*

not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. See 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 necessarily springs from the imperfection of human nature, does not deserve the very harshest censure. But when wrong judgments proceed from evil dispositions, then indeed do they become highly culpable. Wherefore, to shew that the judgment which the Pharisees passed at this time upon our Lord's miracles was of the latter kind, the evangelist Matthew puts his readers in mind, that Jesus 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 Jesus 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 conclusion of his defence, he reprimanded them in the sharpest manner, Accordingly, addressing himself both to them and the people, he demonstrated the absurdity of their calumny, by an argument drawn from the common affairs of life: And said unto them, (Mark, And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?) Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, (Mark, that kingdom cannot stand;) and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. 26. And if Satan cast out Satan, (Mark, if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided) he is divided against himself, how shall then his kingdom stand? (Mark, he cannot stand, but hath an end. If evil spirits assist 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 possible excite men to the practice of universal justice, benevolence, temperance, and self-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 signifies the lord or master of flies, it would appear that the Eckronites considered him as having the command of the various insects wherewith in those warm climates they were infested, and which oft-times gathered into such swarms as proved both a noisome and deadly plague. The Greeks likewise had a god whose title was vagy, Muscarum venator, The destroyer of flies. But he was in no great reputation among them, their country not being subject to this sort 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 detestation of the devout worshippers of the true God. Accordingly to express in what detestation they held him, they appropriated his name to the most hateful being in the universe, 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 interest; unless it can be thought, that the strength and welfare of a society is advanced by jarring discord, and destructive civil wars. Your judgment therefore of my conduct, is palpably malicious and absurd.-27. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, * by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. This is the second argument made use of by Jesus for confuting the calumny of the Pharisees; as if he had said: For the same 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 messengers of God. Nevertheless, ye reject me who work greater and more numerous miraces than they, and impute them to the power of evil spirits. Is this conduct of a piece? Wherefore these prophets shall be your judges, they shall condemn you." On Miracles, p. 120. See on Luke xi. 19, 20. § 86. for a different exposition of this passage. 28. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you: since therefore it is plain, that I cast out devils by the divine assistance, the time is certainly come which God has set, for taking the power out of the hands of the devil, in order that he may himself rule both in the bodies and souls of men. The Messiah's kingdom is come, and you ought with joy to enter into it. 29. Or else how can one † enter into a strong

* Ver. 27. By whom do your children cast them out?] That many of the Jews did at this time attempt to cast out devils, is plain from Mark ix. 38. Acts xix. 13. Jos. Antiq. viii. 2. Calvin thinks that God conferred a power of this kind on some particular persons among the Jews anciently, that by thus proving his presence among them, he might retain the nation in the faith of his covenant; and that the people having experienced God's power in those instances, came foolishly to institute for themselves the office of an exorcist. Agreeably to this it may be observed, that our Lord's argument does not require that the demons were actually expelled by these exorcists. It is sufficient that the Jews thought they were expelled, and did not find fault with those pretended miracles, as they did with Christ's real ones.

Ver. 29 Enter into a strong man's house] The house of the strong man into which Christ entered, was the world, fitly calied Beelzebub's house or palace, because there he is served by luxury, lust, covetousness, pride, anger, and the other evil passions of men. The goods or vessels belonging to this strong man which Christ spoiled, are the wicked, called Beelzebub's vessels metaphorically, as Paul is called by Christ "his chosen vessel," Acts ix. 15. Or, if we chuse to pursue the allegory more closely, by the vessels or furniture of Beelzebub's house, we may understand the lusts and passions of mens hearts, the instruments by which he keeps possession of

them.

strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house: if you deny my inference, you should consider, that though some perhaps have cast out devils by the assistance of Beelzebub, they never hurt his kingdom by it; they never carried matters so far as to extirpate sin out of the minds of men. Whereas, I not only expel the devils, but I spoil them of their power; consequently I act by a power superior and opposite to theirs, even by the assistance 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 he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad: if, according to the maxims of the world, those are reckoned enemies who do not assist us against our foes, I who am so deeply engaged in the opposition to Satan, ought much rather to be reckoned his enemy. That Jesus is here reasoning from the maxims of the world only, and not upon any principle of his own, is plain; because on other occasions he declared the very reverse of this maxim to be the rule of his judgment, particulary Mark ix. 40. "He that is not against us, is for us." Matth. xii. 31. Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: (Mark, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blas phemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme,) but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, shall not be forgiven unto men, (Mark, But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.) 32. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. This inference is not particularly connected with the member of the discourse immediately preceding it, but it arises from the whole series of the reasoning; as if Jesus had said, Since all these arguments make it evident, that I perform my miracles by the Spirit of God, you should not ascribe them to the devil. Yet this blasphemy may be forgiven you, because you may repent and believe, upon receiving stronger proofs of my mission from God. When that period cometh, namely, after I am raised from the dead by the Holy Ghost, and the miraculous gifts are shed down upon almost all believers, and the nature of Messiah's kingdom is more fully made known, the foundation of your prejudices against me shall be removed. Wherefore,

• The prejudices which alleviated the sin of the Jews, who rejected Je sus during his own life-time, and which in the period here referred to were to be removed, arose from such causes as these:-1. His parentage and place of abode, for his countrymen being well acquainted with both, would not allow him to be Messiah, because they imagined when Messiah came, no man would know from whence he was, John vii. 27. 2. The old prophet Elias had not appeared to usher in the Messiah, as they expected, ac

cording

[Sect. 48. fore, if you shall then speak against the Holy Ghost, by maliciously affirming, that his gifts and miracles come from the devil, it shall not be forgiven you, because it is a sin which you cannot possibly repent of, in as much as farther evidence shall not be offered you; but you shall be punished for it, both in this worid, and in the world to come. Or we may translate 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 blasphemy of the Spirit, either under the Jewish or Christian dispensations. Mark iii. 30. Because they said he hath an unclear spirit: That is, to use Mark's own words, (ver. 32.) Because they said, "He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils." Our Lord declared the irremissibleness of the sin against the Holy Ghost on this occasion, that the Pharisees might be awakened to a sense of their danger, in approaching so near as they did to that sin, when being unable to deny his miracles, they represented them as performed by the assistance of the devil. Mat. xii. 33. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else 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 also. All the good I do, you must say is his work; all the exhortations by which I excite sinners 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 likewise; for men judge of the nature of an agent by the actions which he does, just as they judge of trees by the fruit they produce. For which reason you may easily know, that I am not in league with Beelzebub, but that you yourselves are so. Or we may give the words another turn thus: since you Pharisees pretend to extraordinary holiness, your words and actions should all be holy. Judge therefore candidly, and speak reverently of the divine dispensations. Or if you will blaspheme, lay aside your pretensions 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. 1o. founded on the prophecy, Mal. iv. 5. 3. Christ's mean: condition of life occasioned violent prejudices against him in the minds of the Jews, who firmly believed that their Messiah would be surrounded with all the pomp and splendour of an earthly prince, and who in speaking of him, had been accustomed to give him the high-sounding titles of the King of Israel, and Son of God. But by our Lord's resurrection from the dead, and by the descent of the Spirit on the apostles, the foundation of all these prejudices was sapped. Then he was demonstrated to be the Son of God with power, Rom. i. 4. Then he was known to have come down from heaven, John vi. 60, 62. Then he was exalted to be a prince and a saviour, to give repentance and remission of sin, Acts v. 31. A kingly dignity infinitely superior to all the most dazzling honours of an earthly diadera.

as a tree is known by its fruit. But to what purpose multiply words? I am sensible that you can speak nothing but evil of the servants and ways of God, for I know you to be men of perverse and malicious minds, and the thoughts of your heart will always shew themselves by the words of your mouth. 34. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart, bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things. Next he declared, that the atrociousness of the blasphemy of the Spirit, is not lessened by its being a sin committed in words. The reason is, words expressing the dispositions of mens hearts, partake of the nature of those dispositions, on which account we shall be rewarded or punished for our words, as well as for our actions. 36. But I say unto you, That * every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment: since therefore men shall give an account of, and be punished at the day of judgment, for every sinful word they speak, you can by no means hope to escape, if you commit so great a sin as the blasphemy of the Spirit, though it be a sin in words only. 37. For by thy words also (see on Luke xiv. 12, 13. § 92.) thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned: seeing that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, (ver. 34.) and words partake of the nature of the dispositions from which they proceed; seeing also, that much good or evil may be produced by words, you may easily understand, that as by other things, so 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 (enua agyer) according to the idiom of the Hebrew language, may signify a lie; for (Exod. v. 9.) where Pharaoh orders heavier tasks to be imposed upon the Israelites, that they might not have regard ( 2 ad verba mendacii) to lying awords, the LXX as Keuchenius observes, have vain words (Ev nevois λoyo15) a phrase not very distant from the one under consideration. But in the Targum, it is (rba pone in verbis otiosis) idle swords, answering to our Lord's expression; bu being rendered in the LXX by agyra otiosus sum. See Trommius's Concord. It is plain therefore that an idle word (gna agɣor) may be the same with a lie, verbum mendacii. Le Clerc imagines, that according to the Hebrew idiom, an idle word may signify in the general, any vain, sinful, profane speech. But that which comes nearest to explain our Lord's expression, is a passage in Origin. contr. Celsum, lib. ii. p. 73. where reasoning against Celsus, he says, και ο καλέμενος γε παρά τοις διαλεκτικοίς αργος λόγος, σοφισμα τυγχάνων, εκ εσαι μεν σοφισμα. Wherefore αργος λόγος, in the style of the logicians, is a sophism or false reasoning, used with a view to deceive, especially in a matter of importance, such as the Pharisees used on this occasion most maliciously to deceive the people, and to hinder them from being affected properly by Christ's miracles.