Watts - Houston-Packer Collection BX5207.W3 S4x 1805 v.2

4'N THE UNIVERSAL RULE ÓE EQUITY. [SEI M. XX](ITT. scarce be so far surprized by an immediate necessity of acting, as not to have time for a short recourse to this rule, or room for a sudden glance, as it were, Upon it in our minds, where it restsand .sparkles always like the Urim andThummim on the breast of Aaron." If we have no written cases of conscience, no books at hand to direct our practice, if we have no faithful minis- ter near us, no wise and pious friend to consult on a sud- den occasion,' this one rule, written in the heart, may serve instead of . all other helps. This blessed precept strikes a sudden and sacred light into the mind, where the case may seem intricate : It shines upon our way, and makes our path plain, where an honest. and scrupu- lous conscience might be just before bewildered in the dark, and not know how to act. " Practise that, O manr! toward thy neighbour, which thou art convinced thy' neighbour should practise toward thee." III. This excellent precept of Christ, carries greater evidence to the conscience, and a stronger degree of con- viction in it, than any other rule of moral virtue. As I said before, that a little reason will serve to apply it, so I say now, there is not much need of reasoning°to .find it out ; for we fetch the proof of it from within ourselves, even from our own inward sensation and feeling. Ifwe would know what is just and equitable to do to our neigh- bour, we need but ask our own inward sense,, and our conscience together, what we would think equitable and just to receive from him? Thus there is but one and the same measure of justice, by which we must mete it out to ourselves and others ; and that measure lies within us, even in the heart. We are very sensible of benefits and injuries that we ourselves receive, and this very sense of injuries and benefits, is, as it were, transcribed intoour conscience, from the tenderest part of our own souls, and becomes there a rule of equity, how we should treat our neighbours. It is a most righteous precept of the ancient Jewish law, and of universal obligation, Z)eut. xxv. 13, 14, 15. " Thou shalt not have in thy bag, or in thine house, di- vers weights, and divers measures ; . a great and a small : That is, ohe wherewith to buy, and another wherewith to fell; but thou shalt have a perfect and just weight; a perfect and just measure shalt thou have." This precept 1

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