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THE GOSPEL

OF THE

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Mr. Bentley

1900

५

THE GOSPEL

OF THE

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

A Course of Lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke

BY

FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE

'Come forth out of Thy royall chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the
'earth! Put on the robes of Thy imperiall majesty! take up that unlimited
sceptre which Thy Almighty Father hath bequeath'd Thee! for now the voice of
Thy Bride calls Thee, and all creatures sigh to bee renew'd.'-MILTON.

London

MACMILLAN AND CO.

AND NEW YORK

1888

The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved

First Edition printed November, 1864.

Reprinted 1879, 1888,

M454g

1888
сор.2

PREFACE.

I HAVE called these discourses 'Lectures,' not sermons. They are strictly readings on the Gospel of St. Luke. But they were addressed to a congregation. The ordinary rules of preaching were observed in the delivery of them; a text was placed at the head of each. It was chosen because much of the sense of the surrounding passages seemed to be woven into it. That I presume is the meaning of a 'text;' the justification for its use in the pulpit. It should always suggest, and in some sort compel, the study of the book from which it is taken; it should never be forgotten in the disquisition which is appended to it. When I revised the lectures, and prepared them for the press, I might, along with other alterations, have dropped these headings. But I was unwilling to give the book the form of a commentary, or to lose any of the links which connected the Gospel that is written with the Gospel