e'. 42 THE UNIVERSAL RULE OF EQUITY. [SERM XXX1191; is the summary of all the rules of duty, which are written in the law of Moses, concerning our carriage to your, neighbour, and of all the laws which are explained by the succeeding. prophets and sacred writers under the Old,Testament. They are all comprehended in thisshort line : " Do to others as you would have others 'do to you." It is very nearly the same thing, in other words with the law of Moses, " Love thy neighbour as thyself," .Lev. xix. 18. but it is much plainer and more intelligi- ble : And indeed this rule of Moses is to be understood and interpreted, and applied in practice according to this plainer rule of Christ, thus, " Let thy love to thy neigh- bour be as great as thou canst reasonably expect or de- sire thy neighbours love should be to thyself." When our blessed Lord gives an abridgment or ab- stract of the ten commandments, he.doth -it in these words; Mat. xxii. 37, 3S, 39.." Love the Lord thy God with all thy"heart and soul, that is, love God above all things; this is the first and great commandment.: And the second is like unto it; love thy neighbour as thy- self;" that is, consider him as a piece of human nature, as a second self, and imitate thy love to thyself in thy conduct toward him : Or, according to my text, it may e explained thus; enquire of thy own heart how thou wouldst have him love thee, and let this be the rule and measure of thy love to him. All oúr duties to God or man, all the commands of the first and the second table, all the dictates of the law and prophets depend on these two commandments, Then we answer the design of the law, then we obey the prophets, .then we fulfil the commands of Moses, And of Christ, when we give to God our supreme love, and when we put ourselves in the room of our neighbour, and then carry it toward hirn, according to the love we expect he should bear to us. This is loving our neigh- bours as ourselves, and this love is the fulfilling of the .law, Rom. xiii. 10. When our Saviour delivers the words of my text, it is its if he had said to us, " Ifve would practise all the du- ties that you. owe to your fellow-creatures, and fulfil all the laws of the second table, in the most compendious andperfect manner, remember andpractise this one ge- neral direction, deal with: the zest:of in nkind as your
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