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Year; and Devotion in its Decent Drefs, is thy Kalendar; when as thou doft receive with pleasure, the Fruits of each Seafon, which the Bounty of thy God caufeth the Earth to bring forth to thee; the Sun ' and Heaven yielding fucceffively their grateful Changes, fo thou may'st measure out thy Time, with fuitable variety of Praise ⚫ and Devotion; afpiring in each Seafon, after fome new Grace in return, till thou haft run the Circle of them all with the Year, and fumm'd up thy Gain at last in a happy Eternity. Happy Soul! to whom each new Week is welcome, and known not by the Almanack, or the outward Face of the Year, but by the Grace it propofes .. to thy Meditation and Practice in its 'Collect, while thou dost join with the whole Church, in making this Theme thy Study and thy Care: When each Month is known to thee, not by the Old Heathen Name it bears, but the blefled Saints it Commemorates, welcoming with Joy their Holy Feftivals. O happy Souls who unite in this Bleffed Study! May my Soul enter into your Secrets, and dwell with you in & this Sacred Exercife! May I ever rejoice in this orderly Revolution of Time, ever be with you, the Children of the Kingdom, the Favourites of Heaven, the Delights of my Soul, and Heirs of Eternity, in all the happy Periods of this Revolution; and thus employ'd through the Mercies of our good God, may we roul infenfibly on from

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Grace to Glory, from Time to Eternity, and from Commemorating the Saints here, to enjoying our Lord, and them for ever hereafter. Amen.

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The Other Meditation I fhall Infert, is upon the Festival of our Saviour's Nativity, and those Holy Days which attend it. Lord, Thou haft made this Blessed Feftival, feem to us, as the Forty Days after thy Resurrection did to thy Disciples; when every Day thou didst present thy felf to them, fometimes in one Form, fometimes in another, now to this Company, now to that; reviving their Hearts by Turns, and chearing them with thy gracious Prefence; and filling their Souls with Joy and Comfort. So art thou now pleafed, to be continually, as it were, coming to and fro among us, fometimes Visiting us in thy Worship, fometimes in thy Word, fometimes in thy Sacraments, fometimes in this Affembly, fometimes in That; ' and in all Places, doft thou meet us at eve. ry turn: Like a Gracious Master of a Feaft, that goes to and fro, among his ma'ny Guefts, to fee that all be Serv'd, all Abound, and none Want; ordering one 'while Wine, another while Musick, another while Choicer Meffes, and calling upon all to be welcome, and make good Chear. So graciously Bufie and Kind haft thou been amongst us in this Holy Time. Doft thou not fulfil thy Word, that Thy Delight is with the Children of Men? O let

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our Delight be with theee, while thou art thus graciously pleas'd to be with us. Let us flip no opportunity of meeting Thee, where ever thou art pleas'd to be prefent in thy Holy Ordinances. Find a way, good Lord, to prefent thy felf to the Souls of thy poor Servants, who enjoy not these 'Bleffed Opportunities at this Time; who fee nothing of the Feftivity of this happy Seafon; break into their Souls by the im'mediate working of thy Spirit; and let them rejoice with thee alone, fince they cannot with the Gladness of thy People. Let their Inward Joy be fo much the greater, as they are depriv d of means of Outwardly expreffing it.

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It were eafie to add many other of Mr. Bonnell's Meditations upon our Feftivals, especially the greater Festivals,fet apart more immediately to Commemorate our Blessed Saviour: All which Holy Times he obferv'd with a most Religious Care and Zeal,his Thoughts being wholly taken up in Contemplating the feveral parts which our Lord acted upon Earth, and are then particularly Commemorated. But I must not let this Work Swell too much upon my Hands, and fhall therefore pafs on to other Inftances of his Piety.

He had very early refolv'd to keep Fafting Days, and to his Laft, continu'd a strict Obferver of the Stated Fafts of the Church; and hardly ever, in any Period of Life, was Diverted by Bufinefs, Company, or Care,

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from making Friday a Day of Humiliation, Repentance, and Religious Sorrow.

He endeavoured to spend his Fasting Days alone, and wholly to give them up to Religious Exercifes and Contemplations; his chief Study, being to affect his Mind with the most tender fenfe of our Saviour's Bitter Sufferings; ftrictly to review and examine his Life, and earnestly to Bewail his fmalleft Failings. His ufual Practice on Fridays was, about Noon to repeat the Fifty First Pfalm, Kneeling, with feveral Prayers taken out of the Commination Office, befides Others of his own Compofing.

But his manner of obferving Faft Days, and what then Principally employ'd his Thoughts; the following Meditation will shew.

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• Behold in your Fast Day you find Pleasure. The Exercife of a Fast Day, is to confider our Saviour's Sorrows, and our Sins that 'caus'd them: To confider God's Wrath provok'd, and the Universe disordered, and putting on Mourning by them. All these are Serious and Afflicting Confiderations; but no Man can admit of Afflicting Confiderations, who has at the fame time Sentiments of Pleasure. The Nature of Man is fo fram'd, that his Thoughts follow his fentiments. He must be in Pain himself, 'that can think of Painful things; he muft be forrowful, that can frame an Idea of forrowful things. When any thing Pleafes us, we are altogether Indifpos'd to think

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' of Displeasing Matters. Therefore it is, that God fo much provides against, and 'excludes Pleasure on our Fast Days.

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O Infinite Love! O Unmeasurable "Goodness! O Eternal Son of God! Grant me Grace, not to feek to please my self in a World in which my Sins made thee a 'Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with "Grief, and then fuffer the moft Ignominious Death.

Having thus confidered Mr. Bonnell's Piety, with respect to the great Duty of Prayer, the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper, the Lord's Day, with the Feafts and Fasts of the Church; I fhall now mention some other Duties, which he discharg'd with the fame exactnefs and Care.

Nothing gave him greater Joy, than any Propofal or Endeavour to promote the Honour and Service of God, and fupprefs Immorality and Profaneness; and fome of his moft fenfible Afflictions, proceeded from that coldnefs and indifferency he obferv'd in moft People, in the great Concerns of Religion and another World. He was one of those who Mourn'd in Secret, for our Publick Sins, and by his powerful Prayers, contributed not a little, to Avert publick Judgments from us, or Shorten their Continuance. Alas, he wou'd often fay to his Intimate and Religious Friends, what will this surn to! Where will it end! The true Spirit of Piety, seems more and more wearing out of the World.

Nor

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