23
“The lord said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
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ExplanationCommentary
Verse 23. Compel them to come in. This is almost the only expression in the New Testament, which can give to the intolerant a plea for persecution. The spirit of the gospel is the spirit of mildness, and the compulsion which it authorizes to bring infidels or heretics into the Church, is such as we use towards our friends, when we press them to accept of our hospitality. The great pope, Saint Gregory, forbade the Jews to be persecuted in Rome, who refused to receive the faith of Christ. “That is a new and unheard of kind of preaching,” says he, “which demands assent by stripes.” A.
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