3. Call them that were bidden. It has been said by some critics, that it was an ancient usage to invite the guests sometime beforehand, and then summon them again to the entertainment, when it was nearly ready. An allusion seems here to be made to two invitations.

4. Sent forth other servants. There is a moral significance to this feature in the parable. For God suffereth long and is kind, and urges his messages of love repeatedly upon the attention of mankind, through various dispensations, and by the ceaseless flow of his blessings. My dinner, i. e. my feast, without reference to the time of day.-Fallings, i. e. fatted animals, of whatever kind. It was agreeable to ancient simplicity to speak thus familiarly. Similar instances are frequent in Homer, one of the oldest poets in the world.

5, 6. It was considered a breach of the law of God, and an affront of the greatest indignity, to neglect a marriage festivity. Two classes are here described, the trifling and worldly, the malignant and persecuting. The bulk of the Jews heeded not the Gospel invitation, because they were devoted to business and pleasure; but some, the Scribes and

Pharisees, chief priests and elders of the people, were not satisfied with silent neglect and contempt, but proceeded to open acts of hostility against Jesus and his Apostles. Entreated them spitefully. Or, rather, treated them injuriously, barbarously.

7. Destroyed those murderers, &c. There is an evident allusion here to the destruction of the Jewish people by the Roman armies, and the burning of their temple and city. The cause of these national calamities was national wickedness. A long series of crimes and injuries committed, even against the messengers and Son of God, had "treasured up wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." The eternal law thus vindicated itself with such awful sureness, that the chosen people themselves became but the more notorious examples of its execution.

9. Highways. Rather, crossings of the streets, or thoroughfares. It was customary with the rich men among the Jews, to invite all destitute strangers and travellers to their feasts. Jesus refers, in this part of the parable, to the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles.

sees, Sadducees, and Lawyers, to effect this object, and their total failure and discomfiture.

16. Their disciples, with the Herodians. The Pharisees sent their emissaries, with the Herodians, who are supposed to have been a political party, and disposed to uphold the dominion of the Romans over the Jews, and who were favorable to the adoption of Gentile manners and customs. Mat. xvi. 6. Mark viii. 15. Although the two sects were hostile to each other, they buried their mutual animosities to unite in a common attack upon Jesus. We know that thou art true, &c. According to Luke xx. 20, these spies were to "feign themselves just men," that they might thus the more successfully entrap him, and deliver him up to the civil authority. In pursuance of this plan, they address him with an insincere, though deserved eulogium. For of whom, more than of Jesus, could it ever be said, that he was true, taught the truth, and regarded neither the frowns nor the flatteries of men? Beautiful testimony of his enemies to his unsurpassed rectitude, and dauntless moral courage!

17. Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar? The Roman emperors were called by this appellation after Julius Cæsar, who first attained the imperial dignity, Tiberius Cæsar was at this time on the throne. The tribute which the Romans exacted from Judea, in common with the

rest of their conquered provinces, was excessively galling to the Jewish pride. It became a much agitated question, whether it was consistent with the Mosaic law to pay this tax or not. Josephus relates, that Judas, a Galilean, Acts v. 37, raised a revolt, partly on this account, saying that the taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery. It was this question, with collateral and aggravating circumstances, which drove the Jews into their last fatal conflict with Rome. The inquiry seemed to involve Jesus in a dilemma from which he could not escape. For, if he answered in the affirmative, his reply would conflict with the Mosaic law, Deut. xvii. 15; but if in the negative, he would give occasion to be charged with sedition against the Roman government, Luke xxiii. 2. But his wisdom was superior to the wiles of his enemies.

18. Wickedness. More particularly, malice, craft.-Hypocrites. Dissemblers. Pretending, with great deference to his authority, to ask his decision, they were solely actuated by a desire to entangle him in difficulty.

19. Tribute money. The coin in which the tax was paid.—A penny. A denarius; a Roman silver piece of about fourteen cents.

20. Whose is this image and superscription? Or, inscription. The image was the head of the empe

ror.

The inscription was, CESAR

AUGUSTUS; OF SUBJECT JUDEA. It is said that Julius Cæsar first stamped his image on the Roman coin. The invention was originally Persian.

21. Render, therefore, unto Cæsar, &c. Jesus drew his answer from the coin itself. As it had the Roman emperor's image and inscription upon it, it was an evidence that it was his, and therefore to be paid in tribute to him; for Roman coin could only circulate in Judea when the land had become subject to the Roman government. It was a maxim of the Jewish schools, that, wheresoever the money of any king is current, there the inhabitants acknowledge that king for their lord. Since, therefore, it was proved, by the very fact of the coin, that they were a conquered people, they could do no less than pay tribute to their conquerors.-And unto God the things that are God's. Referring, probably, to the annual tribute due to his temple, of half a shekel, twenty-eight cents. This admirable answer has passed into a proverb. The same thought is amplified in Romans xiii. 7. Whilst the citizen maintains his allegiance to the powers that be, he is also to render that service to God which is his due. The image of princes stamped on their coin denotes that temporal things belong to their government. The image of God stamped on the soul denotes that all its faculties and powers belong

to the Most High, and should be employed in his service. Man's duties to human and Divine governments do not clash. Jesus intimates that the tribute was due to Cæsar, but that they ought not to sacrifice their religion to any human power. He therefore silenced both parties, the seditious Pharisees, who were opposed to acknowledging their subjection to Rome, and the irreligious Herodians, who were in favor of sacrificing religion itself to their masters. He not only escaped the difficulty, but gave a wise and satisfactory answer, fitted to guide the doubting in the way of their duty.

The knotty question was solved. His enemies departed in confusion and wonder at his answer.

23. The Sadducees. See note on Mat. iii. 7.-There is no resurrection. One of the articles of their belief. Acts xxiii. 8. Jesus scarcely overcomes one difficulty, ere another is presented to him. Gratified with his victory over their old foes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, with selfsufficient pride, make their assault.

24. Deut. xxv. 5, 6. This was the Levirate law, so called, which was designed to preserve estates in the same family, and continue families and tribes distinct from each other. -Raise up seed unto his brother, i. e. the children should be reckoned in the genealogy of the deceased brother, and enjoy his estate. It is not an exact quotation, but the substance of the law.

25. Seven brethren. Perhaps a supposed case, one too which they might have often employed against the Pharisees, in their controversy about a future state.-Seven is an indefinite number, of frequent use among the Jews.

28. In the resurrection, i. e. in the future state. The prevalent notions of another life seem to have been very gross, and little raised above the actual condition of man in this world.

29. Ye do err, i. e. you deceive yourselves, by not considering the Scriptures, which, as Jesus shows in verse 32, contain traces of the doctrine of immortality; and by not reflecting on the power of God, who is able to raise the dead, and to form a new state, different from the present one.

30. In the resurrection, they neither marry, &c. The relations of the present life, and the appetites of the body, will not exist there.-Are as the angels. Luke says, "they are equal unto the angels," a general expression, to describe their similarity as it respects the necessities of the body, and their immortality, for he says farther, "neither can they die any more." In one word, they are immortal spirits. 1 Cor. xv. 50. It is observable here, that Jesus inci

dentally confirms the belief in the existence of angels, a point which the Sadducees denied.

31, 32. Jesus proceeds, after having rebutted their objection, to propose an argument level to their comprehension, and drawn from the Scriptures, which they acknowledged, in proof of a resurrection.-1 am the God of Abraham, &c. Ex. iii. 6, 15, 16. Heb. xi. 16. This declaration was made_long after Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob had died. As God could not with any propriety be called the God of that which does not exist, the conclusion is a strong one, that, as he called himself their God, they did exist in another state of being. He does not say, I was, but, I am, the God of Abraham. This was peculiarly a Jewish mode of reasoning. The Sadducees find themselves surpassed with their own weapons of ingenuity and attack, and the people at large were astonished at the wonderful strength of Jesus' teaching, which prostrated before it the most subtle objections and wily stratagems of the Jewish doctors. According to Luke, even some of the Scribes remarked, "Master, thou hast well," in the original, beautifully, "said."

34-40. Parallel to Mark xii. 28-34.