The plain sense of the whole text in short is this: instead of glorying or trusting in our own wisdom, power, or wealth, as the men of the world use to do, we are to know, and assuredly to believe, that all the actions and concerns of men on earth are governed and disposed of by the providence of God; whom therefore we ought humbly to acknowledge, faithfully to serve and obey, and on him steadfastly to trust and depend in the whole course of our lives, this being our best and indeed only security. So that the prophet delivers the same thing here, which Solomon doth, Prov. iii. 5, 6, 7. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart-In all thy ways acknowledge him-Fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

The whole scope of the text thus explained is comprised in these two observations.

I. It is a very sinful and vain thing for any man so to glory in his own wisdom, strength, or wealth, as to place his trust or confidence in either of them.

II. The religious acknowledgment of God's providence in the wise and righteous government and disposal of all human affairs, joined with an humble dependence and firm trust on him, in the way of obedience to him, is man's best, and indeed only security.

And first, It is a very vain and sinful thing for any man so to glory in his own wisdom, strength, or wealth, as to place his trust and confidence in either or all of them.

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, &c. i. e. Let not any man so glory in either of these, as to confide and trust in them without a due regard to

God's providence in the government of things; for these severally and jointly are very weak and vain props for a man to build and rely upon. I shall pursue the proposition in its several parts.

It

(1.) Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. This indeed is the most natural pride of man. was the contempt of that simple innocence, wherein God created our first parents, and their affectation of I know not what knowledge and wisdom beside and beyond it, that was their ruin in Paradise. And the sons of fallen man are generally apt to think that they possess indeed that wisdom which their first parents vainly coveted and aspired to.

Wisdom is the idol that sinful man chiefly adores and worships; with the mere shadow of this he is pleased, upon this especially he values himself, and the very conceit of this puffs him up with pride and self-confidence. He can more contentedly be stripped of all his other vain glories, than want the reputation of this.

Hence (as one well observes) though there have been some found, not only contented with, but even glorying in, the name of irreligious, yea in being accounted atheists, and wholly void of all religion; yet scarce any have been known willing to bear the character of foolish and unwise; and the reproach of knave in the corrupt world is esteemed less ignominious than that of fool. And even of those who have some relish of virtue and goodness in them, how few are there, that either indeed do, or would be thought to do, any thing in favour thereof, which might in the least degree impeach the credit of their wisdom in the esteem of the foolish world! So fain would all be accounted, though very few in truth are, wise.

The main reason of which seems to be this, that whereas the want of wisdom imports impotence and inability; irreligion and immorality are by election and free choice.

Now the pride of man, if God's grace correct it not, makes him more impatient of any want that argues him to be naturally weak and impotent, than of a moral defect proceeding from his own free election and choice of will. And hence it is, that many boast of things craftily done by them for some particular advantage, which they know to be evil and unlawful: thus glorying in their wit, whilst they are not at all ashamed of their wickedness. In a word, every man would be wise, and be thought so too, and most men think themselves really to be so, and those few mortals that are wise indeed, in comparison to the rest, if they have not the fear of God joined with their wisdom, are infallibly proud of it, and glory in it, and trust to their own counsels, without due regard to the divine wisdom and providence, the only sure and safe guide amidst the infinite uncertainties and perplexities of human life.

Now how perfectly vain this glorying and trust of man in his own wisdom is, will appear (to omit many others) by these few following considerations.

1. Consider that the wisest of men many times most grossly mistake their measures, and, as if they were infatuated by some destiny, do the most foolish things. It is almost proverbial, that there is nothing so foolishly said, but some wise man hath said the same and it is as certain, that there is no action so foolishly done, but that the examples of wise men may be alleged to patronise the folly of it. Solomon, the wisest, not only of kings, but of all mere mortals,

may yet be observed to have committed as gross incongruities, both in public government and private conversation, as any the most unadvised prince or man was ever guilty of.

2. Consider that wise men are apt, as to be confident of, so to be secure in their own wisdom, and to despise those that are beneath them in that faculty, as mere fools, and thereupon to grow careless, and to lay themselves open to those, who though they have less wit, yet have many times more vigilance; who watch, and often meet with an opportunity of getting their advantage of them.

3. Consider how many secret lurking contingencies and chances there are in the course of human affairs, which no sagacity or wisdom of man can foresee or provide against, one of which suddenly happening, may utterly defeat and frustrate the best laid design and contrivance of the wisest man. And when such a chance happens, the wisest man is forced to speak in the language of the fool, non putaram. Experience tells us this, and it were easy to give you many notable instances of it out of history, if the time would permit.

4. Consider that every man's life lies at God's mercy and absolute disposal, who can, and often doth, by a sudden death snap off the designing man, just as his design is growing to maturity, thereby dashing the whole frame of his plot and machination in pieces. This the divine Psalmist takes notice of in princes and great men, Psalm cxlvi. 3, 4. Put not your trust in princes and great men, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

The designs and contrivances of great and wise men are altogether as uncertain as the breath they live by; that breath is on a sudden gone, and all their wisest counsels cease and perish with it. Man plots and designs, and says within himself, this and that, and the other great matter, he will do hereafter. But, behold! divine Providence cuts him short, by cutting off his life on a sudden, and all his designs together with it.

5. And lastly, Consider that God professedly sets himself to oppose the proud man that glories in his own wisdom, to baffle his wisdom, and to turn it into folly, to cross and frustrate his designs and contrivances, and to bring his counsels to nought. It is a sad sentence to these men, which St. James hath, chap. iv. 6. and St. Peter in his first Epistle, chap. v. 5. God resisteth, sets himself as it were in battle array, to fight with the proud. Indeed the proud man is an invader of the divine glory, challenging that to himself which is God's; and against invasion, force useth to be opposed. Now who can stand against the divine force and power? what wisdom is able to countermine the divine wisdom? How easily, and how many thousand ways, can the almighty and the all-wise God confound the greatest politician!

These considerations are sufficient to shew the great sin, vanity, and folly of trusting to a man's own wisdom, without regard to the providence of God in the government of things, and the necessity of following the Wise Man's advice, Prov. iii. 5, 6, 7. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways

Β. Ὁ Θεὸς ὑπερηφάνοις ἀντιτάσσεται.