confidered under the Notion of Wifdom. 13 This, I think, is fufficient to anfwer the S E R M. defign I at firft propofed, that is, to (hew I the nature, characters, and ufes of the wif- `'Yv0 dom Solomon recommendeth in the Prcverbs. tut there are two obfervations farther to he made, which both the nature of the fubject, and the exprefs declarations of the author dire us to. The firft is, that virtue and integrity, to be preferved from the ways of fin and wickednefs, that it may amount to true wifdom, muli be the refult of delibe- ration and choice. Wifdom is the quality of a free felf- determining agent, whofe fprings of anion are under the guidance of his own underflanding ; chance, or necef- fity, or outward impulfe, have no part in it. If you fuppofe a perfon reftrained from any vicious courfe by force, or that he efca- peth it by a natural incapacity, or by acci- dent, without any defign of his own, with- out any exercife of underftanding, or confe- deration of the grounds he goeth upon ; the innocence of his life, if it may be called fo, hath nothing in it of wifdom, and therefore nothing of virtue. Difcretion confifteth in weighing maturely the motives of anion, in comparing them together, and being de- termined freely by that which, upon the whole,
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