The Golden Chain: Matthew

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While on this occasion Luke calls him "Levi, the tax-gatherer" and Mark "Levi, the son of Alphaeus", he is called "Matthew" only in our gospel.

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Another noteworthy fact is that Matthew is only called "Matthew the tax-gatherer" in the list in Matthew The name Matthew can be traced back to various Hebrew names: Matthija, Matthitja, Mattanja or Matthai, which all have the same meaning - "gift of the Lord". The gospel does not contain any details about its exact time of writing, therefore the opinions in regard to that vary considerably. While some researchers believe the gospel was written after the destruction of Jerusalem 70AD , others think that there are no facts supporting this, and they date it as AD.

The gospel according to Matthew is the most detailed and, in its format, clearest of all four gospels. This however is not the only reason for it to be rightly listed in the first place, but also because it forms a link between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The gospel of Matthew contains some sixty quotes from the Old Testament. But some of these are only a few words for example Matthew 5: A total of thirty quotes from the Old Testament are actually mentioned as such for example Matthew 2: Things that happened in the life of the Lord Jesus are on fourteen occasions explicitly described as fulfilments of prophecies of the Old Testament Matthew 1: The aim of the Holy Spirit in this gospel is made clear already in the first verse: In close connection with this is a further important mark of the gospel of Matthew: Whereas it is in other places mostly called the "kingdom of God", Matthew calls it thirty two times "kingdom of the heavens"; only five times the expression "kingdom of God" is used.

The gospel of Matthew is arranged according to a divine plan. In the first half the Lord Jesus is introduced as the king of Israel and presented to His earthly people. This part ends in chapter 12 with His rejection: In the second half, from chapter 13 , the service of the rejected King is described, which is now not only restricted to Israel, but takes in also the heathen nations. It is in this part that the assembly or church of God, consisting of Jews and Gentiles, is first mentioned by name in the Bible Matthew The service of Christ ends with His sufferings and death, but also with His resurrection and the sending out of the apostles.

Matthew does not mention the ascension of the Lord to heaven. The structure of the gospel is underlined by the five great sermons of Christ, which always end with the same sentence: The kingdom of God describes the rule of God over the world by the man appointed by Him for this purpose, Christ Jesus. The Jews were awaiting this kingdom as liberation from the yoke of the Romans. Therefore Matthew's gospel uses the name "kingdom of the heavens" thirty two times, in order to emphasise that the origin of the ruling power of this kingdom is in heaven and not on the earth. The kingdom of the heavens describes in principle the same as the kingdom of God, but it emphasises the heavenly character of this kingdom.

The kingdom of the heavens is also always viewed in Matthew's gospel as something future, i. Many parables which are used by Mark and Luke to explain the kingdom of God bear the "heading" kingdom of the heavens in Matthew. Matthew's gospel is the only gospel in which the assembly church of the New Testament is mentioned Matthew Only after the Messiah had been rejected by His earthly people, He announced the founding and building of His assembly, the foundation of which is He Himself. The assembly began on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 and consists of all believers of the present dispensation of grace.

She will be taken to the Fathers house in heaven by the Lord Himself, before the judgments of the end times, in order to be there with Him in glory for eternity. In all questions of order and discipline the Lord confers the highest authority on earth to the local assembly, because He Himself is in the midst of those gathered to His name.

The assembly was not yet revealed in the Old Testament. She belongs to the mystery of God which is only revealed in the New Testament Ephesians 3: Matthew 1 ; Matthew 2 ; Matthew 3 ; Matthew 4: The introduction of the King. The service of the King in Galilee. Chapter 5 The Sermon on the Mount: The dinner that is prepared, the oxen and the fatlings that are killed, is either a description of regal magnificence by the way of metaphor, that by carnal things spiritual may be understood; or the greatness of the doctrines, and the manifold teaching of God in His law, may be understood.

When therefore the Lord bade the Apostles, "Go ye and preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand," it was the same message as is here given, "I have prepared my dinner;" i. I have set out the table of Scripture out of the Law and the Prophets. By the oxen are signified the Fathers of the Old Testament; who by sufferance of the Law gored their enemies with the horn of bodily strength. By fatlings are meant fatted animals, for from "alere", comes "altilia," as it were "alitilia" or "alita.

He says therefore, "My oxen and my fatlings are killed;" as much as to say, Look to the deaths of the Fathers who have been before you, and desire some amendment of your lives. Otherwise; He says "oxen and fatlings," not as though the oxen were not fatted, but because all the oxen were not fat. Therefore the fatlings denote the Prophets who were filled with the Holy Spirit; the oxen those who were both Priests and Prophets, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel; for as the oxen are the leaders of the herd, so also the Priests are leaders of the people. Or otherwise; The oxen are the glorious army of Martyrs, offered, like choice victims, for the confession of God; the fatlings are spiritual men, as birds fed for flight upon heavenly food, that they may fill others with the abundance of the food they have eaten.

It is to be observed, that in the first invitation nothing was said of the oxen or fatlings, but in the second it is announced that they are already killed, because Almighty God when we will not hear His words gives examples, that what we suppose impossible may become easy to us to surmount, when we hear that others have passed through it before us.

Or; The dinner which is prepared is the oracle of God; and so the more mighty of the oracles of God are the oxen; the sweet and pleasant are the fatlings. For if any one bring forward feeble words, without power, and not having strong force of reason, these are the lean things; the fatlings are when to the establishment of each proposition many examples are brought forward backed by reasonable proofs.

For example, supposing one holding discourse of chastity, it might well be represented by the turtle-dove; but should he bring forward the same holy discourse full of reasonable proof out of Scripture, so as to delight and strengthen the mind of his hearer, then he brings the dove fatted. That He says, "And all things are now ready," means, that all that is required to salvation is already filled up in the Scriptures; there the ignorant may find instruction; the self-willed may read of terrors; he who is in difficulty may there find promises to rouse him to activity.

Or, "All things are now ready," i. The entrance into the kingdom, which had been hitherto closed, is now ready through faith in My incarnation. Or He says, "All things are now ready" which belong to the mystery of the Lord"s Passion, and our redemption. He says, "Come to the marriage," not with your feet, but with faith, and good conduct.

These occupations seem to be entirely reasonable; but we learn hence, that however necessary the things that take up our time, we ought to prefer spiritual things to every thing beside. But it seems to me that they only pretended these engagements as a cloak for their disregard of the invitation.

For men are taken up with worldly ambition as with a farm; and many through covetousness are engrossed with trafficking. Or otherwise; When we work with the labour of our hands, for example, cultivating our field or our vineyard, or any manufacture of wood or iron, we seem to be occupied with our "farm;" any other mode of getting money unattended with manual labour is here called "merchandize.

The pursuits of this world have ever shut men out of life. Whosoever then intent upon earthly business, or devoted to the actions of this world, feigns to be meditating upon the mystery of the Lord"s Passion, and to be living accordingly, is he that refuses to come to the King"s wedding on pretext of going to his farm or his merchandize. Nay often, which is worse, some who are called not only reject the grace, but become persecutors, "And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them despitefully and slew them.

Or, by the business of a farm, He denotes the Jewish populace, whom the delights of this world separated from Christ; by the excuse of merchandize, the Priests and other ministers of the Temple, who, coming to the service of the Law and the Temple through greediness of gain, have been shut out of the faith by covetousness.

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Of these He said not "They were filled with envy," but "They made light of it. The Lord is silent respecting His own death, because He had spoken of it in the foregoing parable, but He shews forth the death of His disciples, whom after His ascension the Jews put to death, stoning Stephen and executing James the son of Alphaeus, for which things Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. And it is to be observed, that anger is attributed to God figuratively and not properly; He is then said to be angry when He punishes.

When He was doing works of mercy, and bidding to His marriage-feast, He was called a man; now when He comes to vengeance, the man is dropped, and He is called only a King. Let those who sin against the God of the Law, and the Prophets, and the whole creation, declare whether He who is here called man, and is said to be angry, is indeed the Father Himself. If they allow this, they will be forced to own that many things are said of Him applicable to the passible nature of man; not for that He has passions, but because He is represented to us after the manner of passible human nature.

In this way we take God"s anger, repentance, and the other things of the like sort in the Prophets. By "His armies" we understand that Romans under Vespasian and Titus, who having slaughtered the inhabitants of Judaea, laid in ashes the faithless city. The Roman army is called God"s army; because "The earth is the Lord"s, and the fulness thereof;" [ Psalms Or, The armies of our King are the legions of His Angels.

He is said therefore to have sent His armies, and to have destroyed those murderers, because all judgment is executed upon men by the Angels. He destroys those murderers, when He cuts off persecutors; and burns up their city, because not only their souls, but the body of flesh they had tenanted, is tormented in the everlasting fire of hell. Or, the city of those wicked men is in each doctrine the assembly of those who meet in the wisdom of the rulers of this world; which the King sets fire to and destroys, as consisting of evil buildings. But when He sees that His invitation is spurned at, He will not have His Son"s marriage-feast empty; the word of God will find where it may stay itself.

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That is, the whole sacrament of the human dispensation is completed and closed. The Jewish nation then being rejected, the Gentile people were taken in to the marriage-feast; whence it follows, "Go ye out into the crossings of the streets, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the wedding.

For the Gentile nation was not in the streets, but in the crossings of the streets. Or; The streets are all the professions of this world, as philosophy, soldiery, and the like. And therefore He says, "Go out into the crossings of the streets," that they may call to the faith men of every condition. Moreover, as chastity is the way that leads to God, so fornication is the way that leads to the Devil; and so it is in the other virtues and vices.

Thus He bids them invite to the faith men of every profession or condition. By the street also is to be understood the time of this world, and they are therefore bid to go to the crossings of the streets, because the past is remitted to all. Or otherwise; In holy Scripture, way is taken to mean actions; so that the crossings of the ways we understand as failure in action, for they usually come to God readily, who have had little prosperity in worldly actions. Or otherwise; I suppose this first bidding to the wedding to have been a bidding of some of the more noble minds.

For God would have those before all come to the feast of the divine oracles who are of the more ready wit to understand them; and forasmuch as they who are such are loth to come to that kind of summons, other servants are sent to move them to come, and to promise that they shall find the dinner prepared. For as in the things of the body, one is the bride, others the inviters to the feast, and they that are bidden are others again; so God knows the various ranks of souls, and their powers, and the reasons why these are taken into the condition of the Bride, others in the rank of the servants that call, and others among the number of those that are bidden as guests.

But they who had been thus especially invited contemned the first inviters as poor in understanding, and went their way, following their own devices, as more delighting in them than in those things which the King by his servants promised. Yet are these more venial than they who ill-treat and put to death the servants sent unto them; those, that is, who daringly assail with weapons of contentious words the servants sent, who are unequal to solve their subtle difficulties, and those are illtreated or put to death by them.

The servants going forth are either Christ"s Apostles going from Judaea and Jerusalem, or the Holy Angels from the inner worlds, and going to the various ways of various manners, gathered together whomsoever they found, not caring whether before their calling they had been good or bad. By the good here we may understand simply the more humble and upright of those who come to the worship of God, to whom agreed what the Apostle says, "When the Gentile which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law, they are a law unto themselves.

For there is an infinite difference among the Gentiles themselves; some are more prone to vice, others are endowed with more incorrupt and virtuous manners. Or; He means that in this present Church there cannot be bad without good, nor good without bad. He is not good who refuses to endure the bad. The marriage-feast of Christ and the Church is filled, when they who were found by the Apostles, being restored to God, sat down to the feast. But since it behoved that both bad and good should be called, not that the bad should continue bad, but that they should put off the garments unmeet for the wedding, and should put on the marriage garments, to wit, bowels of mercy and kindness, for this cause the King goes out, that He may see them set down before the supper is set before them, that they may be detained who have the wedding garment in which He is delighted, and that he may condemn the opposite.

The day of His coming to behold is the day of judgment, when He will visit Christians seated at the board of the Scriptures. But when He was come in, He found there one who had not put off his old behaviour; "He saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment.

What ought we to understand by the wedding garment, but charity? He then enters in to the wedding feast, but without the wedding garment, who has faith in the Church, but not charity. Or, he goes to the feast without a garment, who goes seeking his own, and not the Bridegroom"s honour. Or; The wedding garment is the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the purity of that heavenly temper, which taken up on the confession of a good enquiry is to be preserved pure and unspotted for the company of the Kingdom of heaven.

Or; The marriage garment is the commandments of the Lord, and the works which are done under the Law and the Gospel, and form the clothing of the new man. Whoso among the Christian body shall be found in the day of judgment not to have these, is straightway condemned. And forasmuch as he who is in sin, and puts not on the Lord Jesus Christ, has no excuse, it follows, "But he was speechless. For in that day there will be no room for blustering manner [marg. He who has thus insulted the marriage feast is not only cast out therefrom, but besides by the King"s officers, who are set over his prisons, is chained up from that power of walking which he employed not to walk to any good thing, and that power of reaching forth his hand, wherewith he had fulfilled no work for any good; and is sentenced to a place whence all light is banished, which is called "outer darkness.

The hands and feet are then bound by a severe sentence of judgment, which before refused to be bound from wicked actions by amendment of life. Or punishment binds them, whom sin had before bound from good works. The bonds of wicked and depraved desires are the chains which bind him who deserves to be cast out into outer darkness.

By inward darkness we express blindness, of heart; "outer darkness" signifies the everlasting night of damnation. Or, it points to the difference of punishment inflicted on sinners. Outer darkness being the deepest, inward darkness the lesser, as it were the out- skirts of the place. By a metaphor taken from the body, "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth," is shewn the greatness of the torments.

The binding of the hands and feet also, and the weeping of eyes, and the gnashing of teeth, understand as proving the truth of the resurrection of the body. There shall gnash those teeth which here delighted in gluttony; there shall weep those eyes which here roamed in illicit desire; every member shall there have its peculiar punishment, which here was a slave to its peculiar vice.

And because in the marriage and supper the chief thing is the end and not the beginning, therefore He adds, "For many are called, but few chosen. For to invite all without exception is a courtesy of public benevolence; but out of the invited or called, the election will be of worth, by distinction of merit. For some never begin a good course, and some never continue in that good course which they have begun. Let each one"s care about himself be in proportion to his ignorance of what is yet to come. Or otherwise; Whenever God will try His Church, He enters into it that He may see the guests; and if He finds any one not having on the wedding garment, He enquires of him, How then were you made a Christian, if you neglect these works?

Such a one Christ gives over to His ministers, that is, to seducing leaders, who bind his hands, that is, his works, and his feet, that is, the motions of his mind, and cast him into darkness, that is, into the errors of the Gentiles or the Jews, or into heresy. The nigher darkness is that of the Gentiles, for they have never heard the truth which they despise; the outer darkness is that of the Jews, who have heard but do not believe; the outermost is that of the heretics, who have heard and have learned.

Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, "Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. And he saith unto them, "Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, "Caesar"s.

When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way. As when one seeks to dam a stream of running water, as soon as one outlet is stopped up it makes another channel for itself; so the malevolence of the Jews, foiled on one hand, seeks itself out another course. Such as the plan was, such were the planners; "They send unto Him their disciples with the Herodians.

Who as unknown to Him, were more likely to ensnare Him, and so through them they might take Him, which they feared to do of themselves because of the populace. Lately under Caesar Augustus, Judaea, which was subject to the Romans, had been made tributary when the census was held of the whole world; and there was a great division among the people, some saying that tribute ought to be paid to the Romans in return for the security and quiet which their arms maintained for all.

The Pharisees on the other hand, self- satisfied in their own righteousness, contended that the people of God who paid tithes and gave first-fruits, and did all the other things which are written in the Law, ought not to be subject to human laws. But Augustus had given the Jews as king, Herod, son of Antipater, a foreigner and proselyte; he was to exact the tribute, yet to be subject to the Roman dominion.

The Pharisees therefore send their disciples with the Herodians, that is, with Herod"s soldiers, or those whom the Pharisees in mockery called Herodians, because they paid tribute to the Romans, and were not devoted to the worship of God. They send their disciples and Herod"s soldiers together, that whatever opinion He might give might be found fault with. Yet would they rather have had Him say somewhat against the Herodians; for being themselves afraid to lay hands on Him because of the populace, they sought to bring Him into danger through His liability to pay tribute.

This is the commonest act of hypocrites, to commend those they would ruin. Thus, these break out into praises of Him, saying, "Master, we know that Thou art true. There are three ways in which it is possible for one not to teach the truth. First, on the side of the teacher, who may either not know, or not love the truth; guarding against this, they say, "We know that Thou art true.

Secondly, on the side of God, there are some who, putting aside all fear of Him, do not utter honestly the truth which they know respecting Him; to exclude this they say, "And teachest the way of God in truth. Thirdly, on the side of our neighbour, when through fear or affection any one withholds the truth; to exclude this they say, "And carest for no man," for Thou regardest not the person of man. This smooth and treacherous enquiry was a kind of challenge to the answerer to fear God rather than Caesar, and immediately they say, "Tell us therefore, what thinkest Thou?

Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Should He say tribute should not be paid, the Herodians would immediately accuse Him as a person disaffected to the Emperor. They knew that certain had before suffered death for this very thing, as plotting a rebellion against the Romans, therefore they sought by such discourse to bring Him into the same suspicion.

He makes an answer not corresponding to the smooth tone of their address, but harsh, suitable to their cruel thoughts; for God answers men"s hearts, and not their words. This is the first excellence of the answerer, that He discerns the thoughts of His examiners, and calls them not disciples but tempter.

A hypocrite is he who is one thing, and feigns himself another. He therefore calls them hypocrites, that seeing Him to be a discerner of human hearts, they might not be hardy enough to carry through their design.

Observe thus how the Pharisees spoke fair that they might destroy Him, but Jesus put them to shame that He might save them; for God"s wrath is more profitable to man, than man"s favour. Wisdom does ever wisely, and so the tempters are best confuted out of their own words; therefore it follows, "Shew me the tribute money; and they brought unto Him a denarius. Let those who think that the Saviour asks because He is ignorant, learn from the present place that it is not so, for at all events Jesus must have known whose image was on the coin.

For if there remain with us nothing that is Caesar"s, we shall not be bound by the condition of rendering to him the things that are his; but if we lean upon what is his, if we avail ourselves of the lawful protection of his power, we cannot complain of it as any wrong if we are required to render to Caesar the things of Caesar. But when you hear this command to render to Caesar the things of Caesar, know that such things only are intended which in nothing are opposed to religion; if such there be, it is no longer Caesar"s but the Devil"s tribute.

And moreover, that they might not say that He was subjecting them to man, He adds, "And unto God the things that are God"s. That is, tithes, first-fruits, oblation, and victims; as the Lord Himself rendered to Caesar tribute, both for Himself and for Peter; and also rendered unto God the things that are God"s in doing the will of His Father. It behoves us also to render unto God the things that are His, namely, body, soul, and will. For Caesar"s coin is in the gold, in which His image was portrayed, that is, God"s coin, on which the Divine image is stamped; give therefore your money to Caesar, but preserve a conscience void of offence for God.

From this place we learn by the Saviour"s example not to be allured by those things which have many voices for them, and thence seem famous, but to incline rather to those things which are spoken according to some method of reason. But we may also understand this place morally, that we ought to give some things to the body as a tribute to Caesar, that is to say, necessaries. And such things as are congenial to our souls" nature, that is, such things as lead to virtue, those we ought to offer to God. They then who without any moderation inculcate the law of God, and command us to have no care for the things required by the body, are the Pharisees, who forbad to give tribute to Caesar, "forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created.

They, on the other hand, who allow too much indulgence to the body are the Herodians. But our Saviour would neither that virtue should be enfeebled by immoderate devotedness to the flesh; nor that our fleshly nature should be oppressed by our unremitting efforts after virtue. Or the prince of this world, that is, the Devil, is called Caesar; and we cannot render to God the things that are God"s, unless we have first rendered to this prince all that is his, that is, have cast off all wickedness.

This moreover let us learn from this place, that to those who tempt us we should neither be totally silent, nor yet answer openly, but with caution, to cut off all occasion from those who seek occasion in us, and teach without blame the things which may save those who are willing to be saved. They who ought to have believed did but wonder at His great wisdom, that their craft had found no means for ensnaring Him: The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, "Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.

Now there were with us seven brethren: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? Jesus answered and said unto them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

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But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. The disciples of the Pharisees with the Herodians being thus confuted, the Sadducees next offer themselves, whereas the overthrow of those before them ought to have kept them back. But presumption is shameless, stubborn, and ready to attempt things impossible. So the Evangelist, wondering at their folly, expresses this saying, "The same day came to him the Sadducees.

As soon as the Pharisees were gone, came the Sadducees; perhaps with like intent, for there was a strife among them who should be the first to seize Him. Or if by argument they should not be able to overcome Him, they might at least by perseverance wear out His understanding. There were two sects among the Jews, the Pharisees and the Sadducees; the Pharisees pretended to the righteousness of traditions and observances, whence they were called by the people "separate. They not only denied the resurrection of the body, but took away the immortality of the soul.

For the Devil finding himself unable to crush utterly the religion of God, brought in the sect of the Sadducees denying the resurrection of the dead, thus breaking down all purpose of a righteous life, for who is there would endure a daily struggle against himself, unless he looked to the hope of the resurrection? But there are who observing that the spirit is loosed from the body, that the flesh is turned to corruption, that the corruption is reduced to dust, and that the dust again is resolved into the elements, so as to be unseen by human eyes, despair of the possibility of a resurrection, and while they look upon the dry bones, doubt that they can be clothed with flesh, and be quickened anew to life.

But that earthy matter of which the flesh of men is made perishes not before God; but into whatsoever dust or ashes reduced, into whatsoever gases or vapours dispersed, into whatsoever other bodies incorporated, though resolved into the elements, though become the food or part of the flesh of animals or men, yet is it in a moment of time restored to that human soul, which at the first quickened it that it became man, lived and grew.

But the Sadducees thought they had now discovered a most convincing argument in favour of their error. For because death to the Jews, who did all things for the present life, seemed an unmixed evil, Moses ordered that the wife of one who died without sons should be given to his brother, that a son might be born to the dead man by his brother, and his name should not perish, which was some alleviation of death. And none other but a brother or relation was commanded to take the wife of the dead; otherwise the child born would not have been considered the son of the dead; and also because a stranger could have no concern in establishing the house of him that was dead, as a brother whose kindred obliged him thereto.

As they disbelieved the resurrection of the body, and supposed that the soul perished with the body, they accordingly invent a fable to display the fondness of the belief of a resurrection. Thus they put forward a base fiction to overthrow the verity of the resurrection, and conclude with asking, "in the resurrection whose shall she be?

Mystically; by these seven brethren are understood the wicked, who could not bring forth the fruit of righteousness in the earth through all the seven ages of the world, during which this earth has being, for afterwards this earth also shall pass away, through which all those seven passed away unfruitful.

Wisely does He first convict them of folly, in that they did not read; and afterwards of ignorance, in that they did not know God. For of diligence in reading springs knowledge of God, but ignorance is the offspring of neglect. They therefore err because they know not the Scriptures; and because they know not the power of God. Two things there are which He says they know not, the Scriptures and the power of God, by which is brought to pass the resurrection, and the new life in it. Or by the power of God, which the Lord here convicts the Sadducees that they knew not, He intends Himself, who was the power of God; and Him they knew not [marg.

But it is asked when the Saviour says, "Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures," if He means that this text, "They neither marry, nor are given in marriage," is in some Scripture, though it is not read in the Old Testament? We say that these very words are indeed not found, but that the truth is in a mystery implied in the moral sense of Scripture; the Law, which is "a shadow of good things to come," whenever it speaks of husbands and wives, speaks chiefly of spiritual wedlock. But neither this do I find any where spoken in Scripture that the Saints shall be after their departure as the Angels of God, unless one will understand this also to be inferred morally; as where it is said, "And, thou shalt go to thy fathers," [ Genesis Another says, That they knew not the Scriptures of the Mosaic Law, for this reason, that they did not sift their divine sense.

And thus ought we to do; to cavillers first to set forth Scripture authority on any question, and then to shew the grounds of reason; but to those who ask out of ignorance to shew first the reason, and then the authority. For cavillers ought to be refuted, enquirers taught. To these then who put their question in ignorance, He first shews the reason, saying, "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage. In these words the Latin language cannot follow the Greek idiom. For the Latin word "nubere" is correctly said only of the woman.

But we must take it so as to understand "marry" of men, "to be given in marriage" of women. In this life that we may die, therefore we are born; and we marry to the end that which death consumes, birth may replenish; therefore where the law of death is taken away, the cause of birth is taken away likewise.

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It had been enough to have cut off this opinion of the Sadducees of sensual enjoyment, that where the function ceased, the empty pleasure of the body accompanying it ceased also; but He adds, "But are as the Angels of God in heaven. Which is an apt reply to their question.

For their reason for judging that there would be no resurrection, was that they supposed that their condition when risen would be the same; this reason then He removes by shewing that their condition would be altered. It should be noted, that when He spoke of fasting, alms, and other spiritual virtues, He did not bring in the comparison of Angels, but only here where He speaks of the ceasing of marriage.

For as all acts of the flesh are primal acts, but this of lust especially so; so all the virtues are angelic acts, but especially chastity, by which our nature is bound to the other virtues. This that is added, "But are as the Angels of God in heaven," is an assurance that our conversation in heaven shall be spiritual. For then when we shall be incorruptible and immortal, by the visible presence of God Himself we shall be filled with most chaste contemplations, and shall share the gift of light to the understanding in our impassible and immaterial soul after the fashion of the exalted souls in heaven; on which account it is said that we shall be equal to the Angels.

The same cavil that the Sadducees here offer respecting marriage is renewed by many who ask in what form the female sex shall rise again.

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• My Child Has Asperger Syndrome - A Parents Guide to Coping
• Flexibility, Foresight and Fortuna in Taiwans Development
• Sex, Slaves and Silhouettes (BDSM Erotica Book 24)