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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
rests
and
.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.
If
we
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
into
our
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
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