Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

88 ST. MATTHEW.
God. For a king to forgive his subjects a hundred
millions, and an infinite number of treasons against
his authority and person, on this one condition, that
they will but live peaceably with him and with one
another, is what we shall never see; and yet this is
but the shadow of that which Christ promises on his
Father's part to all true penitents. A man must
needs love his salvation but little, who refuses to
purchase it at this price.
" 15. But if ye forgive not men tlieir trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
He who does not awake at the sound of so loud a
thunder, is not asleep, but dead. It is not without
reason that Christ insists thus upon this one petition
concerning the forgiveness of sins; since this alone
contains the threat of God's eternal wrath, and the
necessity of brotherly love. We hazard all, if we
either do not understand it, or do transgress it.
Sect. III. Fasting.
"16. •[[ Moreover, when ye fast, be not, as the
hypocrites, of a sad countenance; for they disfigure
their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.
Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.'*
It is difficult to avoid hypocrisy and ostentation in
external mortifications, and chiefly in fasting. He
who desires to please men in that which he does by
way of atonement to God, seems as if he pretended
to expiate and make amends for his affection to the
creatures by this affection itself. God turns from
the sinner the eyes of his mercy, in the same pro-
portion that he endeavours to draw upon himself
those of men. When a man, out of hypocrisy,