The Excellency of Wifdom. 39 courfe of outrageous infolence againft God SE R M. and man ? and then let him judge whether II. it be not true, which the prophet hath faid, Micah vi. 8. God hath jbewed thee, O man, what is good. But I think the wife man hath very well explained his own meaning in the following words of the text, and leads us into a juft way of conceiving the excellence of religious virtue ; for, faith wifdom, the opening of my lips fhall be of right things, and my mouth (hall fpeak truth. Right and true are cha- raders which we cannot but acknowledge to be excellent wherever we difcern them ; fet them againft their oppofites, in any cafe wherein you are competent judges, and fully able to diftinguifh, that you may fee to which of them your own minds muff neceffarily give the preference. An aItion or a character, in which reeritude and inte- grity eminently fhine forth, or a rule which propofeth them to us, fuch as that of our Saviour, Matt. vii. 52. Whatever ye would that men fhould do to you, do ye even fö to them. This will command our veneration, and truth will always appear lovely, even when our private interefts and affeEtiops land in greateft oppofition to it. When D 4 any
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