§k11MON XXXIIT. 48! It is Of admirable use, to solve a thousand caset of conscience that may arise on, the sudden, and may perplex our minds with difficulty. " It lies ready," says a considerable author, " for present use upon all exigencies and occasions. Wecan scarce be so far surprized by an immediate necessity of acting asnot 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 al. ways like the urim and thummim on the breast of Aaron." If we have no writtencases of conscience, no books at hand to direct our practice, if we have no faithful minister near us, no wise and pious friend to consult on a sudden 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 thecase may seem intricate : It shinesupon our way, and makes our path plain, where an honest and scrupulous con- science might be just before bewildered in thedark, and not know how to act. 't Practise that, O man ! toward thy neighbour, which thou art convinced thy neighbour should practise toward thee." III. This excellent precept of Christ, carries greater evi- dence to the conscience, and a stronger degree of conviction in it, than any other ruleof moral virtue. As I said before, that a little reason will serve to applyit, 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 feel- ing. If we would know what is just and equitable to do to our neighbour, we need but ask our own inward sense, and our con- science together, what we would think equitable and just to re- ceive fromhim ? Thus there is but one and the same measure of justice, bywhich 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, transcri- bed into our conscience, from the tenderest partof our own souls, and becomes there.a rule of equity, how we should treat our neighbours. It is amost righteous precept of the ancient Jewish law, and of universal obligation ; Dent. xxv. 13, 14, 15. Thou shalt not have in thybag, or inthine house, divers weights, and divers mea- sures; a great and a small: That is, one wherewith to buy, and another wherewith to ,sell; but thou shalt have a perfect and just weight ; a perfect tyndjust measure shalt thou have. This precept as soonas it is mentioned, strikes theconscience with conviction ofthe justice of it And what is said here of traffic anddealing, holdsas trulyof the general commerce between man and man, in all the or- dinary and extraordinary affiiirs of life : Timt mutualexchañge of
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