42 The Excellency of Wifdom. SE R M. and, indeed, we can go no farther, they II are fo evident ; I queftion whether any ar- gument that can be ufed is clearer than the propofitions themfelves. There is another notion of excellence, confidered as the meafure of perfeltion which belongs to any particular kind of be- ing, or whereby it is fitted for its proper end. Thus, thofe things are efteemed ex- cellent which in the belt manner, and with the greateft exadnefs ferve the purpofes they were defigned for, or which come up to the ftandard of their particular kind, and Bill, upon a comparifon, thofe are faid to excel, which come nearcft to it. Now, I have (hewn, in a former difcourfe, that reli- gious virtue juftly claims the pre- eminence in the quality of wifdom as far excelling whatever may pretend to that Charafer, and as ferving nobler and more important purpofes than any other kind of wifdoni doth. But the higheft fenfe of excellence abftrafeth from any particular ufe, or any particular ftand2rd, that which abfolutely on it's own account, and without reference to any end is to be valued ; it is its own end, and our efteem ultimately terminates upon it; and this is peculiar to moral ex- cellence, which irrefiftibly commands our appro-
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