seven other spirits Compare Luke 8:2; Luke 8:30. The number is figurative of complete wickedness and (in this case) final possession.

the last state of that man is worse than the first The most striking comment on the verse is furnished by Hebrews 6:4-6; Hebrews 10:26-29,

and especially 2 Peter 2:20-21. "Sin no more," said our Lord to the Impotent Man, "lest a worsething come unto thee," John 5:14. The Parable was an allegory, not only of the awful peril of relapse after partial conversion, but also of the History of the Jews. The demon of idolatry had been expelled by the Exile; -but had returned in the sevenfold virulence of letter-worship, formalism, exclusiveness, ambition, greed, hypocrisy and hate;" and on the testimony of Josephus himself the Jews of that age were so bad that their destruction seemed an inevitable retribution.

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