(2.) That God hath made this a constant path towards the advancement of his own glory, even to leaven the wisdom and the counsels of the wisest of the sons of men with folly and madness, that they shall, in the depth of their policy, “Isthuc est sapere, non quod ante pedes modò est, Videre; sed etiam illa quæ futura sunt, Prospicere.” Teren. Adelph. 3, 3, 33.advise things for the compassing of the ends they do propose as unsuitable as any thing that could proceed out of the mouth of a child or a fool, and as directly tending to their own disappointment and ruin as any thing that could be invented against them. “He destroys the wisdom of the wise, and brings to nothing the understanding of the prudent,” 1 Cor. i. 19. This he largely describes, Isa. xix. 11–14. Drunkenness and staggering is the issue of all their wisdom; and that upon this account, — the Lord gives them the spirit of giddiness. So also Job v. 12–14. They meet with darkness in the day-time: Isa. xxix. 14, xlvii. 10; Jer. xlix. 7; Obad. 8. when all things seem clear about them, and a man would wonder how men should miss their way, then will God make it darkness to such as these. So Ps. xxxiii. 10. Hence God, as it were, sets them at work, and undertakes their disappointment, Isa. viii. 9, 10, “Go about your counsels,” saith the Lord, “and I will take order that it shall come to nought.” And, Ps. ii. 3, 4, when men are deep at their plots and contrivances, God is said to have them in derision, to laugh them to scorn, seeing the poor worms industriously working out their own ruin. Never was this made more clear than in the days wherein we live. Scarcely have any wise men been brought to destruction, but it hath evidently been through their own folly; neither hath the wisest counsel of most been one jot better than madness.