SERNI. XXX111.j THE UNIVERSAL RULE OF EQUITY. 45 as soon as it is mentioned, strikes the conscience with convictionof the justice alt.: And what is said here of traffic and dealing, holds as truly of .the general coni- merce.between man and man, ín all the ordinary and extraordinary 'affairs of life : That mutual exchange of good offices, whereby society is upheld, must be regu- lated in the same manner, and by the same rule ; and the immediate .conviction of the equity of it, loth as strongly strike the conscience. There must be a perfect Weight, and a just measure, saith the author before cited, by which all men are mutually obliged to regulate their conduct, in acting and suffering, in commanding and obeying, in giving and receiving : and this can he no other than the equal and righteous. rule of the text ; the doing in all cases and to all persons, even as we would be done unto. There is no one so absurd and unrea- sonable, as not to, see, and acknowledge the absolute equity of this command in the theory, however he may swerve and decline from it in his.. practice." For, it is founded. not only in the reason of things, and in the common share, and equal interest, that we all have in human nature ; but it is also written in the most sensible and the tenderest part of our constitution ; and from. thence it is derived to the mind and judgment, as a law of behaviour towards our '.fellow-creatures.. IV. Hence it comes tò pass, that it is a precept parti- cularly fitted for practice, because it includes in it.á pow- erful.motive to stir us up to do what it enjoins. This cha- racter of it, I borrow from the same author, who talks thus upon it: " Other moral maxims propose naked truths to the understanding, which operate often but faintly and slowly on 'the will and passions, the two active principles of the mind of man : But it is the peculiar character of this rule, that it addresseth itself equally to all these powers, even to the passions, and the will,, as well as the understanding. It not only directs, but influences; it imparts both. light and heat; and at the same time that it informs us clearly what we are to do, excites us also in, the most tender and moving manner, to the performanc.e of it; for in truth, its seat is not more in the brain, than in the heart of man : It appeals to our very senses them- selves, and exerts its secret force in so prevailing a way,. that it is even felt as well as understood by us." ,
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