Even more severe than his apostles in his use of denunciation, was the Great Master himself. In his controversies with the recognized religious leaders of his day, he heaped coals of fire upon their claims and teachings and practices. "Ye leave the commandment of God and hold fast to the tradition of men," he says to the Scribes and Pharisees; and then adds, with terrible irony, "Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition." Surely, when the commandments of God were placed side by side with rabbinical glosses, they were in an extremely cruel position! No passage of invective, in any literature, is more crushing than this: "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves. * * * Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. * * * Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Blind Pharisees! cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also! Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers which, indeed, appear beautiful outward, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. * * * Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, for ye are as graves which appear not, and men walk over them and are not aware of them." But not only the leaders, but the people also, fall under his lash. "The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it; for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold a greater than Solomon is here! When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return to my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation!"