3 4. Of acknowledging God in all our Ways. BERM. that we are under the care of a wife and good XII. governor, who fees the remoteft iífues, and orders all things for the befk, and who has, by clear evidence to our own reafon and in his word, fixed the conditions upon which we may confidently hope for his favour, and af- fure our hearts before him. Thus the main end of our ways is fecured ; and fince they are not in ourfelves, as the prophet fpeaks, 4 Lord, 1 know that the way of a man is not in himfelf: it is not in man that walketh to direel his fleps; (the power by which he ads and forms his defigns is not felf- original, but derived, and is preferved by the fame caufe which created it)°where is the man that can afcertain the fuccefs of his ways, of his defigns, and endeavours; 1- for the race is not to the fwift, nor the battle to the flrong, nor bread to the wife, nor riches to men of un- derflanding, nor favour to men of (hill; but time and chance happeneth to them all ; that is, the event is to them utterly uncertain, but fixed in the determinate counfel and fore- knowledge of God, who wifely difpofes things which feem to be altogether fortuitouF, The lot failed) into the lap, fays Solomon *, * Jeremiah X. 23. t Eçcief ix. Prov. xvi. 33. but
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