Matt. xii. 43 — 45. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from ivhence I came out ; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in and dwell there : and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it he also unto this wicked generation.
THOUGH the general scope of the parables is, for the most part, plain and obvious, it is often difficult to see the precise meaning of some circumstances contained in them. This is the case with the parable before us ; the minuter incidents of which may pos- sibly be considered as ornamental ; but I think rather that they are essential parts of the parable itself ^ Its import, on the whole, suggests the following observations :
I. Persons, once delivered from Satan, are again open to his assaults —
Satan certainly has power over the hearts of men —
[There is much ascribed to his agency in the holy Scrip- tures. He blinds the eyes of all unbelievers'' and
rules in all their hearts'^ Though he has not the same
power over men's bodies as he once had, he evidently possesses their souls, and drives them to perdition^ — ]
^ Our Lord had cast out a devil ; and this was by the Pharisees imputed to a confederacy with Beelzebub. After shewing the absur- dity of such a notion, he contrasted their state with that of the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba; and compared them to a relapsed daemoniac, who would be in a worse state than if Satan had never gone out of him at all. Now what is here spoken respecting the vmclean spirit, we must interpret of Satan, ejected from the Jews, and going in dry, that is, unfrequented places, or places not watered by the Gospel, to find rest among the Gentiles ; and, upon being pur- sued thither by the preaching of the Apostles, returning to take more full possession of the Jews than ever ; since, however reformed some of them might be, they were, as a nation, perfectly prepared, through their inveterate lusts and prejudices, to receive him.
^ 2 Cor. iv. 4. " Eph, ii. 2. ^ Mark ix. 22. with John viii. 44.