God; but as partaking of the divine uncreated essence in a way distinct from all others. Now the Jews, from their familiarity with the prophetic name Immanuel connected with other prophecies, must have expected in their Messiah, "God manifested in the flesh," a Being whose relation to Jehovah should be different from that of Moses, or their prophets. When our Lord therefore emphatically told them, that, after all the other messengers of the lord of the vineyard had failed, "the beloved son" was to come, one distinct from all sons and servants, the hint could hardly have been misunderstood. Once more, they must either have recognized his claims, or have held him guilty of blasphemy, for so applying to God the title of his Father, as to make himself equal with God. It was not the bare charge of their conspiring against his life which now made their malice more malicious, but the charge of conspiring against the beloved Son of God.

THE QUESTION OF CERTAIN PHARISEES AND HERODIANS.

Ver. 13-17.

d

And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Cæsar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him.

The temptation, or test, or snare, consisted in this. As was lately observed, the unbelieving hearers were full of malice, on account of our Lord's claim to be the Messiah," the beloved Son of God." Now in asking him whether it was lawful to give tribute to Cæsar they (with their

ὁ ἀγρεύσωσι. This metaphor is very characteristic of men who were mostly fishermen, and whom accordingly our Lord was wont to designate as his future "fishers of men."

minds fixed on the Messiah's temporal theocracy) made sure of effecting one of two things. They thought, he must either, by asserting the legality of Cæsar's claims, renounce his own claim to be the Messiah-a claim but now so forcibly asserted; or else, by denying it, make himself amenable to the civil authorities. The Herodians, a political sect, accordingly took part in the insidious embassy; because the object was to involve him in a charge not of a religious, but of a civil character a charge of treason against the Roman government. His answer is agreeable to this view of the question, (the artifice which suggested it being of course known to him,) and contains a hint which they could not fully comprehend, although the pithy nature of the reply silenced them. They marvelled." His remark concerning the superscription and image on the coin, as connecting the tribute with civil authority, and the opposition which he makes between such demands and the things belonging to God, intimate a new character in the Messiah's theocracy, in which the ecclesiastical should no more interfere with the civil rule; or the obedience of the subject to the human magistrate, be incon

sistent with the obedience of the believer to God. Cæsar's dominion was to be one, Christ's another. Jesus was a King, but not of this world.

THE QUESTION OF CERTAIN SADDUCEES.

Ver. 18-27.

Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise. And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? Fof when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God, spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly

err.

Our Lord we see was acceptable to neither of the two leading parties amongst his countrymen. The Pharisees and their adherents objected to the character of his kingdom in this world; the Sadducees and their party to his kingdom in another world. As the Pharisees had been put to silence, the Sadducees now try their skill in argument with him, and present him with an imaginary case, which, in their view, seemed to render the doctrine of a future state inconsistent with the Mosaic law. By that law it was ordered, that, "if brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her." Here is a case, they meant to say, which proves the absurdity of supposing that God designs man for a future state; because, if the woman and her many husbands were to return to existence, must not the husbands revive incompatible claims to the same wife?

It is to be observed, that the Mosaic law did • Deut. xxv. 5.