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 be also unto this wicked generation.
Ver. 45. And taketh seven other spirits] As the jailor lays more load of irons on him that had escaped his hands, and is now recovered.
And they enter in and dwell there] So they never do in a heart once truly sanctified. Lust was but a stranger to David (no home dweller) as Peter Martyr observes out of that passage in Nathan's parable, 2 Samuel 12:4; "And there came a traveller to the rich man," &c. Faith leaves never a slut's corner, Acts 15:9 .
And the last state of that man is worse] An apostate cannot choose unto himself a worse condition. It is with such, as in that case, Leviticus 13:18,20. If a man had a boil healed, and it afterwards broke out, it proved the plague of leprosy. These are called forsakers of the covenant, Daniel 11:30, and wicked doers against the covenant, Matthew 12:32. Renegade Christians prove the most desperate devotees to the devil. We see by experience, that none are worse than those that have been good and are naught; or those that might be good, and will be naught. Such as were these Jews in the text, to whom therefore our Saviour applies the parable in these words.
Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation] Their sins were not common sins (but as those of Korah and his accomplices), therefore they died not common deaths. As they pleased not God, but were contrary to all men, so wrath came upon them to the uttermost, 1 Thessalonians 2:16, as Josephus witnesseth. And Mr Fox relates of Bonner, that wicked apostate, that as he wretchedly died in his blind Popery (after he had been long time prisoner in the reign of Queen Elizabeth), so, as stinkingly and blindly at midnight was he brought out, and buried in the outside of all the city, among thieves and murderers. A place, saith he, right convenient with confusion and derision both of men and children, who, trampling upon his grave, well declared how he was hated both of God and man.