Therefore I began to build, to plant vineyards, and omitted no labor or effort. But all I got from all these labors was vanity, because I wanted to direct myself by my own counsel.” The wish to direct oneself by one’s own counsel is a vain one. In fact, anyone who seeks to direct himself by his own counsel afflicts himself with a double disadvantage: first, he tortures himself with his own counsels; second, he accomplishes nothing, or if he does accomplish something, sorrow intervenes and undoes it. So Nero built a magnificent royal palace but did not enjoy it. That is the way it usually happens, that one man builds but another possesses and enjoys what has been built; as the parable in the Gospel says (John 4:37), “One sows and another reaps.” …(Luther’s Works, v.15 p.34)