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This makes them prize the Mercy and praise k Him for it. O my God, I fee many of thy 'Servants in confcience of their duty, expofe themselves to hazard in this place; I have also a duty here; Thy Providenee has continu'd it on me; The present season indeed does acquit me from attending it for fome time; But fhou'd I not by removing,be a difcouragement to thy Servants who are oblig'd to stay here? Lord, thou haft ordered and govern'd my whole Life hitherto, and every circumstance of it; I know I am now under Thy Protection and Care; I know Thou art not unmindful of me, (pardon my unworthiness to affure my felf fo,) O keep my Eyes fted faft upon Thee and upon the Indications of Thy Will and Providence, that I may not be forward to do any thing ' of my own Head, leaft I put my felf out of the way of thy Mercy and Protection. Thy People in the Wilderness, were not to stir 'till the Cloud began to remove before them. Let me attend the motions of Thy Providence with a conftant Eye lifted up to Thee; if Thou calleft me from hence, (by any Providence) let me go in obedience to thy Will. If Thou requireft me to stay here, and bear thy good Servants company, (for thy fuffering Servants are the pureft of thy 'Flock,) let me stay in obedience to the fame Will, and difpofe my self to bear with them, the Iflues of thy pleasure upon us; that we may glorify Thee by Life or by Death, or whatfoever thou shalt ordain to us. Hear ine, O Gracious Lord, in the multitude of Ë 2

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Thy Mercies, and prepare my Heart for thy C Will, and to receive the decrees of Thy Infinite Wisdom concerning me; prepare

me always for thy Holy Prefence, and whether I Live or Dye, let me be ever Thine. Grant the fame Mercy to all Thy Distressed Servants in this place; and as Thou haft vifited us with one common trouble, fo unite us in Thy fear,and make us partake of the fame Grace and Mercy: Lord be Glorified in us, and let our Souls find ac< ceptance with thee,through the beloved our 'Lord Jefus Christ and only Advocate. Amen.

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And leaft any inward Remorfe might shock his Dependance upon God,I find him about that time particularly diligent, to fet all matters right between God and his Soul,that being the true Foundation of confidence in Publick Troubies. To this purpofe is the following Meditation, written upon Christmas-Day in the Morning, that very Year of Disorder and Confufion.

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God hath faid, In Quietness and Confidence fhall be your Strength. But who can have Confidence in God? St. John hath told us, He whofe Heart condemns him not. And who is the happy Man whofe Heart condemns him not? St. Faul, by a reasonable Inference, tells us, He that alloweth not himself in any thing which he condemneth, (Rom. 14. 22.) Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And again, Heb10 18, 19. Where there is Remiffion of Sins, we have boldness to enter into the Holieft by the Blood of Jefus, because the Blood of Jefus Chrift cleans

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eth us from all Sin. 1 Joh. 1. 7. So then the pardon of our Sins gives us this confi'dence in God. Come, O my Soul, let us go 'to the Blood of Jefus that we may be cleanfed C by it; that our Body may be made clean by his Body, and our Souls wafh'd by his precious Blood: that we may obtain this Confidence, our only means of Strength and Support in this time of Danger.

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The effect of thefe Exercises was a Refolution of not attempting to remove from Dublin during the War, whatever Dangers might threaten him there.He had quite different notions of the means of fafety,from the generality of the World, as you may fee by the following Meditation written not long after the former.

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'It is not always the most fancied place for fecurity is indeed the moft fecure. The Remnant of Judah after the Captivity thought Egypt moft fecure. Whereas abiding in the place where they were, wou'd I have been most secure for them. And the reason is, because it is God only can make any place fecure to us. And a quiet Confidence in him, arifing from an humble walk'ing with him, is the only means to engage him to fecure our abode to us. If because of the present Diftrefs St. Paul advised the Corinthians not to Marry that they might better attend Ироп the Lord without Distraction, (1 Cor. 7. 35.) the fame reason will hold against Projecting Removals, as a thing likely to distract our Thoughts in Distressed times, when we most need to have them recollected

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lected and stayed upon God; and to be every minute compos'd and ready to lay hold on his hand at the appearance of Danger.

Thus armed with confidence in God, Mr. Bonnell waited the iffue of our common Dangers: And as he put himself into Gods hands, fo from God he had Safety and Protection, and even Liberty during all our Troubles. See a Letter He was continued in his Employment within the Bishop out his defiring it, and 'twas happy for many of Kilmore's Proteftants that he was fo; fince whatever he receiv'd out of it, he distributed among them with a liberal hand. He fought out Opportunities of Relieving his Needy Brethren, and went about doing good to the Neceffitous and Oppress'd. He boldly pleaded for them to those who were then in Power and ventur'd, without Concern,Intereft,Favour, and even his neceffary Subfiftance (fo couragious does Piety and Charity make Men) to get the Injur'd Proteftants Reliev'd.

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And indeed,as Bounty to the Poor was one of thofe Virtues which always fhin'd Eminently in him, tho' none more industrious to conceal it than he, fo I find him in more places than one, offering Arguments to himself why he fhou'd in thofe times of Distress be more large in his Alms than he us'd to be at others. I fhall here infert two Meditations exciting to Charity, one written in the Year 1688, the other in 1689. The firft is as follows.

Man lives not by Bread alone; much less by ? Goldand Silver; for Bread may maintain one, when Money can't keep from ftarving, but

by

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by every word of God, by his Favour and Bleffing; It is his Command,and giving the Blef fing that makes any thing Effectual to fuftain us. And his command can make what is left as effectual to fuftain Thee, as what thou haft given away and much more added to it wou'd have been. But without his Command,what abundance can fuftain thee? the Ruft and the 'Canker will eat it up,and thy Riches will make themselves Wings and fly away from thee.In'fure then thy Stock in a time of Trouble and Danger in the great Infurance Office in Heaven. It will be done at a reasonable rate, and all the World cannot give thee 'fuch fecurity of being anfwer'd as thou wilt ⚫ find there. Thou wilt certainly find thy 'Principal here or hereafter with an hundred 'fold. 'Tis infallibly certain as God is true; As God is God Thou mayft depend upon it. The other Meditation was written June 19th. 1689.

This Day being the Publick Fast-Day in England for this Kingdom, had for its fecond Leffon in the Morning Luke 3d. wherein is Remarkable John Baptift's Difcourfe to the People. The Ax is laid to the Root of 'the Tree: Now no longer to be forborn,

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either immediately to bring forth good 'Fruit or to be cut down: And to the Peo. ⚫ple demanding what they thould do ; his Anfwer is, He that hath two Coats let him impart to him that hath none, and he that hath Meat let him do likewife. Teaching us that in a time of publick Tryal, when matters are E 4

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