The RULE of

Doing as we would be Done unto,
Explain'd in a

SERMON,

Preach'd before Her

MAJESTY,

At St. JAMES'S CHAPEL,
On Sunday, Novemb. 5. 1704.

St. MATTH. vii. 12.

do ye

even

All things, whatsoever ye would that
Men fhould do unto you,
fo to them; for this is the Law and

the Prophets.

T

IX.

HE Sentence, I have read unto SERM. you, is very fitly plac'd towards

the Close of our Saviour's admira

ble Sermon on the Mount; as being, in

SER M.

IX.

great measure, the Epitome and Sum of
what the Divine Preacher had there ex-.
press'd more at large. Nor is it lefs fitly
order'd to be recited at the Holy Table,
in the most Solemn part of the Service
of this Day; on which we meet annually
to Commemorate our Deliverance from
the Attempts of those bloody and mer-
cilefs Men, who feem to have out-done
all their Predeceffors and Succeffors in
Wickedness, by a Notorious Contempt
of this great Evangelical Rule, and of all
the Principles of common Humanity. The
Practice of thofe Confpirators was the per-
fect Reverse of this Precept ; and we cannot,
therefore, better be taught, or incited to
deteft the one, than by a due Illustra-
tion and Enforcement of the other. This
I fhall attempt, by offering to your
Thoughts fome Confiderations, First,
on the Rule here laid down; All things,
whatsoever ye would that Men fhould do unto
you,
do ye even fo to them; and, then, on
the fhort, but full Encomium, bestow'd
upon it, that it is the Law and the Pro-
phets Which fhall be follow'd by fome
Inferences, naturally arifing from the

whole;

IX.

whole; and the General Reflections ad- SER M. vanc'd (tho' they may all along easily be understood to refer, yet) fhall afterwards be particularly apply'd, to the Subject of this Day's Solemnity.

As to the Rule it felf, we may diftinctly confider the juft Extent and Bounds of it, the Reafon of its Preferableness to all other Rules, in Point of Evidence and Conviction, the manifest Equity and Exactness, the peculiar Properties and Advantages of it.

All things, whatsoever ye would that Men fbould do unto you, do ye even fo to them! Words of great force and energy; and yet, the moft fimple, plain, and perspicuous that can be! And which therefore Commentators do (as they too often do) obfcure and perplex, by a pretence of Explaining. The only poffible Doubt is, concerning the Extent of the Matter contain'd in them: For it must be allow'd, that there are many Cafes, wherein we are by no means oblig'd to grant that to others, which we our felves perX 4

haps

SERM. haps (were we in their Circumstances, IX. and they in ours) might be willing

enough, unreasonably willing, to obtain from them. A Benefactor is not bound to comply with the Demands of fuch as ask unmerited Favours, tho' confcious, that He himself might be apt to make as Extravagant Requests, were it his turn to be the Object of another Man's Beneficence. A Magistrate is not at Liberty, much less under any Obligation, to turn the Edge of Juftice from an Importunate Offender; because, if He himself were the Criminal, he should certainly, and equally defire to escape unpunish'd. The Rule, therefore, which makes, what we defire of other Men, the Measure of our dealing toward them, is to be understood, not of vicious and exceffive Defires, but of fuch only as are fit and reasonable; fuch Requests as we can in our calmest Thoughts, justify to our felves; fuch as, we are fure, may be made without Indecency, and cannot be refus'd without Inhumanity. And, under this neceffary Limitation, the Precept of the Text may be thus understood: "Put thy felf

IX.

" into fuch a Man's condition, and con- SER M. "fider, what Treatment, what Favours, "in That Cafe, thou might'ft fairly and “justly expect from Him; and be Thou "fure to deal with Him, according to "those thy juft and regular Expectations. And this I take to be the true Explication of that other equivalent. Precept, given in the Gospel, to Love our Neighbours, as our felves; which we may then, in the most proper and ftrict Senfe of the Words, be faid to do, when we, first, place our felves in our Neighbour's ftead, and, then, learn to love him; by confidering, What degree of Love and Good-Will, of Forbearance and Forgiveness we might, under that Change of Circumftances, challenge from him.

It may be thought, that the Rule, thus temper'd and qualify'd, will not be of any special Use, or Moment to us, in the Direction of our Practice; inasmuch as the Lines of Duty do not seem to be more clearly mark'd out, by this Method of Comparison, than they would have been, by a direct Injunction to us, so to

deal