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I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the Living.
MAns present Condition is subject to frequent alterations; our life, like the sea, ebbeth & floweth; as the Moon, waxeth and waineth, and, with the air, is now Cloudie and anon cleer, Nulla sors longa est, dolor ac volupt as * 1.1 Invicem cedunt, saith the Tragedian truly, we conti∣nue not long in one state: the day hath the vicisitude of an evening and morning, the year, of Winter and Summer: health and sickness, adversity and prosperity, interchangea∣bly succeed each other in this our earthly pilgrimage. And now what more fit? then that as our condition is mutable, so our disposition should be answerable; and our spirituall frame be suitable to our temporal estate; To hope in adversity, and to sear in prosperity; for health to be thankfull, and under sick∣ness to be patient: finally in afflictions to seek God with tears, and after deliverance to walk before him with joy, is a tru∣ly Religious temper. Thus was it with this holy man Da∣vid, whom we find in this Psalm, expressing this behaviour under both conditions; when he found trouble and sorrow, he called upon the Name of the Lord; and when his Soul is de∣livered from death, he resolveth upon walking before the Lord in the words of the Text now read, I will walk, &c.
At the mentioning of this Scripture, I doubt not but you conjecture the reason of my choosing it: and I hope (beloved) you will pardon me that as yet I preach to my self, I shall be the fitter to preach to you; nay, let me tell you, as in teach∣ing you I speak to my self, so in admonishing my self I speak to you: what lately was, and now is my condition, either for∣merly