d our hopes and expectation, then we begin to take
complacency in them, and boast ourselves in the confidence of them, as if
there were not a supreme Lord who gives a law to our affairs, as
immediately as to the winds and rains.

Now, that you may know the folly of this, consider the reason which is
subjoined,--"For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." There is a
concurrence of inconstancy in all things, and ignorance in us, which might
be sufficient to check our folly of confident and presumptuous expectation
from them, and gloriation in them, so that, whether we look about us to
the things themselves, or within us to ourselves, all things proclaim the
folly and madness of that which the heart of man is set upon. And this
double consideration the apostle James opposes to the vain hopes and
confident undertakings of men, chap. iv. 13, &c., which place is a perfect
commentary upon this text, he brings in an instance of the resolutions and
purposes of rich men, for the compassing of gain by merchandise, whereby
you may understand all the several designs and plots of men, that are
contrived and ordered, and laid down in the hearts of men, either for more
gain, or more glory, or more pleasure and ease. Now, the grand evil that
is here reproved, is not simply men's care and diligence in using lawful
means for their accommodation in this life, or yet their wise and prudent
foresight in ordering of their affairs for attaining that end, for both
these are frequently recommended and commended by the wise man Prov. vi.
6, and xxiv. 27. But here is the great iniquity,--that men in all these
contrivings and actings, carry themselves as if they were absolute
independents, without consideration of the sovereign universal dominion of
God. No man almost reflects upon that glorious Being, which alone hath the
negative and definitive sentence in all the motions and affairs of the
sons of men, or considers, that it is not in man that walks to direct his
paths; that when all our thoughts and designs are marshalled and ordered,
and the completest preparation made for reaching our intended ends, that
yet the way of man is not in himself, that all these things are under a
higher and more absolute dominion of the most high God. Whose heart doth
that often sound unto,--"A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord
directeth his steps," and so is not bound by any rule to conform his
executions to our intentions? For he works all according