to be the Messiah, a prince come to establish a temporal dominion over them, should excite insurrections in his favour, and hereby create alarm in the Roman government; and he wished also to avoid all appearance of vanity and ambition. He prohibited therefore those who were cured by him from making known his miracles, lest he should seem to court popular applause hereby, and to have in view his own glory, and not the success of true religion. This is the motive to which the evangelist Matthew seems to refer this part of his conduct, as appears from the following quotation which he makes from the prophet Isaiah, and applies to Jesus, for whom likewise it was originally

intended.

17. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

By the humility which Christ discovered, in forbidding those who were cured by him to make him known, it appeared that the character of Jesus corresponded with that given of the Messiah in Isaiah xlii. 1.

18. Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him; and he shall shew judgment, true religion, to the Gentiles.

The spirit here spoken of, which God is said to put upon Christ, is the miraculous powers which he possessed, by which he was enabled to perform the cures before mentioned, and to teach the doctrines of the gospel. The word judgment signifies the new law of God under the Christian dispensation, and is the word by which the law of Moses is often expressed in the Old Testament. Thus we often read in the Psalms of the statutes and judgments of God, by which we are to understand the laws and ordinances of the Mosaic œconomy; but Jesus Christ was appointed to publish a

new law, which he was to declare not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles also, even to the whole

world.

19. He shall not strive nor cry, "nor be clamorous;" neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.

In Luke, (xiii. 26.) those who were shut out from the kingdom of heaven at the last day, are represented as pleading with Jesus; "We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets:" but although he sometimes taught in the streets, his voice was not that of clamour and violence, which are calculated to excite disturbances; but it was the voice of reason and instruction. Whenever the multitude which attended him became so great as to be likely to produce tumults and disorders, he withdrew to mountains and desert places.

20. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth, rather, "whilst he is bringing," judgment unto victory.

The first of these expressions," a bruised reed shall he not break," is a figurative way of speaking, denoting that the gentleness of Christ was so great, that he would not hurt even that which of itself was ready to perish. The second, "and smoking flax shall he not quench," was intended to signify the same thing in different words, agreeably to the genius of the Hebrew poetry. A metaphor is borrowed from these objects, to express how unwilling Christ is to destroy or neglect the smallest tendency to repentance or goodness in the human mind: he feeds and cherishes the dying flame, and endeavours to light it up again. Judgment signifies the same here as in the former verse, the law of God; and it is foretold that Christ should observe the conduct above described, while he was rendering

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it victorious, that is, while he was establishing the Christian religion in the world, amidst the calumnies and threatenings of his enemies.

21.

And in his name shall the Gen

tiles trust.

As it was usual for the followers of every teacher of new doctrines, to call themselves after his name, the name of a teacher came at length to be put for his doctrine: hence it is that Paul says that he baptized no one in his own name, meaning, that he was the author of no new doctrine, and implying that to be baptized into the name of Christ, is to be baptized into his religion. The name of Christ, therefore, signifies, in this passage, the same thing as the religion of Christ; and in the profession of that religion, it is foretold, the Gentiles would place their confidence.

22. Then was brought unto him one possessed with a dæmon, blind and dumb; and he healed him; insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and

saw.

The persons mentioned in the New Testament as possessed with dæmons, were either madmen or epileptics: but these disorders were sometimes attended with other complaints of a grievous nature, arising from the same or some other cause. In the case before us, the dæmoniac was both blind and dumb: his madness was probably of that species which is called melancholy madness, of which taciturnity is a common symptom. This will account for his being called dumb; and, as it has been observed by physicians that madness is often accompanied with the loss of sight, there is no reason to be surprised that we find the same dæmoniac blind. In another instance, we find the person supposed to be possessed, deaf likewise: for the same humour, or what else occasions madness, falling

upon the organs of hearing, might produce the loss of hearing as well as the loss of sight*.

23. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?

The son of David signified the same thing as Messiah among the Jews: for it was from the family of David that they expected him to descend who came in that character. The extraordinary nature of the miracle which he had just performed, might with good reason lead them to conclude that Jesus was he; because, as the Messiah was to be superior to all other prophets, it might naturally be supposed that he would be distinguished from them by the magnitude of his miracles, as well as by other circumstances.

24. But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out dæmons, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the dæmons.

Beelzebub, as we find from the history of the Old Testament, was God of Ekron, and, like the other Gods of the heathens, a deified human spirit. He was supposed by the Jews, or by the heathens, for it was from them that they first borrowed the doctrine, to be prince of the possessing dæmons; to have a number of these agents under his command; and to be able to send them to occupy the bodies of men; or to dispossess them, whenever he pleased. With this prince, the Jews pretended, Christ was associated, and by his assistance wrought the cure upon the dæmoniac, which has just been related.

25. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not, "cannot," stand.

Farmer on Dæmoniacs, p. 114, &c.

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26. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

"Our Saviour is here arguing with men who did not acknowledge his divine authority, upon their own principles, as he was wont to do, that he might silence, if he could not instruct them; telling them that it was unreasonable to impute his cure of dæmoniacs to the assistance of the prince of dæmons, since, if the miracle consisted in the ejection of dæmons, it was, in its very nature, an act of hostility against them; and Satan could not be supposed to assist in overturning his own empire*."

"Because Beelzebub is here called Satan by Christ, and the word Satan is, in other instances, applied to the devil, it has been inferred that Beelzebub and the devil are the same person, under different names; and an argument has been drawn hence for the reality of possessions by the devil: but there is no force in this argument: for the term Satan is not appropriated to one particular person or spirit, but signifies an adversary or opponent in general: it is sometimes applied in Scripture to a good angel, who is called a Satan; even Peter is called by this name, because he was an adversary to our Lord's designs. As Christ is here speaking to the Pharisees, upon their own principles, he must be supposed to speak of the same order of beings as they did. Satan must therefore be equivalent to dæmon, in the sense in which demon was used by them, for the spirit of a dead man. All that Christ means to say, is that it was unreasonable to suppose that one dæmon or one Satan would cast out another."

27. And if I by Beelzebub cast out dæmons, by whom do your children

Farmer on miracles, p. 392.

+ Farmer on dæmoniacs, p. 14, &c.