Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/329

Rh must bear in mind that he was thereby giving to God his dues also; for a time might come when it might be a defrauding of God to give Cæsar tribute; but at that time to have refused tribute to Cæsar would have been to refuse God his dues. So he bade them obey the signs of the times, yet so as never to defraud God; nor would he lay down any rule, as they had desired, but pointed to the foundations of righteousness, which lie in the heart and not in the hands. The like also he did in saying that the love of God and of man was the chief commandment of the Law. But concerning the Sadducees and their doctrine, that there is no resurrection, he said that the second life differeth from the first as much as angels differ from men; so that the bands whereby we are bound together here, will not be the same as will bind us together there. Howbeit he said not that there should be no bands hereafter, nor that these present bands should vanish; but only that they should be different, and not carnal, but spiritual. Moreover he questioned the Pharisees concerning their expectations of the Messiah and their interpretations of the Scriptures; and they could not make answer to his questions.

But all these were only as the beginnings of the conflict. For presently the Pharisees began to wax more vehement in their disputations and to reveal their hatred of him more clearly. And when Jesus looked upon their faces, he discerned his own death instant therein. So he turned and spake to the people in parables, likening Israel to an estate let out to greedy husbandmen, which killed the servants of their lord, and last of all slew his son also, when he came to receive of the fruits of the land. Again, he likened the Kingdom of Heaven to a wedding feast, and the Pharisees to murderous people, subjects of a king; who would not come to the wedding of the king's son,