Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?
Ver. 48. That thou art a Samaritan] And why a Samaritan, think, but that they thought the worst word in their bellies good enough for him? Malice cares not what it saith, so it may kill or gall; and these dead dogs (as he calleth Shimei, 2Sa 16:9) will be barking. The primitive persecutors used to put Christians into bears' and dogs' skins, or other ugly creatures, and then bait them; so do the wicked put the saints into ugly conceits, and then speak against them.