relating to them. In this manner the Free-thinkers among the Jews discarded the greater part of the Scriptures, together with the most fundamental arti- cles of their religion. They denied, for instance, the resurrection of the body, and it is supposed, the immortality of the soul also : and having, as they imagined, insurmountable objections to those doc- trines, they came to propose them to our Lord, in full confidence that they should confound him, and overthrow the system which he was endeavouring to establish.
Their great objection was taken from the word of God itself, which appointed, that, if a man died child- less, his brother should marry his widow, in order to raise up seed unto the departed person, and to prevent his name from being lost in Israel a. They, for argu- ment's sake, assumed a case, which certainly was within the sphere of possibility. They stated, that a man with six younger brothers died without children ; and that, in compliance with the Divine command, his next brother married her ; and he also died childless. In like manner all the brothers in succession married her, and all died without issue. Now, as the Sad- ducees imagined, that, if there were any future world, the same relationship as existed now must of necessity continue, they could not conceive which of the seven brethren would be acknowledged for her husband.
Our blessed Lord informed them, that they were quite mistaken about the nature of the future state ; for that no matrimonial connexions would be formed there ; but all would be, like the angels, wholly en- grossed with spiritual delights : and, as to their secret thought that the resurrection was a thing impossible, they erred from an ignorance of what the Scripture had said respecting it, and of the power of God to effect it. Our Lord then called to their remembrance the passage of Scripture which we have just read ; and which we will now consider,
I. As establishing the point at issue —
a Deut. xxv. 5 — 10.