forgiving one another, even as God
for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." With what face can I pray, "Lord,
forgive me my sins," when I may meet with such a retortion, thou canst not
forgive thy brethren's sins, infinitely less both in number and degree?
Matth. vi. 15. "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will
your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses." What unparalleled
ingratitude were it, what monstrous wickedness, that after he hath
forgiven all our debt, because we desired him yet we should not have
compassion on our fellow servants even as he had pity on us! O! what a
dreadful sound will that be in the ears of many Christians, "O thou wicked
servant, I forgave thee all thy debt, because thou desiredst me! Shouldest
not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servants, even as I had
pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors,
till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my
heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every
one his brother their trespasses," Matth. xviii. 32, 33, 34, 35. When we
cannot dispense with one penny, how should he dispense with his talents?
And when we cannot pardon ten, how should he forgive ten thousand? When he
hath forgiven my brother all his iniquity, may not I pardon one? Shall I
impute that which God will not impute, or discover that which God hath
covered? How should I expect he should be merciful to me, when I cannot
shew mercy to my brother? Psal. xviii. 25. "With the merciful thou wilt
show thyself merciful." Shall I, for one or few offences, hate, bite, and
devour him for whom Christ died, and loved not his life to save him? Rom.
xiv. 15 and 1 Cor. viii. 11.

_In the next place_. If a Christian do but take an impartial view of
himself, he cannot but thus reason himself to a meek, composed, and
affectionate temper towards other brethren. What is it in another that
offends me, when if I do search within, I will not either find the same,
or worse, or as evil in myself? Is there a mote in my brothers eye?
Perhaps there may be a beam in my own; and why then should I look to the
mote that is in my brother's eye? Matth. vii. 3. When I look inwardly, I
find a desperately wicked heart, which lodges all that iniquity I beheld
in others. And if I be not so sensible of it, it is because it is also
deceitful above all things, and would flatter me in mine own eyes, Jer.
xvii. 9. If my brother offen