Matthew 6:14-15

For if ye forgive, &c.— From what our Lord here says, we are not to imagine that the forgiving of injuries will entitle us to pardon: it only places us in a condition to receive it through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, all negative declarations being in their own nature absolute, he who does not forgive never shall be forgiven, as it is in the 15th verse. Behold then the necessity of forgiving all kinds of injuries established by the Lord Jesus Christ himself! in opposition to the foolish opinions of the men of this world, who, associating the idea of cowardice with the greatest and most generous act of the human mind, the forgiveness of injuries, have laboured to render it shameful and vile, to the utter disgrace of human reason and common sense. It is a strong remark of Archbishop Wake, upon that petition of the Lord's prayer whereof these verses are explicatory, that "if we do not forgive as we hope to be forgiven, we imprecate the wrath of God upon our own heads, when we use the Lord's prayer, and do in reality pray after this desperate manner: 'Thou, O God, hast commanded me to forgive my brother his trespasses; thou hast declared that unless I do so, thou wilt not forgive me my sins. Well, let what will come, I am resolved to stand to the hazard of it. I will not forgive, nor be reconciled to my brother: do then with me as thou shalt see fit.'" Can the man of unforgiving temper see his sin and his danger in a stronger point of view?