Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

⁸ Let us away then with vain and evil excuses, and come we to the supper by which we may be made fat within. Let not the puffing up of pride keep us back, let it not lift us up, nor unlawful curiosity scare us, and turn us away from God; let not the pleasure of the flesh hinder us from the pleasure of the heart. Let us come, and be filled. And who came but the beggars, the “maimed,” the “halt,” the “blind”? But there came not there the rich, and the whole, who walked, as they thought, well, and saw acutely; who had great confidence in themselves, and were therefore in the more desperate case, in proportion as they were more proud.

Let the beggars come, for He invites them, “who, though He was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we beggars through His poverty might be enriched.” Let the maimed come, “for they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are in evil case.” Let the halt come who may say to Him, “Set in order my steps in Your paths.” Let the blind come who may say, “Enlighten my eyes, that I may never sleep in death.” Such as these came at the hour, when those who had been first invited, had been rejected for their own excuses: they came at the hour, they entered in from the streets and lanes of the city.

And the servant “who had been sent,” brought answer, “Lord, it is done as You have commanded, and yet there is room.” “Go out,” says He, “into the highways and hedges, and compel those whom you shall find to come in.” Whom you shall find wait not till they choose to come, compel them to come in. I have prepared a great supper, a great house, I cannot suffer any place to be vacant in it. The Gentiles came from the streets and lanes: let the heretics come from the hedges, here they shall find peace.

For those who make hedges, their object is to make divisions. Let them be drawn away from the hedges, let them be plucked up from among the thorns. They have stuck fast in the hedges, they are unwilling to be compelled. Let us come in, they say, of our own good will. This is not the Lord's order, “Compel them,” says he, “to come in.” Let compulsion be found outside, the will arise within.