ii. The Herodians thus repulsed, the Sadducees approached. With their wonted[465] philosophic pride they usually kept aloof from all popular religious movements. Now, however, they advanced to the encounter with a religious difficulty respecting the position in another world of a woman who had had seven husbands in this[466]. But their coarse question was met with Divine wisdom. Had they known the Scriptures, or the power of God, they could never have asked it (Mtt. xxii. 29). Such corporeal and earthly relationships ceased with this life, and in the next man would be exalted to a higher order of beings by the almighty power of HIM, who even in the Law[467], which they professed to receive, had declared Himself _the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of the living, and not of the dead_ (Ex. iii. 6). iii. Struck with the singular wisdom, with which He had _put the Sadducees to silence_ (Mtt. xxii. 34), a scribe belonging to the Pharisaic sect (Mk. xii. 28) now drew near, requesting information as to the relative greatness of the commandments of the Law (Mtt. xxii. 36). The point was probably one much debated in the Rabbinical schools, though it is not clear in what way it was calculated to ensnare the Saviour. But the sublime, though simple response it received, comprising the whole of religion, under the precepts of Love to God and Love to Man, struck even the questioner with admiration (Mk. xii. 32); he frankly owned that such love was better than all _burnt-offerings and sacrifice_[468], and obtained the gracious declaration from the Redeemer that he was _not far from the kingdom of God_ (Mk. xii. 34). After such successive proofs of Divine wisdom the Pharisees did not venture[469] to put any more questions to the Redeemer, and He Himself, taking advantage of the opportunity, now assumed the character of a questioner, and interrogated them (Mtt. xxii. 41) respecting the descent of the Messiah. Speaking under the influence of the Spirit, David in the Psalms (Ps. cx. 1) had called Him Lord, saying, _The Lord said unto My Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand, till I have made Thy foes a footstool for Thy feet_. If the Messiah was to be David’s _son_, how could He be at the same time his _Lord_, thus mysteriously uniting a Divine and a human nature?