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'fhall remain with you always ?" Lord God, these are thy flock now, as much as they were of old; thy people, and the fheep of thy pafture, though they have gone aftray, though they refufe to be reclaimed. O comfort thy fervants with power to call home thefe wanderers from thee, and bring them into thy fold; to convert the unrepenting world, to turn many to righteousness, and cover a multitude of fins. Amen.

When in the progress of the war, the proteftants in Dublin were denied the exercife of their religion; their churches turned into prifons, and their minifters confined; Mr. Bonnell deeply lamented those fins which brought down that which he accounted the fevereft of God's judgments; and endeavoured to fupply the want of the church's public prayers by the greater conftancy and fervor of his private devotions. Thus June the 25th, 1690, a few days before the victory of the Boyne, he expreffed the forrows and devotion of his foul in the following meditation.

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Juftly, O Lord, for our negligence in thy worship and fervice, doft thou fhut us out from the liberty of meeting together to • celebrate it. Yet even this I truft will turn to good, to thofe that fear thee, in making ⚫ them more zealous and fervent in praying to thee in private; and afterwards, that thou wilt give them grace to redeem the faults they have been guilty of, by greater fer6 vency in public, when thou fhalt graciously reftore

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• restore to us the liberty of it. But, Lord, 'we are not better than thy fervants, who are totally deprived of thefe means. (Ah! that it is not to be said how far we may be worfe than they ;) why then fhould it be prefumed that thou wilt deal with us fo much more gracioufly than thou haft thought fit to do with them? we are in thy hands, and have • deferved no good from thee. Juftly mayeft thou deprive us of the liberty and exercife ' of our religion. But then, let not the ex'traordinary fupplies of thy grace be wanting to us; for thou canft work without means as well as with them; and even this fevere • difpenfation of thy providence, will be turned to a mercy to all of us, if it puts 'us upon repentance for all our abufes of

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that great freedom of thy holy ordinances, ⚫ which thou haft fo long indulged to us; for ❝ our irreverent, carelefs, undevout behaviour in thy worship; for our pleafing ourselves in other things, in our coming into thy house of prayer, befides meeting and ferving thee our God. If it help us to repent of thefe abuses of thy house here, before thou take us to thy houfe in the heavens ; and if it fills us with hungerings and thirftings, and longings after those opportunities of ferving thee, which we have too flightly valued hitherto; thou mayeft make even a • total deprivement turn to a greater bleffing to us, as I truft thou wilt do, if thou fhalt think fit fo to deal with us, than the freeft enjoyment

enjoyment. Thou knoweft how to conduct thy fervants to thyfelf; for this is the end of all their travails; O let this aim fill our fouls, and we fhall unconcernedly leave to thee the ordering of the things of this world, which we have done with.'

But thefe calamities were foon over, fucceeded by all that joy which long wifhed for liberty, fafety and peace, could give. One general release difcharged all our prifoners; and our churches again returned to their true ufe, and became houfes of prayer. And as Mr. Bonnell had always expreffed his forrow in penitential complaints and fervent prayers to God, so now his joy turned all to praises. But how different were his reflections upon that furprifing turn of affairs, from thofe of moft others, who fhared in the deliverence it gave! as different, it is to be feared, as his behaviour had been before. The mutual careffes of the proteftants, after their new-gained freedom, he improved to the nobleft purposes, thence to raise his mind to heaven, and contemplate those endearments, that seraphic love and joy which fhall fill the fouls of the faithful at their meeting in that happy place.

The day of

Dublin's deliver

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How did we fee,' fays he the proteftants on the great day of Our Revolution, Thurfday the third of July, (a day ever to be remembered by us with all thankfulness; O had it been begun with visiting our churches, and prefenting ourselves there

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to

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to God our deliverer,) congratulate and • embrace one another as they met, like perfons alive from the dead! like brothers and fifters meeting after a long absence, and going about from houfe to house, to give each other joy of God's great mercy; enquiring of one another how they paft the late days of diftrefs and terror! what apprehenfions they had; what fears or dangers they were under: thofe that were prifoners, how they got their liberty, how they were treated, and what from time to time they thought of • things.'

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O that this may be a happy type to us, as it is as lively an emblem as this world can give, of the joyful meeting of the fervants of God in heaven at the great day of jubilee, when all the terrors of death and judgment fhall be over, and Chrift our great deliverer fhall have put all our enemies under his feet. How will they then embrace and congratulate for their elcape from all their terrors and fears! how will they welcome. • one another into that bleffed and fecure abode of eternal peace and joy! how may we fuppofe, will they enquire of one another, how they past through thofe days wherein they were parted! what difficulties they met with in life, after the others had left them! with what apprehenfions or terrors they past through their laft agony ! and • what comforts or fupports they had under it! one will fay, I remember you were a • prifoner,

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prifoner, in bondage to fin, and under the flavery of divers lufts; how you were fet free? how did you conquer those great and ftubborn enemies we left you conflicting • with? I remember, to another, you were • with child in thofe days, loaded with the in• cumbrances of the world, the cares of getting and keeping riches, and providing for a family, in a degree above what was neceffary, either for their happiness or your ftate. To another, you were on the bed of fick• nefs in the time of this alarm, oppreffed with diftracting croffes, domeftic disturbances, 'foreign enemies and oppreffions, inward pains and difeafes; how did you get through all your infirmities? how did you efcape, who were not able to ftir from the bed? with joy, each will reply, God did all this for us.'

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After this manner did Mr. Bonnell improve that great deliverance; and fo much did religion poffefs his thoughts, that (as I find from his papers) it was his ufual practice, from the daily occurrences of the world, and the most familiar affairs of life, to draw fuch reflections, as might beft keep his mind in a devout frame, and confirm him in his duty..

But his fhare in that general joy was foon abated, from two caufes; the one particular to himself; the other, of more public concernment. The death of his mother was his particular cause of grief, which he heard of by the first letters that came from England,

and

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