The

confefs fhould be obferved as to our own. Eighth Commandment preferves our Neighbour's Goods and Estate, by the fame Rules of Justice and Honefty, with which we are defirous to preserve our own. The Ninth Commandment requires the fame Candour and Veracity in Speech from us to them, which we think it is their Duty to use towards us. And the Tenth Commandment lays the fame Reftraints upon our covetous Appetite after our Neighbour's Goods and Estate, as we ourselves think juft should be be laid upon all. Men with regard to our Goods and Estates.

Now this is a very great Commendation of this Rule; for it both directs us from what good Principles, and with what pure Designs we should fet about all Duty; namely, from a Principle of Love and Charity, and with a Design of doing equal Justice to all; and likewise if at any Time we are at a Lofs, as to any particular Duty, pro hic & nunc, as Circumstances may alter, this directing our Aim and Intention in the Main, to do as we would be done by, will help mightily to keep us in a straight Courfe for Heaven. And when two Duties come in Competition, or two Truths, this will fhew us where to place most of our Zeal; namely, upon that which tends moft to the Love of God and our Neighbour; that being the Polar Star, by which we ought to direct our Course.

Thirdly, This Commendation of our Saviour's, that this is the Law and the Prophets, fignifies, that this is the Sum and Subftance, this is a Breviate and Compend of the Law and the Prophets, with Relation to this Subject of our Duty to our Neighbour. Now this Commendation

yields us these two excellent Characters of this Rule; namely, the Univerfality or Comprehenfiveness of it; and the Brevity and Compendiousness of it.

(1.) Let us confider the Univerfality or Comprehenfiveness of this Rule; as Inftances of which, I fhall only offer to you these two Things; That it is a complete Sum of all the Rules fet down in the holy Scriptures concerning our Duty to our Neighbour; and that it is likewife in the Nature of a good Cafuift, to decide all the particular Cafes, and Doubts, which rife from those Rules.

First, I fay, it is a complete Sum of all the Rules fet down in the holy Scriptures concerning our Duty to our Neighbour. The Scriptures owned in those Days were only those of the Old Teftament, the Law and the Prophets, which our Saviour, in my Text, afferts that this Rule comprehends. St. Paul afferts the fame of all the Commandments then in being, or that could be, touching our Duty to our Neighbour. For, Rom. xiii. 9. after an Enumeration of divers particular Laws, he adds thus: And if there be any other Commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this faying; Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy felf.

Then it is in the Nature of a good Cafuift to decide the particular Cafes, which rise from those Rules. I would defire no more, e. g. to decide all the Cafes of Buying and Selling, but only for the Seller, on the one hand, with an honeft Mind, to put himself in the Buyer's Place, and to say to himself; If I were the Buyer, and he the Seller, in what Manner would I then think

it

it juft that I should be used? Would I think it fair to be exacted upon on account of my Ignorance or Neceffity? Or if any Misfortune fhould befal me, that I could not find Pay just at the Time appointed, would I think it just to be fo furprized at a Disadvantage, to be allowed no Time, but to be thrown into Prifon, or forced to fell my Bed from under me, that Payment might be made immediately; or any other Way worried and harshly used by my Creditor? And fo, on the other hand, what honeft Debtors would it make, for them to put themselves in the Room of the Creditor; and to fay, if he were my Debtor instead of my being his, would I not think it just that he fhould provide me Pay in due Time, that he should keep his Word to me, as I keep mine to him, and fo deal upon the Square? Would I think it just to be choused and abufed, and fed with vain and fruitless Promifes, which are never defigned to take Effect? The fame Way of Reafoning would serve between Parents and Children; between Mafters or Mifreffes, and their Servants; between Rulers and Subjects; between Lawyers and Clients Phyficians and Patients; Judges and Litigants; Natives and Foreigners; Benefactors and thofe who are obliged by them; and all the other innumerable Relations and Circumftances of Men and Women, in their various Tranfactions with one another. Let a Man impartially put and answer the proper Questions to himself, and then practise upon the Rule of my Text, and I may venture to fay, he will need no better Cafuift for directing his Confcience and Conduct. It is true, if our Self-love is great, our Charity.

;

by

by this Rule, may be greater than strict Justice requires, if we answer the Cafe impartially. But where is the Harm of that? Love or Charity can work no evil to his Neighbour, Rom. xiii. 10. and therefore will at leaft prove the fulfilling of the Law. For of the two, it is certainly much fafer for a Man to take Wrong to himself, than to injure his Neighbour; there being no Sin in bearing with many Wrongs, but a great deal in the doing of one.

(2.) Let us next confider the Brevity and Compendioufness of this Rule, as St. Paul fays in that forecited Place, Rom. xiii. 9. If there be any other Commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this faying, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself. Now this Brevity and Compendiousness has these two good Ufes: It helps both the Understanding and the Memory. Firft, It is a great Help to the Understanding, which is apt to be confounded and bewildered with many Particulars, often not well digested, nor having any regular Dependance one upon anorher. It is then a great Help to the Understanding, to fee in a little what it cannot fo eafily comprehend in the great; as to fee a large Country comprised in one little Map, fhewing the Proportions and Situations of the feveral Places, gives a Man a clearer and more diftinct Conception of it, than if, without fuch Affiftance, he had travelled it all over. Efpecially it is a great Relief to the Minds and Understandings of the weak and ignorant, (which are generally the far greater Number) to have clear and fhort Compends of their Duty. And this Compendioufnefs is no lefs convenient on account of the Memory, which receives great

Affiftance

.

Affiftance from it. For Memory is treacherous and deceitful, and if it do not let Things flip at prefent, is never able to keep them long, but that fomething or other will be loft. Now here is the great Benefit of fuch a Breviate, that if we do happen to forget any of the Particulars of our Duty to our Neighbour, it is included, and confequently recovered in the general; efpecially when the general Compend itself is a Thing fo fitted for the Memory, that it cannot eafily be forgotten: for as it is but one Thing, the Love of our Neighbour; fo that one Thing is fo linked to another, namely, Self-love, which is most deeply rooted in our Natures, that we can no more forget it, than we can forget ourselves.

This calls to Mind another Advantage of our Saviour's Compend of the Law and the Prophets, namely, the Nearness and Readiness of this Rule. Every Man carries it in his own Breast, so that we may apply to this the Words of God to the People of Ifrael, Deut. xxx. 11. For this Commandment which I command thee this Day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in Heaven, that thou shouldeft fay, who shall go up for us to Heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? neither is it beyond the Sea, that thou fhouldeft fay, who shall go over the Sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may bear it and do it? But the Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy Mouth, and in thy Heart, that thou mayst do it. It requires no great Learning or Skill in Books, no great Policy or Acquaintance with the World; it requires only an Acquaintance with a Man's felf, and an honeft Mind to answer truly to the genuine Sentiments of his own Heart.

So