xii. 33. Either make the tree good, and bis fruit good; or elfe make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit: If you make my miracles Beelzebub's, you must make my doctrine his alfo. All the good I do, you must fay is his werk; all the exhortations by which 1 excite finners to repentance, are his; the knowledge which I give you of the way of life, and the motives I offer for your encouragement to enter upon it, are his. On the other hand, if you make my doctrine God's, you must make my miracles his likewife; for men judge of the nature of an agent by the actions which he does, juft as they judge of trees by the fruit they produce. For which reason you may eafily know, that I am not in league with Beelzebub, but that you yourselves are fo. Or we may give the words another turn thus: fince you Pharifees pretend to extraordinary holinefs, your words and actions should all be holy. Judge therefore candidly, and speak reverently of the divine difpenfations. Or, if you will blafpheme, lay afide your pretenfions to religion. For however specious these may be, your true characters will be discovered by your words and actions, even

as

cording to the doctrine of the Scribes, Matt. xvii, 10. founded on the prophecy, Mal. iv. 5. 3. Chrift's mean condition of life occafioned violent prejudices against him in the minds of the Jews, who firmly believed that their Meffiah would be furrounded with all the pomp and fplendour of an earthly prince, and who in fpeaking of him, had been accustomed to give him the high founding titles of the King of Ifrael, and Son of God. But by our Lord's refurrection from the dead, and by the defcent of the Spirit on the apoftles, the foundation of all these prejudices was fapped. Then he was demonftrated to be the Son of God with power, Rom. i. 4. Ther he was known to have come down from heaven, John vi. 60. 62. Then he was exalted to be a prince and a faviour, to give repentance and remiflion of fin, Acts v. 31. A kingly dignity infinitely fuperior to all the mott dazzling honours of an earthly diadem.

285 as a tree is known by its fruit. But to what purpose multiply words? I am fenfible that you can speak nothing but evil of the fervants and ways of God, for I know you to be men of perverfe and malicious minds, and the thoughts of your heart will always fhew themselves by the words of your mouth. 34. O generation of vipers, bow can ye, being evil, fpeak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth Speaketh. 35. A good man out of the good treasure of the beart, bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things. Next he declared, that the atrocioufnefs of the blafphemy of the Spirit, is not leffened by its being a fin committed in words. The reafon is, words expreffing the difpofitions of mens hearts, partake of the nature of thofe difpofitions, on which account we shall be rewarded or punished for our words, as well as for our actions. 36 But I fay unto you. That every idle word that men fhall. Speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment: fince therefore men fhall give an account of, and be punished at the day of judgment, for every finful word they speak, you can by no means hope to escape, if you commit fo great a fin as the blafphemy of the Spirit, though it be a fin in words only. 37. For by thy words alfo (see on Luke xiv. 12, 13. § 92.) thou shalt be juftified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned: feeing that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, (ver. 34.) and words partake of the nature of the difpofitions from which they proceed; feeing also, that much good or evil may be produced by words, you may eafily understand, that as by other things, fo by the right or wrong use of speech also, men shall be justified or condemned. The farther explanation of this verse may be drawn from James i. 26. iii. 3,-10.

These reasonings were clear and unanswerable. Yet the scribes in

Ver. 36. Every idle word.] An idle word (gna agyo») according to the idiom of the Hebrew language, may fignify a lie; for (Exod. v. 9.) where Pharaoh orders heavier tasks to be imposed upon the Ifraelites, that they might not have regard ( ad verba mendacii) to lying words, the LXX. as Keuchenius obferves, have vain words (tv xivois Aoyois) a phrate not very diftant from the one under confideration. But in the Targum, it is (PSba ipɔND in verbis otrofis) idle words, answering to our Lord's expreffion, being rendered in the LXX. by agy otiofus fum. See Trommius' Concord. It is plain therefore that an idle word (gnua agyo») may be the fame with a lie, verbum mendacii. Le Clerc imagines, that according to the Hebrew idiom, an idle word may fignify in the general, any vain, tinful, profane fpeech. But that which comes neareft to explain our Lord's expreffion, is a paffage in Origin, contr. Celfum, lib. ii. p. 73. where realoning againft Cellus, he fays, και ὁ καλυμένος γε παρα τοις διαλεκτικοῖς αργος λόγος, σοφισμα τυγχάνων, εκ εσαι μεν σοφισμα. Wherefore αργος λόγος, In the ftyle of the logicians, is a fophifin or falle reafoning, uled with a View to deceive, efpecially in a matter of importance, fuch as the Pharifees ufed on this occafion moft maliciously to deceive the people, and to hinder them from being affected properly by Christ's miracles.