But the Pharisees said
Who were the sworn enemies of Christ, and were filled with envy
at him, and malice against him: these men could not bear, that so
much honour and glory should be given to Christ; and therefore
said,
he casteth out the devils through the prince of the
devils:
they could not deny matter of fact, that he had cast out a devil;
nor could they say he had done an ill thing in so doing; they
could not but own that it was a preternatural action, more than
human; nor could they contradict what the multitude said, that no
such thing had been ever seen, or known, in Israel: but that
Christ might not have the glory of the action, and to fix a mark
of infamy upon him, foolishly impute it to a diabolical
influence, as if one devil would eject another; and to Christ's
familiarity with, and the assistance he had from, not a common
devil, but the prince of them. In Beza's most ancient manuscript,
and in some others, this whole verse is wanting; and were it not,
for the general consent of copies, one should be tempted to think
these words were not said at this time, because Christ returns no
answer to them; and what is observed by ( Luke 11:15 ) as
following this miracle, is the selfsame as was spoken by Christ
in ( Matthew
12:24 Matthew
12:25 ) and where this passage is more thoroughly considered.