Therefore this should have made them thought well of St Paul. His affection was not changed to them, but the business was changed, as we shall see after. Other things let* him. So a good man, his honest resolu- tion should not change. His aim to serve God and his countiy, and to deserve well of mankind, this should be constant ; but the manner how, the circumstance of time and place, and ordering of these things, they are variable. They do not change, but maintain their constancy and resolution, in the variety of occasions that fall out ; for we cannot frame our life otherwise than it is, to be unvariable. When a man is guided by a certain principle, though the things of this life be uncertain, and he vary sometimes according to his principle, and aim, and end, yet it is no inconstancy. And it will excuse a man's conscience exceedingly, when his aim is good, and the rules and principles he goes by are good and honest, if things fall out otherwise than he aims at, though there be a change of his course, because his heart tells him his rules and his purposes were good.
3. One other main cause of lightness and sinful inconstancy, it is irreli- gion; casting ourselves upon future things, without a dependence on divine providence. An atheistical independence, when we project things to come, and never call upon God to assist us, and never have divine reserva- tions as we should have, but boast, This I will do ; and sometimes nega- tively, This I will not do, I have time enough to do it ; as if we had future times at our command. St James excellently taxeth such people, James iv. 13, 'Go to now, you that say. To-day and to-morrow we will go to such a city, and buy, and sell, and get gain.' 'Go to now:' see here how he shames them by a kind of ironical permission. ' Go to now.' You will do great matters! 'whereas,' saith he, 'you know not what shall be to-morrow.' God that hath given us the time present to repent in, and to do good, the time to come he hath reserved in his own power. We laiow not what shall be to-morrow. "Where he shews the ground of this atheism, and rushing upon business without dependence ; they forget the condition of this hfe, that it is a vapour. ' What is your life ? it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little while, and then vanisheth away.' Your life is inconstant. God is the Lord of your purposes. He is the Lord of your life, and of all oppor- tunities and circumstances. ' Your life is but a vapour.' Here all things fall under his providence and guidance. You consider not this, and there- * That is, ' hindered.' — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 17. 315
fore you project so for the time to come. ' "What is your life ? it is evcu a vapour,' &c.
Then be comes to direct them how they should entertain resokitions for the time to come, ' Ye ought to say. If the Lord will ;' or if wo live, we will do this and that. ' If the Lord will,' in whose power are our inten- tions, and resolutions, and affections. He guides the inward man, and all the things in the world, to the falling of a hair from our head, to the falling of a sparrow to the ground, even the least things, Luke xii. 7. You should say thus.
And he calls it ' vain boasting.' What makes God confound insolent attempts ? as indeed he triumphs over insolent attempts of kings and cap- tains, or whatsoever, that set up great business in high conceits, they will do this and that. Saith St James, ' You rejoice in your boasting,' James iv. 16. They boast they will do this and that. That makes God confound them so, because they will be gods to themselves. Man is a dependent creatm-e. Everything is God's, and we are dependent. ' In him we live, and move, and have our being,' Acts xvii. 28.
Man being a dependent creature, yet he resolves to do this and that, as if he had the guidance of his own thoughts and purposes. This provokes God to jealousy, when he makes himself a god, and sets not God before him in his actions. He sets upon things without dependence, without prayer, or reservation, if God permit this. Because God rejoiceth to con- found these bold attempts, therefore they never thrive in such attempts.
Therefore a true Christian joins modesty for the time to come. He will attempt nothing but what he may expect to have God's protection in. He that thinks God may cross him will do nothing ill that he fears God will cross him in ; he will be modest. The best Christians are the modestest. They consider the uncertainty of the things of this life, and the wealmess of man in foreseeing things. They see a dependence of all things on the majesty of God, even to the least things ; that he guides things that are most casual ; and that ' he rules even the hearts of princes,' as Solomon saith, ' as the rivers of water,' Prov. xxi. 1. They are guided by him ; they are in his hand. Hereupon a wise Christian becomes modest for the time to come in his resolutions : he undertakes all with a holy dependence on God, if God will, and if God permit. He will undertake nothing for the time to come, but with warrant, that he may without tempting of God look for his assistance. For to go to God to bless us in ill projects, is to make God the patron of that which is bad, which is contrary to his nature. Therefore he learns to depend upon God for the time to come, and will entertain or enter upon no business but such as he may safely, without tempting of God, depend upon him for his assistance. This is the disposi- tion of a modest Christian.