Matthew Poole and continuators on Acts 23:8

8 For the Sad[illegible: 1 letter]uces say that there is no resurrection, neither [illegible: 1 letter]ngel nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.

Against this our Saviour argued, Matth. 22.23, &c.

It seems strange, that they should deny that there were Angels, whenas they owned the Pentateuch, or Five Books of Moses, in which mention is made frequently of Angels: But it seems that they understood those places Allegorically; either for good Instincts or Apparitions caused by God to manifest his mind by them unto men, wresting those places to their own destruction.

They denied the Existence of the Soul of man, as different from the Crasis and Temperament of his Body; and therefore believed that the Soul perished with the Body▪ Nay, they were so far from believing there was any Spirit, that they held, blasphemously, that God himself was Corporeal.

The three things here mentioned, which the Pharisees denied, may be well spoken of as but two, viz. the Resurrection and the Existence of Spirits. When men sin with much Obstinacy against supernatural light, God justly withdraws from them even natural light▪ and they are punished (as the Egyptians were) with such darkness as may be felt, Exodus 10.21.

Marginal references: Mat. 22.23.