«lt«lMi<>! /•■vlliiis Donation. • I • ^. f *-h<= Rev Richard Remains of tne Kev . Cecil : to which is Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/remainsofrevrichOOceci_0 Be thou faithlkl ftc. Rc\- iLx But rh* spruit/ or' all tt**sr t'tuvlum IwtfMM ami Uu miltt fTttt tfJUt nun,/ Ml JWH & c~ ****** REMAINS ' REV. RICHARD CECIL, M. A. LATE RECTOR OF BISLEV, AND VICAR OF CHOBHAM, SURREY; AND MINISTER OF ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL, BEDFORD ROW, LONDON. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A VIEW OF HIS CHARACTER. BY JOSIAH PRATT, B. D. F. A. S. BOSTOIT: LINCOLN, EDMANDS, & CO. No. 59 Washington Street. 1833. **** Xntvotruction. " He that has the happy talent of parlor-preach- ing, "says Dr. Watts,* "has sometimes done more for Christ and souls in the space of a few minutes, than by the labor of many hours and days in the usual course of preaching in the pulpit." On my first intercourse with Mr. Cecil, now upwards of fifteen years since, when in the full vigor of his mind, I was so struck with the wis- dom and originality of his remarks, that I consid- ered it my duty to record what seemed to me most likely to be useful to others. It should be observed that Mr. Cecil is made to speak often of himself : and, to persons who do not consider the circumstances of the case, there may appear much egotism in the quantity of such remarks here put together, and in the manner in which his things are said : but this will be treating him with the most flagrant injustice; for it must be remembered that the remarks of this nature * An humble attempt towards the revival of religion. Part I. Sect. 4. INTRODUCTION. were chiefly made by him, from time to time, in answer to my particular inquiries into his judg- ment and habits on certain points of doctrine or practice. I have labored in recording those sentiments which 1 have gathered from him in conversation, to preserve as much as possible his very express- ions ; and they who were familiar with his man- ner will be able to judge, in general, how far I have succeeded : but I would explicitly disavow an exact verbal responsibility. For the senti- ments I make myself answerable. In some instances, I have brought together ob- servations made at different times; the reader is not, therefore, to understand that the thoughts here collected on any subject always followed in immediate connexion. CONTENTS. View of the Character of Rev. Richard Cecil, 7 REMAINS. On the Christian Life and Conflict, 66 On Subjects connected with the Christian Min- istry : — On a Minister's qualifying himself for his Office, 85 On the Assistance which a Minister has rea- son to expect in the Discharge of his Pub- lic Duty, 89 On Preaching Christ, 91 On a Minister's Familiar Intercourse with his Hearers, 97 On a Minsiter's encouraging Animadversion on Himself, ------ 99 On Limits, with regard to frequenting Public Exhibitions, - - 104 On the Means of promoting a Spirit of Devo- tion inCongregations, .... 106 On the Marriage of Christian Ministers, - 108 On visiting Death-beds, - 112 Miscellaneous Remarks, .... j]6 On Infidelity and Popery, .... 132 On a Christian's Duty in these Eventful Times, 138 On Fortifying Youth against Infidel Principles, 140 On the Management of Children, - - - 143 On Family Worship, 146 y", CONTENTS. On the Influence of the Parental Character, - 149 Remarks on Authors, 153 On the Scriptures : — Miscellaneous Remarks on the Scriptures, - 15edemption appear- ed mean, and degrading, and dishonorable to man. The New Testament, in itssentimeats and institu- tions, repelled me; and seemed impossible to be believed, as a religion suitable to man. The grace of God triumphed, however, over all opposition. The religion which began in this dis- gust with the world and disaffection to the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, made rapid advances in his mind. The seed sown in tears by his inestima- ble mother, though long buried, now burst into life, and shot forth with vigor: and he became a preacher of that truth, which once he laboured to destroy. Yet grace did not annihilate the natural character and qualities of the mind ; though it reg- ulated and directed them. The Christian's feel- ings and experience were modified by the consti- tution of the man. After a long course of spirit- ual watchfulness and warfare, he spoke thus of himself 14 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. " There is what Bacon calls a dry light, in which subjects are viewed, without any predilection, or passion, or emotion, but simply as they exist. This is very much my character as a Christian. I have great constitutional resistance. Tell me such a thing is my duty — I know it is, but there 1 stop. Talk to me of hell — my heart would rise with a sort of daring stubbornness. There is a constitu- tional desperation about me, which was the most conspicuous feature in my character when young, end which has risen up against the gracious mea- sures which God has all my life taken to subdue and break it. I feel I can do little in religion without encouragement. I am persuaded and satisfied, tied and bound, by its truth and impor- tance and value ; but I view the subject in a dry light. A strong sense of divine friendship goes a vast way with me. When I fall, God will raise me. When I want, God will provide. When I am in perplexity, God will deliver. He cares for me — pities me — bears with me — guides me — loves me !" But the energy of Divine Grace was most con- spicuous, in the control and mastery of this resist- ing and high spirit of which our friend complain- ed. Nay, if there were any one Christian virtue in which he was more advanced than any other, it ap- >pears to me to have been humility — not that hu- mility which debases itself that it may be exalted, Jiud which is offejided if its professions be believed : but the humility which arose from an abiding and jrr&wiing conviction of his infinite distance from the -standard of perfection, and the little compara- tive *ise which he had made of his many means aodlvelj>s in approaching that standard— a humility thai jeApieftsed itself, therefore, in a teachableness CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 15 of mind* a ready acknowledgment of excellence in others, and a candor in judging of oilier persons which are seldom equalled; and which were rare endowments in a mind that could not but feel its own powers, and its superiority to that of most other men. But God has a thousand unseen meth- ods of forming and cherishing those graces in his servants, which seems, most opposed to their con- stitution, and least to be expected in their circum- stances. Mr. Cecil gave me one day the following re- markable illustration of this subject in his own case: — It is a nice question in casuistry: — How far a man may feel complacency in the exercise of tal- ent. A hawk exults on his wing; he skims and sails, delighting in the consciousness of his powers. I know nothing of this feeling. Dissatisfaction accompanies me, in the study and in the pulpit. I never made a sermon with which I felt satisfied ; I never preached a sermon, with which I felt sat- isfied. I have always present to my mind such a conception of what might be done, and I some- limes hear the thing so done, that what I do falls very far beneath what it seems to me it should be. Some sermons which I have heard have made me sick of my own for a month afterwards. Many ministers have no conception of any thing beyond * "A friend, who knew him for thirty or forty year?, has informed me," says Mr. Wilson, in the pennons preached on ocension of Mr. Cecil's death, " that he was more ready to hear of his faults from persons whom he esteemed, than most men. When any failings were pointed out to him, he usually thanked the reprover, and anxiously inquired for further admonitions. 1 have ob- served myself, (hat, when he gave advice, which he did with acuteness and decision, he was quite superior to tbsl little vanity which is offended if the counsel be not followed." 1G CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. their own world: they compare themselves only with themselves; and perhaps they must do so: if I could give them my views of their ministry, with- out changing the men, they would be ruined; while now they are eminent instruments in God's hands. But some men see too much bevond themselves for their own comfort. Perhaps com- placency in the exercise of talent, be it what it may, is hardly to be separated, in such a wretched heart as man's, from pride. It seems to me that this dissatisfaction with myself, is the messenger sent to buffet me and keep me down. In other men, the separation between complacency and pride may be possible ; but I scarcely think it is so in me."* I have alluded to Mr. Cecil's rf.adt acknowl- edgment OF THE WORTH of OTHERS j and I IllllSt add, that he cultivated that discrimination of ex- cellence, which leads a man to discover and es- teem it in the midst of imperfections, lie had an unfeigned' regard to real worth, wherever it was found. The powers of the understanding have of- ten fascinated men of inferior wisdom, and lessen- ed the odiousness of an immoral state of heart too plainly seen in others; but if the excellencies of the head and the heart must be disjoined, he nev- er failed to value that which is most truly valuable. He would say — " Such a friend of ours is what * Mr. Churton has a remark on Dr. Johnson, some- what of a similar nature to lliis of Mr. C. on himself. He thinks lhat "Johnson's mmbid melancholy and con- stitutional infirmities were intended by Providence, like St. Paul's thorn in the flesh, to check intellectual con- ceit and arrogance ; which the consciousness of his ex- traordinary talents, awake as he was to the voice of praise, might otherwise have generated in a vcrj culpa- ble degree." — Boiviell's Life of Johnson, 2d Edi.Svo. vol. Hi. p. 564. CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 17 many men look rlown on, as a weak man ; but I honour his wisdom and his devotedness. He throws himself out, and all the powers which God has given him, into the service of his Master, in all those ways which seem to him best; and, though perhaps he and I should forever differ on the best way, and though 1 see in him many pecu- liarities and weaknesses, yet I honour and love the man ; I revere his simplicity and his piety. He is what God has made him; and all that he is he puts into action for God." If Mr. Cecil was at any time severe in his remarks on others, his severity was chiefly directed against that ignorant vanity and affectation, which push a man forward where great men would retire, and which make him dog- matical where wise men would speak with humil- ity and candor. Closely allied with his humility, was that open- ness to conviction, which M r. Cecil possessed in an unusual degree. He had dived so deeply into his own heart, and had read man so accurately — his short-sightedness, his scanty span, his pride, and his passions — that he was, more than most men, superior to that little feeling which makes us quit the scholars form. Many men speak of them- selves and of all around them as in a state of pu- pilage and childhood, but I never approached a man, on whose mind this conviction had a moro real and practical influence. Disinterestedness was a pre-eminent charac- teristic of Mr. Cecilasa Christian. His whole spirit and conduct spoke one language : — " Let me and mine be nothing, so that thy kingdom may come!" His disinterestedness was grounded on his convic- tion of the absolute nothingness of all earthly good, compared with the glory of Christ and the inter- ests of his kingdom. In all pecuniary transactions of a private or public nature, he was governed by 18 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. this principle ; and made a free and cheerful sac- rifice of what he might have lawfully obtained, if he thought his receiving it would impede his use- fulness. On one occasion of this nature, he explained the noble principle on which he acted : — "A Christian is called to refrain from some things, which, though actually right, yet will not bear a good appearance to all men. I once judged it my duty to refuse a considerable sum of money, which I might lawfully and fairly have received, because 1 considered that sit account of the matter could not be stated to some, to whom a different repre- sentation would be made. A man w ho intends to stand immaculate, and, like Samuel, to come for- ward and say — Whose ox, or whose ass have Itaken 1 must count the cost. I knew that my character was worth more to me than this sum of money. By probity, a man honors himself. It is the part of a wise man, to wave the present good for the fu- ture increase. A merchant sutlers a huge quantity of goods to go out of the kingdom to a foreign land, but he has his object in doing so; he knows by calculation, that he shall make so much more ad- vantage by them. A Christian is made a wise man by counting the cost. The best picture I know of the exercise of this virtue, drawn by the hand of man, is that by John Bunyan in the char- acters of Passion and Patience. Associated with this disinterestedness of spirit, was a singular practical relia.nce on provi- dence, in all the most minute and seemingly in- different affairs of his life. He was emphatically, to use his own expression, " a pupil of signs" — waiting for and following the leadings and open- ings of divine Providence in his affairs. 1 once consulted him throughout a very delicate and per- plexing affair. In one stage of" it, he said to me, CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 19 "You have not done tliis thing exactly as I should have felt my mind led to doit. I feel myself in such cases like a child in the middle of an intricate and perplexed wood. Two considerations weigh with me: first — If I could see all the involutions, and relations, and hearings, and consequences of the affair, then I might feel myself ahle to move forward: butsecondly — I know not one of them, not even the shadow of one, nay, hardly the prob- ability of such and such issues. Then I am driv- en to simple reliance. I have never found God fail me in such cases. When I am utterly lost and confounded I look for openings, clear and evident to my own conviction. I have a warrant for all this. Our grand danger with reference to Provi- dence is, that we should walk as men : — Are ye not carnal and walk as men ?" On another occasion he said — "We make too little of the subject of Providence. My mind is by nature so intrepid and sanguine, and it has so of- ten led me to anticipate God in his guidings, to my severe loss, that perhaps I am now too suspi- cious and dilatory ill following him. However, this is a maxim with mn — that, when I am waiting with a simple, childlike spirit for openings and guidings, and imagine I perceive them, God would either prevent the semblance of them from rising up before me, if these were not his leadings in reality, or he would preserve me from deeming them such ; and therefore 1 always follow what appears to be my duty without hesitation." But the spring of all these Christian virtues, and the master-grace of his mind, was faith. His whole spirit and character were a living illustra- tion of that definition of the apostle — Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen! He appeared to me never to be exercised with doubts und fears. His magnanimity entered 20 CHARACTER OF MR. CECII.- raost strikingly into his religious character. He was convinced and satisfied by all the divine dec- larations and promises — and he left himself, with unsuspecting confidence, in God's hands.* I quote 31 r. Wilson's testimony to the pattence of our friend under afflictions. " He was not only, in opposition to all the tendencies of his" natural dispositions, resigned, hut cheerful tmder his trials. I have seen him repeatedly, at bis Living in the country, return from his ride racked with pain ; pale, emaciated, speechless. I have seen him throw himself all along upon his sofa, on his face, and cover his forehead with his hands; and there, without an expression of complaint, en- dure the paroxysm of his disorder i and I have been astonished to observe him rise up in an in- stant, with his wonted dignity, and enter upon conversation with cheerfulness and vigor. He has often acknowledged to ine, that the anguish he felt was like a dagger plunged into his side, and that through a whole summer he has not had two nights free from tormenting pain. Such were, his sufferings for ten or twelve years previous to his last illness. And yet this was the man, or rather this was the Christian, from whose lips I never heard a murmuring worrj," * Mr. Wilson justly remarks of our friend, that "the determination anil grandeur of liis mind displayed his faith to peculiar advantage. This divine principle quite realized and substantiated to him llie things which *ro not seen and rttrnal. It was absolutely like another sense. The things of time were as nothing. Every thing that came before him was referred to a spiritual standard. His one great object was fixed, and this ob- ject engrossed his whole soul. Here his foot stood im- moveable, as on a rock. His hold on the truths of the Scriptures was so firm, that he acted on them boldly and unreservedly. He went all lengths, and risked oil consequences, on the word and promise of God." CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 21 It is almost needless to add that Mr. Cecil pos- sessed REMARKABLE DECISION OF CHARACTER. When he went to Oxford he had made a resolu- tion of restricting himself to a quarter of an hour daily, in playing on the violin ; on which instru- ment he greatly excelled, and of which he was extravagantly fond : but he found it impracticable to adhere to his determination; and had so fre- quently to lament the loss of time in this fascin- ating amusement, that with the noble spirit which characterized him through life, he cut his strings, and never afterward replaced them, lie studied for a painter; and, after he had changed his ob- ject, retained a fondness and a taste for the art : he was once called to visit a sick lady, in whose room there was a painting which so strongly at- tracted his notice, that he found his attention di- verted from the sick person, and absorbed by the painting : from that moment he formed the reso- lution of mortifying a taste, which he found so in- trusive, and soobtructive to him in his nobler pur- suits; and determined never afterwards to fre- quent the exhibition. Nor was his intrepid and inflexible firm- ness less conspicuous, whenever the interests of truth and the honor of Christ were concerned. The world in arms would not have appalled him, while the glory of Christ was in his view. Nor do I believe that he would have hesitated for a moment, after he had given to nature her just tribute of feeling and of tears, to go forth from his family, and join " the noble army of martyrs" who expired in the flames in Smithfield, had the honor of his Master called him to this sacrifice ; nor would his knees have trembled, nor his look changed. Yet I cannot but add that this firmness never de- generated into rudeness. He knew and observed 22 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. all those decencies of life, which render mutual in- tercourse agreeable; and he had that ease of man- ner, among all classes of society, which bespoke perfect self-possession and a thorough knowledge of the world. His address in meeting the manners and habits of thinking of persons of rank, either when they were inquiring into religion or under affliction was perhaps scarcely to be equalled. The associations in our friend's mind were often of a very humorous kind. He had a strong natu- ral turn for associations of this nature, which threw a great vivacity and charm over his familiar conversation — employed as it was, in the main, like every faculty of his mind, for useful ends. He was fully aware, however of the danger of pos- sessing such a faculty, and the temptations to which it exposed him; prompted and supported as it was by a buoyancy of spirits, which even great and lengthened pain could scarcely subdue. I have looked at him, and listened to him, with as- tonishment — when, meeting with a few other young men occasionally at his house, we have found him dejected and worn out with pain — stretched on his sofa, and declining to join in our conversation — till he caught an interest in what was passing — when the question of an inquiring or burdened conscience has roused him to an ex- ertion of liis great mind — he has risen from his sofa — he has forgot his sufferings — and he has left us nothing to do but to admire and treasure up most profound and impressive remarks on the Scripture, on the heart, and on the world. The mention of his humor and his vivacity of spirit leads tnc to remark, that I am not writing a panegyric, but drawing a character. No iikeness can be faithful, while the best original is such as he must be in the present state, if it carry no shades. I have no wish to conceal the shades of CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL, 23 this extraordinary character. Sternness and levi- ty were the two constitutional evils, which most severely exercised him. They seem to have heen the necessary result, in an imperfect being, of the union of that masculine and original vigor with humor and an ardent fancy, which met iti the structure of his mind. So far, indeed, had grace triumphed over these constitutional enemies, that the very opposite features were the most promi- nent in his character; and no one could approach him without feeling himself with a most tender and serious mind. I speak of those occasional ebullitions, which tended to remind him, that, though he was invested with a new and triumph- ant nature, he was yet at home in the body, and subject to the recurrence of his constitutional in- firmities. Yet, though Mr. Cecil felt occasionally tempta- tions to levity, through the buoyancy and spring of his animal spirits, his prevailing temper was of a quite opposite description. A sensibility of spirit, with his view of human nature and of the world, threw a cast of melancholy over his mind. He was far more disposed to weep over the guilt and misery of man, than to smile at his follies. " I have," said he, "a salient principle in me. My spirits never sink. Yet I have a strong dash of melancholy. It is a high and exquisite feeling. When I first awake in the morning, I could often weep with pleasure. The holy calm — the silence — the freshness — thrill through my soul. At such moments I should feel the presence of any person to be intrusion and impertinence, and common af- fairs, nauseous. The stillness of an empty house is paradise to me. The man who has never felt thus cannot be made to understand what I mean." " Hooker's dying thought," he added, is " conge- nial to my spirit. ' I am going to leave a world dis- 24 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. ordered, and church disorganized, for a world and a church where every angel and every rank of an- gels stand hefore the throne in the very post God lias assigned them.' I urn obliged habitually to turn my eye from the wretched disorders of the world and the church, to the beauty, harmony, meekness, and glory of a better world." On another occasion, he said — " I have been long in the habit of viewing every thing around me as in a state of alienation. I have no hold on my dearest comforts. My children must sepa- rate from me. One has his lot cast in one place, and another elsewhere. It may be my particular leading, but I have never leaned toward my com- forts without finding them give way. A sharp warning has met me — 'These are aliens, and as an alien live thou among them.' We may use our comforts by the way. We may take up the pitch- er to drink, but the moment we begin to admire, God will in love dash it to pieces. But I feel no such alienation from the church. I am united to Christ, and to all bis glorified and living members, by an indissoluble bond. Here my mind ran cen- tre and sympathize, without suspicion or fear." " I feel," he would say "a congeniality with the character of Jeremiah. I seem to understand him. I could approach him, and feel encouraged to fa- miliarity. It is not so with Elijah or Ezekiel. There is a rigor or severity about them, which seem to repel me to a distance, and excite rever- ence rather than sympathy and love." In a very interesting case on which I consulted hirn, he gave me a striking view of this feature in his character — "I should have fallen myself into an utterly different mode of conducting the affair. But you have not the melancholy in your constitu- tion which I have, and therefore to look for my mode of thinking in you, would be expecting what CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 23 ought not to be expected. This is a strong alter- native in your dispensation. Now I have lonjr been in the habit of viewing every thing of that aspect rather in a melancholy light. You are standing on the justice, the reason, the truth of your cause. I should have heard God saying — 1 Son of man, follow me.' It would have led me in- to a speculative — mystical sort of way. I should have seen in it the flood that is sweeping over the eartli — the utter bankruptcy of all human affairs. Most men, if they had stood by and com- pared our conduct, would have commended yours as rational, but condemned mine as enthusisastic — as connecting things together which had no prop- er connexion ; hut this is my way of viewing every alterative in my dispensation," " The heart," said he, " must be divorced from its idols. Age does a great deal in curing the man of his frenzy ; but, if God has a special work for a man, he takes a shorter and sharper course with him. Stand ready for it. I have been in both schools. Bleeding and cauterizing have done much for me ; and age has done much also — Can I any longer taste, what I eat or ivhat I drinld" Though the Memoir of Mr. Cecil's life, and the Letters which are subjoined, bear ample testimony tO the TENDERNESS OF HIS RELATIVE AFFECTIONS, yet I cannot but add here what a friend wrote on visiting him, many years before his decease, at a time when he was expecting the death of Mrs. Cecil ;— " Mrs. Cecil was ill. I called on Mr. Cecil. I fonnd him in his study, sitting over his Bible in great sorrow. His tears fell so fast, that he could only utter broken sentences. He said, ' Christians do well to speak of the grace, love, and goodness of God ; but we must remember that he is a holy and jealous God. Judgment must begin at the house of God. This severe stroke is but a farther 2(3 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. call to me to arise and shake myself. My hope is still firm in God. He who sends the stroke, will bear me up under it ; and I have no doubt but if I saw the whole of his design, I should say, ' Let her be taken !' Yet, while there is life, I cannot help say- ing, ' Spare her another year, that I may be a lit- tle prepared for her loss !' 1 know 1 have higher ground of comfort: but 1 shall deeply feel the tak- ing away of the dying lan p. Her excellence as a wife and a mother, I am obliged to keep out of sight, or I should be overwhelmed. All I can do, is, to go from text to text, as a bird from spray to spray. Our Lord said to his disciples, Where is your faith ? God has given her to be my com- fort these many years, and shall I not trust him for the future? This is ouly a farther and more ex- pensive education for the work of the ministry : it is but saying more closely, 'Will you pay the price?' If she should die, I shall request all my friends never once to mention her name to me. I can gather no help from what is called friendly condolence. Job's friends understood grief better, when they sat down and spake not a word." Our departed friend was, at once, a public and a retired man. While his sacred office, exercis- ed for many years in a conspicuous sphere brought him much before the w orld, his turn of mind was retired — he courted solitude — he held converse there with God, and his own great spirit mingled with the mighty dead ; he had such a practical knowledge and deep impression of the nothing- ness of the whole world compared with spiritual and eternal realities, and he had so deeply felt and so thoroughly despised its lying pretensions to meet the wants and to satisfy the longings of the immor- tal soul, that it was no sacrifice to him to turn away from the shows and pursuits of life, and to CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 27 shut out all the splendour and seductions of the world. Yet this retired spirit was not unsocial, morose, or repulsive. No one called him from his retire- ment to ask spiritual counsel, but he was met with tenderness and urbanity. No congenial mind en- countered his, without eliciting sparks both of be- nevolence and wisdom. Not a child in his family could can y its little complaints to him, but he would stop the career of his mind to listen and relieve. His study was his favorite retreat. His station exposed him to constant interruption, some neces- sary and others arising from the injudiciousness of those who applied to him. It was not unusual with him to make use of his power of abstraction on these occasions. Time was too valuable to be lavished away on the inconsideration of some of those, who thought it necessary to call on him. It was generally his practice, not immediately to obey a summons from his study, but when he knew he had to do with persons who would occupy much of his time by a long conversation before the business was brought forward, rather than hurt their feelings he would carry down in his mind the train of thought which he was pursuing in his study, and, while that which was beside the pur- pose played on his ear, his mind was following the subject on which it had entered before. Some men are at home in society ; the wide world is their dwelling-place; they are known and read of all men ; they have a peculiar talent for improving mixed society. But this was not the character of Mr. Cecil. He unfolded himself, indeed, to his friends; but those friends could not but feel, that, when they broke in on his retire- ment for any other objects than what were con- nected with his high calling, they were intruders on inestimable time. I had indeed, the privilege 29 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. and happiness of free access to him at all times, for a considerable course of years, while I was his assistant in the ministry; but, for the reasons just assigned, though I was a diligent observer of his mind and habits, I feel myself not prepared to speak fully of his more domestic and retired char- acter. "Retirement," he said, "is my grand ordinance. Considerations govern me. Death is a mighty consideration with me. The utter vanity of every- thing under the sun is another. If a man wishes to influence my mind, he must assign considera- tions ; and, if he assigns one or two which will weigh well, I seem impatient to stop him if he is proceeding to assign more. He has given me a consideration, and that suffices. The 'Night Thoughts' is a great book with me, notwithstand- ing its glaring imperfections, it realizes death and vanity- And, because this is the frame and habit of my own mind, my ministry partakes of it: and must partake of it, if I would preach naturally and from my heart." In surveying the personal character of Mr. Ce- cil, it remains to speak somewhat more fully of his intellectual powers. His imagination was not so much of the play- ful and elegant, as bold, inventive, striking, and instinctively judicious ami discriminating. His taste in the sister arts of Painting, Poetry, and Music was refined, and his judgment learned. In his younger days he had studied and excelled in painting and music ; and, though he laid them aside that he might devote all hie powers to his work, yet the savor of them so far remained, that I have been witness innumerable times, both in public and private, to the felicity of his illustra- tions drawn from these subjects, and to the supe- riority that his intimate knowledge of them gave CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 29 him over most persons with whom they happened to be brought forward. His taste, when young, was for Italian music ; but, in his latter years, he was fond of the German style, or rather the softer Moravian. Anthems, or any pieces wherein the words were reiterated, he disliked, for public wor- ship especially, as they sacrificed the real spirit of devotion too much to the music. His feelings on this subject were exquisite. " Pure, spiritual, sublime devotion," he would say, "should be the soul of public music." He often lamented the in- troduction of any other style of architecture in places of worship, beside that which was so pecu- liarly appropriate, and which, because it was so, called up associations best suited to the purposes of meeting. He said most strikingly — "I never enter a Gothic church, without feeling myself im- pressed with something of this idea — 'Within these walls has been resounded for centuries, by successive generations, 'Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ!' The very damp that trickles down the walls, and the unsightly green that moulders upon the pillars, are far mote pleasing to me from their associations, than the trim, fin- ished, classic, heathen piles of the present fashion. His powers of comparison, analogy, and Judg- ment have been rarely equalled. These had been exercised so long and with so much energy on all the conditions and relations around him — on the word of God — on his own mind — on the history, opinions, passions, prejudices, and mo- tives of men in every age, and of every character und station — on moral causes and effects — on every subject that can come within the grasp of n philosophic mind — that the result was a wisdom so prominent and commanding, that every man felt himself with a mind of the very first order both in capability and acquirement. In some 30 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. cases, wherein my wishes, perhaps, formed my opinions; and, trying to hide the truth from my- self, I have asked his opinion as a confirmation of my own — he has unmasked my heart to itself, by his wise and searching replies. His decisions were more according to circumstances than in most men ; and, when he gave them, it would generally he. with a declaration that other circum- stances might wholly change tlie aspect of the thing ; and he did this in such a manner — if I may judge by my own case — as often to make a man look about him, and bethink himself what a treach- erous and blind party he bad to transact with in his bosom. To those who did not know him intimately, he might sometimes appear to want a quickness of perception. The appearance of this faculty is often assumed, where God has not given it. Where the mind does decide rapidly, its con- clusions are generally partial and defective, in pro- portion to their rapidity. Intuition is not a faculty of the present condition of being, whatever it may be of that toward which we are advancing. He affected no such quality, yet he possessed more of it than most men. When he did not fully under- stand what was addressed to him, he said so; and Ins mind was so familiar with the difficulty of dis- covering the truth through the veils and shades thrown over her by prejudice and self-love, that lie did not hastily bring himself to think that he possessed your full meaning. His good sense and wisdom led him to avow ALL PECULIARITY AND ECCENTRICITY. He W8S decidedly adverse to every thing of this nature. " When any thing peculiar appears," he would say, "in a religious man's manners, or dress, or furni- ture, this is supposed by the world to constitute- bis religion, A clergyman indeed is allowed by CI1ARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 31 common consent, and indeed it is but decent in biro, to have every thing about him plain and sub- stantial, rather than ornamental and fashionable." The personal character of Mr. Cecil had a manifest influence on his MINISTERIAL. We find him frequently accounting for those views and feelings which prevailed in his ministry, by a ref- erence to his constitution and his early history. His SENTIMENTS ON THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE are scattered through his writings, as this was ev- er present to his mind. Wherever he was, and whatever was his employment, he was always the Christian minister. He was ever on the watch to do the work of an evangelist ; and to make full proof of his ministry. I have collected together his thoughts on this subject in some sections of his "Remains;" and 1 think it impossible that any young minister should read these thoughts, without imbibing a higher es- timation of his sacred office. More will be found on these points in the following views of his min- isterial character gathered from his own lips. These views were most striking and sublime. -' A minister is a Levite. In general, he has, and he is to have, no inheritance among his brethren. Other men are not Levites. They must recur to means, from which a minister has no right to ex- pect any thing. Their affairs are all the little transactions of this world. But a minister is called and set apart for a high and sublime busi- ness. His transactions are to be between the liv- ing and the dead — between heaven and earth ; anil ho must stand as with wings on his shoulders. He must look, therefore, for every thing in his af- fairs to be done for him and before his eyes. 1 am at a loss to conceive how a minister, with right feelings, can plot and contrive for a living. If he 32 CHARACTER OF MR. CECJL. is told that there is such a thing for him if he will make such an application, and that it is to be so obtained and so only, all is well — but not a step farther. It is in vain, however, to put any man on acting in this manner, if he be not a Levite in principle and in character. These must be the expressions of a nature communicated to him from God — a high principle of faith begetting sim- plicity. He must be an eagle towering toward heaven on strong pinions. The barn-door hen must continue to scratch her grains out of the dunghill." He thought that the life of a minister, with re- spect to worldly affairs, ought to be peculiarly above that of other men, a life of faith. It was his maxim, to lay out no money unnecessarily — and, with this principle, he regarded his purse as in Goers hands, and found it like the barrel of meal and the cruise of oil. He confessed that he could advise this conduct in no case but in that of a Christian minister, who was a wise and prudent, as well as right-hearted manager of his affairs. His habit was, to be the child of simplicity and faith — acting as a servant of God, on those princi- ples which he judged most suitable to his charac- ter and station. He had exalted ideas of ministerial authority — not the authority which results merely from office, but from office united with personal character — not the claims of priestly arrogance, but the claims of priestly dignity. "I never choose to forget that lam a priest, because I would not deprive my- self of the right to dictate in my ministerial capac- ity. I cannot allow a man, therefore, to come to me merely as a friend, on his spiritual affairs, be- cause I should have no authority to say to him, 'Sir, you must do so and so.' I cannot suffer my best friends to dictate to me in any thing CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 33 which concerns my ministerial duties. I have often had to encounter this spirit ; and there would be no end of it, if I did riot check and resist it. I plainly tell them that they know nothing of the matter. I ask them if it is decent, that a man im- mersed in other concerns should pretend to know my affairs and duties, better than myself, who, as they ought to believe, make them the study of my life. I have been disgusted — deeply disgusted — at the manner in which some men of naming re- ligious profession talk of certain preachers. They estimate them just as Garrick would have esti- mated the worth of players, or as Handel would have ranged an orchestra. ' Such an one is clever — he is a master,' — Clever! — a master! — Worth and character and dignity are of no weight in the scale." These views are just and noble ; and they are suited to his own great mind, and the entire hold which his office had on his heart. But— listening with his whole soul to that injunction, Meditate on these things, give thyself wholly to them — it may be doubted whether ho did not sometimes challenge to his office more respect than the party concerned could be expected to allow due. Mr. Cecil's preparation and training for this exalted office have been already spoken of in the view of his personal character. This was, as has been seen, of no common kind. II is QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE DISCHARGE OF the ministry were peculiar. The great natural powers which God had given him, were moulded and matured by the training and discipline through which he was led, and were consecrated by grace to the service of his Master. It will not be requi- site to recapitulate what has been said on this sub- ject. I shall here speak only of those qualifications 34 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. which were more appropriate to him as a public teacher. His learning consisted more in the knowledge ol other men's ideas, than in an accurate acquain- tance with the niceties of the languages. Yet lie was better acquainted with these, than many who devote a disproportionate time to this acquisition. His incessant application, chiefly by candle-light, when at Oxford, to the study of Greek, of which he was enthusiastically fond, brought on an almost total loss of sight for six months. He had deter- mined to become a perfect master bf the niceties of that refined and noble language. The counsel, however, which he received from Dr. Bacon, and which is recorded in his "Remains," under the head of " Miscellaneous Remarks on the Christian Ministry," put him on proportioning his attention more according to the future utility of his pursuits than he had been accustomed to. "I was struck with his advice," he .-aid. "I had an unsettled sort of religion, but enough to make me sec and choose the truth which he set before me." So solid and extensive was Mr. Cecil's real learning, that there were no important points, in morals or religion, on which he had not read the best authors, and made up his mind on the most mature deliberation ; nor could any topic be started in history or philosophy, on subjects of art or of science, with which he was not found more generally acquainted than other men. But while he could lay these parts of learning under contri- bution to aid him in his one object of impressing truth on man, he was a master in the learning which is more peculiarly appropriate to his pro- fession. He was so much in the habit of daily reading the Scriptures in the originals, that, as he told me, he went to this employ naturally and in- sensibly. He limited himself to no stated quan- CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 35 tity ; but, as his time allowed, he read one or two, and sometimes five or six chapters daily. Mr. Cecil had the power of exciting and preserving attention aliove most men. All his effort was directed, first to engage attention, and then to repay it — to allure curiosity, and then to gratify it. Till the attention was gained he felt that noth- ing could be effected on the mind. Sometimes he would have recourse to unusual methods, suited indeed to his auditory, to awaken and fix their minds. "I was once preaching," he said, "a Charity Sermon where the congregation was very large, and chiefly of the lower order. I found it impossible by my usual method of preaching, to gain their attention. It was in the afternoon, and my hearers seemed to meet nothing in my preach- ing, which was capable of rousing them out of the stupefaction of a full dinner. Some lounged, and some turned their hacks on me. 'I must have attention,' 1 said to myself. Twill be heard.' — The case was desperate; and, in despair, 1 sought a desperate remedy. I exclaimed aloud, 'Last Monday morning a man was hanged at Tyburn,' — instantly the face of things was changed! All was silence and expectation! I caught their ear, and retained it through the Ser- mon." This anecdote leads me to observe that Mr. Cecil had, in an unusual degree, the talent of adapting his ministry to his congregation. While he was, for instance, preaching on the same day at Loth bury, at St. John's morning and afternoon, and at Spitalfields in the evening — he found four congregations at these places, in many respects, quite distinct from one another; and yet he adapted his preaching, with admirable skill, to meet their habits of thinking. 36 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. But when lie had gained the attention, he wag ever on the watch not to weary it. He seemed to have continually before his eyes the sentiments of our great critic and moralist:* "Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults ; negligences or errors are single and local, but tediousness pervades the whole ; other faults are censured and forgotten ; but the power of tediousness propagates itself. He that is weary the first hour, is more weary the second ; as bodies forced into n:otion, contrary to their tendency, pass more and more slowly through every successive interval of space." fllr. Cecil would say, "You have a certain quantity of at- tention to work on : make the best use of it while it lasts. The iron will cool, and then nothing, or worse than nothing, is done. If a preacher will leave unsaid all vain repetitions, and watch against undue length in his entrance and width in his dis- cussion, he may limit a written sermon to half an hour, and one from notes to forty minutes: and this time he should not allow himself to ex- ceed, except on special occasions." His power of illustration was great and versatile. His topics were chiefly taken from Scripture and from life. His manner of illus- trating his subjects by Scripture examples, was the most finished I ever heard. They were never introduced violently or abruptly; but his matter was so moulded in preparation for them, by a few well turned sentences, that the illustration seemed to be placed in the Scripture almost for the sake of the doctrine. The general features of the character or history were left in the back-ground, and those only which were appropriate to the matter in hand were brought forward, and were thus presented with great force to the mind. His * Lives of the Poets, Vol. iii. p. 35. CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 37 talent in discriminating tlie striking features, and connecting tliem with his matter, was so peculiar, that the histories of Abraham* of Jacob, of David, and of St. Paul, seemed in his hands to be ever new, and to be exhaustless treasures of illustration. The turn both of his mind and of his experi- ence seemed to lead him to this method. What he did, therefore, with ease and feeling, it was natural should be done frequently ; and, accord- ingly, I have scarcely ever heard a sermon from him in which there were not repeated exercises of this peculiar talent; and in some sermons al- most the entire subject has been treated in this manner. This talent of illustrating his subjects, and par- ticularly of seizing incidents for improvement, gave an edge to his wise admonitions in private ; and fixed them deep in the memory. Riding with a friend in a very windy day, the dust was so troublesome, that bis companion wished they were at their journey's end, where they might ride in the fields free from dust; and this wish he repeated more than once while on the road. When they reached the fields, the flies so teazed his friend's horse, that he could scarcely keep his seat on the saddle. On his bitterly complaining, "Ah! Sir," said Mr. Cecil, "when you were in the road the dust was your oidy trouble, and all your anxiety was to get into the fields; you forgot that the fly was there ! Now this is a true picture of human life; and you will find it so in all the changes you make in furure. We know the trials of our present situation ; but the next will have trials, and perhaps worse, though they may ho of a different kind." At another time, the same friend said he should esteem it a favor, if he would tell him of any thing which he might in future see in his con- 33 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. duct which he thought improper. "Well, Sir!" he said, " many a man has directed the watch- man to call him early in the morning, and has then appeared very anxious for his coming early ; but the watchman has come before he has been ready for him ! I have seen many people very desirous of being told their faults; but I have seen very lew who were pleased vrhsn they re- ceived the information. However, I like to re- ceive an invitation, and I have no reason to suppose you will be displeased till I sec it so. I shall therefore remember that you have asked for it." His style, particularly in preaching and in free conversation, was easy and natural. If be ever labored bis expression, it was in search of em- phasis, rather than precision — of words which would penetrate the soul, rather than round his period and float in the ear. He considered that vigorous conceptions would clothe themselves in the fittest expressions — Verhaque prnvisam rem non invila sequcntur. Or, as Milton has admirably said — "True elo- quence I find to be none, but the serious and hearty love of truth : and that, whose mind so- ever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others, when such a man would speak, his words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command, and in well ordered files, as he would wish, fall abruptly into their own places." His written style has less ease than that of his conversation or preaching. He excelled rather in strong intuitive setise, than in a train of argu- ments; and more in the liveliness of his thoughts, than in their urrangemetit. He would put down CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 30 his thoughts as they arose— often at separate times, and as suggested by the occasion— and was not always nice in rejecting obsolete expressions, or antithesis in sense. This occasioned a want of flow and ease in many parts of his writings, which was obviated by the warmth of conversation or preaching. Impression was the leading feature of his min- istry. Perhaps the information conveyed by it to the mind was not sufficiently systematic, and minute. He had seen so much the evil of spend- ing the preacher's time in doctrinal statements, that possibly there was some deficiency in this respect in his own practice. When, indeed, he had to in- troduce religion to his congregations at St. John's or Ghpbham, OA his first entering on those charges, he dealt with them as a people needing informa- tion on first principles : but my remark applies to the habit and course of his ministry. For, how- ever true it is, that, when a man becomes a se- rious reader of God's word, he must grow in the knowledge of the truth ; yet many will still read the Bible with an indiscriiriinating mind, unless their minister's statements give them, not only a lucid general view of doctrines, but somewhat of a systematic and connected view 4 and not a few — buried in the cares of the world — will derive all their notions of the system of divine truth from what they hear in public. Mr. Cecil wrote and spoke to mankind. He dealt with the business and bosoms of men. An energy of truth prevailed in his ministry, which roused the conscience ; and a benevolence reigned in his spirit, which seized the heart: yet I much question whether the prevailing effect of his preaching was not determination grounded on conviction and admiration, rather than on ) vorioN, When in perfect health and spirits, 40 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. and master of his subject, li is eloquence was fin- ished and striking: but, though there was often a tenderness which awakened corresponding feel- ings in the hearer, yet his eloquence wanted that vehement passion which overpowers and carries away the minds of others, — si vis mo Acre, dolendum est Primum i[isi ti L> i This is the great secret for getting hold of the heart. But as not much of the impassioned enter- ed into the composition of his nature, and he was at the same time pre-eminent in genius and judg- ment, it could not hut follow that admiraiion should affect the hearer more frequently thau strong feeling. A friend has told me that he has often lost the benefit of the truth which Mr. Cecil has uttered, in admiration of the exquisitd manner in which it was conveyed. And I have again and again detected this in myself; and found I have been watching eagerly for what would fall next from him, not in the spirit of a new-born babe that desires the sincere milk of the word that I might grow thereby, but for the gratifi- cation of a mental voluptuousness. I desire no one will suppose that I impute to him any of the studied artifices of eloquence. No man sought more than he did that his hearers' faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. No man more sincerely aimed to have li is speech and his preaching not with enticing words of man's ivisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power: yet, moreover, because the preacher icas wise he still taught the people knowl- edge ; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out and set in order the messages of divine mercy. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words, yet that which uas written was upright, CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 41 even ivords of truth. He could not but treat his subjects in tliis exquisite manner, while his taste, his genius, and hi* nature remained ; yet this could not hut be sanctified to his Master's honor, while he retained ihe perfect integrity, the deep convic- tion, and the singleness of eye which his Master had given him. That it was the farthest possible from trick and artifice might be seen in his most familiar conversation ; where his manner, when he was fully called out, was exactly what it was in the pulpit. His mind grasped every subject firmly : ins imagination clothed it with images — embodied it — give it life — called up numberless associations and illustrations : it was realized : it was present to him : his taste and judgment en- abled him to seize it in the most striking points of view. "His apprehensions of religion," Mr. Wilson most justly observes, "were grand and eleva- ted. His fine powers governed by divine grace, were exactly calculated to seize all the grandeur of the Gospel. The stupendous magnitude of the objects which the Bible proposes to man, the in- comparable sublimity of eternal pursuits, the as- tonishing scheme of reden prion by an incarnate Mediator, the native grandeur of a rational and immortal being stamped with the impress of God, the fall of this being into sin, and poverty, and meanness-, and guilt, his recovery by grace to more than his original dignity in the love and service of his Creator, filled all his soul. lie seemed often to labor with an imagination occupied with his noble theme. He felt, and he taught, that no oth- er subject was worthy the consideration of man. In comparison with it, he led his auditors to con- demn and trample on all the petty objects of this lower world. Iu meanness, its uncertainty, its deceit, its vanity, its vexation, its nothingness, he 42 CHARACTER OP MR. CECIL. set fully in their view. He even made them look down wiih a generous concern on those who were buried in its interests, and who forgot, amidst the toys of children, the real business of life." Some of his printed sermons are perfect models of simplicity, vivacity, and effect. That, for in- stance, on the " Power of Faith." His ohjntesance, though not modelled alto- gether after the artificial rules of beamy, beamed in animated conversation and in the pulpit, with the beauty of a great and noble mind. Dignity and benevolence were strongly portrayed there. The variety of its expression was admirable: nor could any one feel the full force of the sold which he threw into his discourses, if this expression was concealed from him by distance or situation. His action was graceful and forcible: latterly, owing perhaps to his increasing infirmities and almost uninterrupted pain, it discovered, 1 think, some constraint and want of ease. There was a Familiarity and an authority in his manner, w hich to strangers sometimes ap- peared dogmatism. His manner was, in truth, like that of DO other man. It was altogether orig- inal ; and because it was original, it sometimes of- fended those who bad no other idea of manner than of that to which they had been accustomed. Yet even the prejudiced could not hear him with indifference. There was a dignity and command, a decision and energy, a knowledge of the heart and the world, an uprightness of mind and a de- sire to do good, and all this united with a tender- ness and affection, which few could witness with- out some favorable impressions. His most striking sermons were generally those, which he preached from very short texts, such as — My soul hangeth on thee — ill my frtsh springs are in thee — O Lord! teach me viy way — ,1s thy day is CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 43 so shall thy strength be. In these sermons, the whole subject had probably struck him at once ; and what conies in this way is generally found to be more natural and forcible, than what the mind is obliged to excogitate by its own laborious ef- forts: As the subject grows out of the state of the mind at the time, there is that degree of affinity between them which occasions the mind to seize it forcibly, and to clothe it with vivid colors. A train of the most natural associations presents itself, as one link draws with it its kindred links. The attention is engaged — the mind is concentrated — scripture and life present themselves without ef- fort, in the most natural relations which they bear to the subject that has full possession of the man, and composition becomes easy, and even inter- esting. It was a frequent and very useful method with him, to open and explain his subject in a very brief manner, and then to draw inferences from it; which inferences formed the great body ol the sermon, and were rather matters of address to the consciences and hearts of bis hearers, than of dis- cussion ; so that the whole subject was a kind of application. Tins seems to me to have been his most effective manner of preaching. Take an instance : Mat. xviii. 20. I. Explain the words. II. Raise from them two or three remarks : Contemplate I. The Glory and Godhead of our Master: 2. The honor which he puts on his house and the assem- bly of his Saints: {. The privilege of being one of "Christ's servants whom he will meet : 4. The obligations lying on such servants — What manner of servants ought such to be? lie was remarkably observant of character. When 1 have asked his opinion of a person, he has frequently surprised me with such a full and ac- curate delineation of him, as he could have ob- 44 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. tained only l>y a very patient and penetrating ob- servation. The reason of this appeared, when I learnt that it was his custom in his sermon notes, whet) he wished to describe a particular character, not to put down its chief features as they occurred to his mind from the general ohservations which he had made on men ; hut he would put down the initial of some person's name, with whom he was well acquainted, and who stood in his mind as the representative of that class of characters. He had nothing to do then, when lie came to enlarge on that part of his Subject, hut strongly to realize to himself the person in question, and he would draw a much more vivid picture of a real char- acter than he could otherwise do.* Mr. Cecil was not himself led to the knowledge of God through great terrors of conscience : his ministry did not, therefore, so much abound in delineations of the wnrkiugs and malignity of sin, as in those topics which grew out ot his course of experience ; nor did he enter frequently or largely into the details of the spiritual conflict. He was himself drawn to God, and subdued by a sense of divine mercy and friendship; he was led, therefore, to detail largely the transactions of the believing mind with God, in the exercise of de- pendence and submission. * Lavater somewhere mentions an admirable practice of his own, which carried uur Iriend's principle into con- stant use in his ministry. He hxed on certain persons in his congregation, whom he considered as representa- tives of the respective classes into whic h his hearers might be properly divided — ft mo an ting*, as I recollect, to seven. In composing his discourses, he kepi each of these persons steadily in his eye ; and labored so to mould his subject as to meet the case of every one — by which incomparable rule be rendered himself intelligible and interesting to all clashes of his flock. CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 45 He was more aware than most men of the dif- ficulty OF BRINGING DOWN THE TRUTH TO THE COMPREHENSION OF THE MASS OF HEARERS. A young minister may leave college with the best theory in the world, and he may take with him into a country parish a determination to talk in the language of simplicity itself; but the actual capacity to make himself understood and felt is so far removed from his former habits, that it is only to be acquired by experience. Hear how wisely Mr. Cecil wrote to a young friend about to take orders; — "I advised him, since he was so near his entrance into the ministry, to lay aside all other studies for the present t, but the one I should now recommend to him. I would have him select some very poor and uninformed persons, and pay them a visit. His object should be to explain to them, and demonstrate to them the truth of the solar system. He should first of all set himself to make that system peifectly intelligible to them, and then he should demonstrate it to their full conviction against all that the followers of Tycho Brahe, or any one else could say against it. He would tell me it was impossible : they would not understand a single term. Impossible to make them astronomers! And shall it be thought an easy matter to make them understand redemption!" He gave the following account of his habit of PREPARATION FOR THE PULPIT I "I generally look into the portions of Scripture appointed by the church to be read in the services of the day. I watch, too, for any new light which may be thrown on passages in the course of read- ing, conversation, or prayer. I seize the occasions furnished by my own experience — my state of mind — my family occurrences. Subjects taken up in this manner are always likely to meet the cases and wants of some persons in the congregation. 46 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. Sometimes, however, I have no text prepared : and I have found this to arise generally from sloth : 1 go to work: this is the secret: make it a business: something will arise where least ex- pected. " It is important to begin preparation early. If it is driven off late, accidents mcy occur which may prevent flue attention to the subject. If the latter days of the week are occupied, and the mind driven into a corner, the sermon will usually be raw and undigested. Take time to reject what ought to be rejected, and to supply what ought to be supplied. "It is a favorite method with me to reduce the text to some point of doctrine. On that topic I enlarge, and then apply it. 1 like to ask myself — 1 What are you doing ? — What is your aim ?' " I will not foretell my own views by first going to commentators. 1 talk over the subject to my- self: I write down all that strikes me : and then I arrange what is written. After my plan is settled, and my mind has exhausted its stores, then I would turn to some of my great Doctors to see if I am in no error: but I find it necessary to reject many good things which the Doctors say ; they will tell to no good effect in a sermon. In truth, to be effective, we must draw more from nature and less from the writings of men: we must study the book of Providence, the book of nature, the heart of man, and the book of God : we must read the history of the world : we must deal with mat- ters of fact before our eyes." In respect to mechanical preparation, Mr. Cecil was in the habit of using eight quarto pages, on which he put down his main and subordinate di- visions, with such hints as he thought requisite. These notes, written iu an open and legible man- ner, such as his eye could catch with ease, he put CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 47 into one of the portable quarto Bibles, of which several editions were printed in the seventeenth century, in a good type, but, in consequence of the closeness and excellence of the paper, such as bind up in a very compact size. Of these editions there are some* which are printed page for page with another: and one of these editions Mr. Cecil was in the constant habit of using, both in public and in private, from the mechanical assistance afforded to him in turning to passages from the recollection of the part of the page in which they occurred. It will be interesting to hear Mr. Cecil's own ACCOUNT OF HIS MANNER OF COMMENCING HIS ministry; as it notices mistakes from which be was not only early but most effectually delivered, and his remarks on them may afford a serious caution to others. "I set out," he said, " with levity in the pulpit. It was above two years before I could get the victory over it, though I strove under sharp pierc- ings of conscience. 3Iy plan was wrong. I had bad counsellors. I thought preaching was only entering the pulpit, and letting off* a sermon. I really imagined this was trusting to God, and doing the thing cleverly. 1 talked with a wise and pious man on the subject. 'There is noth- ing,' said be, 'like appealing to facts.' We sat down and named names. We found men in my habit disreputable. This first set my mind right. I saw such a man might sometimes succeed: but I saw, at the same time, that whoever would suc- ceed in his general interpretations of Scripture, and would have his ministry that of a icorkman * 1 have compared four of these Bibles, viz . Field's, London, 1643— Haye's, Camb. 1(570, and also that of 1077 — and Buck's, Camb. without date. 4S CHARACTER OF MR. CF.CIL. that needeth not to be ashamed — must lie a laborious man. What can be produced by men who refuse this labor? — a few raw notions, harmless perhaps in themselves, but false as stated by them. What then should a young minister do ? His office says, 'Go to your books. Go to re- tirement. Go to prayer.' — 'No!' says the enthu- siast, 'Go to preach. Go and be a witness!' — A witness! — of what? — He don't know !" Thus qualified by nature, education, and grace — enriched by his various manly acquisitions — and matured by experience, he appeared in the pulpit unquestionably as one of the first preachers — per- haps the very first preacher of his time. He Was SINCERELY ATTACHED TO THE CHURCH OF England, both by principle and feeling — to her order and decorum. He entered into the spirit of those obligations, which lay on him as a clergyman ; and, looking at general consequences, would never break through the order and disci- pline of the church, to obtain any particular, local, and temporary ends. In the more private exercise of his pastoral office, as a counsellor and friend, he manifested great faithfulness, tenderness, and wisdom. In proof of this I might appeal to what is said in the "Remains," on the subject of "visiting deathbeds." I shall here subjoin a few more il- lustrations of this part of his character. An interview was contrived between him and a noble lady, by some of her relations. She began to listen to the affairs of religion. Her life had been gay and trifling. She knew that he understood her situation ; and she began to introduce her case by saying that she supposed he thought her a very contemptible and wicked creature. " No, Madam, I do not look at you in that view. I consider that you have been a CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 49 wanderer; pursuing happiness in a mistaken road — an immortal being fluttering through the pres- ent short but important scene, without one serious concern for what is to come after it is passed b.y. And, while others know what is to happen to them, and wait for it, you are totally ignorant of the subject." — " But, Sir, is it possible to arrive at any certainty with respect to a future condition?" — "Why what little trifling scenes would occupy your ladyship and myself, if we were confined to this small spot of a carpet that is under our feet ! The world is a little, mean, despicable scene in itself. But we must leave it ; and can yon sup- pose that we are left to step into another state, as into a dark abyss — not knowing what awaits us there ? No — the. next step I take from the world is not into a void that no one lias explored — a fathomless abyss — a chaos of clouds and dark- ness — !mt I know what it is — I am assured of it." He said to me in reporting this conversation M I rested on this, and left it to work on her mind. I thought it better to defer the subject of this assurance to try her, and I have reason to believe that she feels anxious for our next occasion of meeting, that she may hear how we can make out. the grounds of our assurance." This is nun among many instances of the wise methods in which he accommodated his instructions to the character. "Many of my people," he said, "and especially females, talk thus to me— ' I am under con limial distress of mind. I can lay bold of no permanent ground of peace. If I seem to get a little, it is 6oon gone again. I am out at sea, without com- pass or anchor. My heart sinks. My spirit faints. My knees tremble. All is dark above, and all is horror beneath.' — 'And pray what is your mode of life ?'— "I sit by myself.'— 'In this small room, 50 CHARACTER OF SIR. CECIL. I suppose, and over your fire ?'— < A considerable part of my time.' — 'And what time do you go to l>ed ?' — 1 1 cannot retire till two or three o'clock in the morning.' — 'And you lie late, I suppose, in the morning?' — ' Frequently.'— ' And pray what else can you expect from thfs mode of life, than a relaxed and unstrung system — and, of course, a mind enfeebled, anxious, and disordered? I understand your case. God seems to have quali- fied me to understand it, I iy especial dispensations. My natural disposition is gay, volatile, spirited. My nature would never sink. But I have some- times felt my spirit absorbed in horrible appre- hensions, without any assignable natural cause. Perhaps it was necessary I should le suffered to ieel this, that I might feel (brokers; for, certainly, no man can have any adequate sympathy with others, who has never thus suffered himself. I can feel for you therefore, while I tell you that I think the affair with you is chiefly physical. I myself have brought on the same feelings by the same means. 1 have sat in my study till I have persuaded myself that the ceiling was too low to suffer me to rise and stand upright; and air and exercise alone, could remove the impression from my mind !' ilis taking the charge of St. John's Chapel is the most important event of his life, as it appears to have been the sphere for which he was pe- culiarly raised up and prepared by Providence. The circumstances attending his establishment ol a serious and devout congregation in tins place, mark the strength and simplicity of his mind ; while they may show the necessity under which such men will sometimes be brought, of acting for themselves, with perfect independence of the whole body of their brethren. CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 51 These circumstances he related to me ns fol- lows: — " When I married, I lived at a small house at Islington, situated in the midst of a garden, for which 1 paid 141. a year. My annual income was then only 80?. and, with this, I had to support my- self, my wife, and a servant. I was then, indeed, minister of St. John's, hut I received nothing from the place for several of the. earlier years. When I was sent thither, I considered that I was sent to the people of that place anil neighborhood. I thought it my duty, therefore, to adopt a system and a style of preaching which should have a ten- dency to meet their case. All which they had heard before, was dry, frigid, and lifeless. A high, haughty, stalking spirit characterised the place. I was thrown among men of the world, men of business, men of reading, and men of thought. I began, therefore, with principles. I preached on the divine authority of the sacred Scriptures. I dissecteil Sauriu's Sermons. I took the sinews and substance of some of our most masterly wri- ters. I preached on such texts as — If ye believe not Moses and the Prophets, neither will ye believe though one arose from the dead. I set myself to explain terms and phrases; My chief object was under-ground work. But what was the conse- quence of this? An outcry was raised against me throughout the religious world. It was said, that, at other places, I continued to preach the truth ; but that, at St. John's, I was sacrificing it to my hearers. Even my brethren, instead of entering into my reasons and plan, lay on their oars. My protectress turned her back on me. I hesitated, at first, to enter on so great a risk ; but, with grandeur of spirit, she told me she would put her fortune on the issue : if any benefit resulted from it, it should be mine, and she would bear me harmless of all loss. She heard mo a few times, 5-2 CHARACTER OF MR-. CECIL. and then wholly withdrew herself, and even took away her servants. Some of them would now and then steal in ; but as they reported that they got 'no food,' the report did hut strengthen the prejudices of their mistress. She could not enter into my motives. I was obliged to regard her conduct as Huss did that of the man who was heaping the faggots round him, O sancta simplici- tas ! She could not calculate consequences, and was unmoved even when I placed my conduct in its strongest light — 'Can you attribute any but the purest motives to me? Ought not the very circum- stances to which I voluntarily subject myself by adhering to the plan you condemn, to gain me some credit for my intentions? Had I preached here, in the manner 1 preached elsewhere, you know that the place would have been crowded by the religious world. I should then have obtained from it an income of 200i. or 300/. a year, whereas I now sit down with little or no ad> antage from it, though I have a family rising up aliout me. God sent me hither to preach to this people, and to raise a congregation in this place; and I am proceeding in that system and way, w hich seems to me best adapted under God to meet the s-tates of this people ; and w hile I am doing this, I bring on myself temporal injury. I can have no possi- ble motive to sacrifice the truth to a few blind Pharisees, who will never while I live become my friends.' "I labored under this desertion of my friends for a long time : it was about seven years, before affairs began to wear such an aspect, that my pro- tectress and others allowed that matters had cer- tainly turned out as they could not have foreseen. Several witnesses rose up of undoubted and au- thentic character, to testify the power of the grace of God. One circumstance w ill place the preju- CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 53 dice which existed against me in a strong light. A converted Jewess, who had heen driven from her father's house on account of her sentiments, and was a woman of great simplicity and devotion, refused to accompany a friend to St. John's be- cause, as she said, she could not worship there Spiritually, and rather chose to spend the after- noon among her friend's books; in which employ- ment, I doubt not, she worshipped God in the spirit, and was accepted of him. For my own satisfaction, I wrote down at large the reasons on which I had formed my conduct, for I was almost driven into my own breast for support and justifi- cation. One friend, indeed, stood by me. He saw my plan and entered fully into it; and said such strong tilings on the subject as greatly confirmed my own mind. 'The Church of Christ,' said he, 'must sometimes be sacrificed for Christ.' A cer- tain brother preached a charity sermon; and in such a style, that he seemed to say to me, ' Were I here, you would see how 1 would do the thing.' What good he did, I know not; but some of the evil I know, as several persons forsook the chapel, and assigneil his sermon as the reason ; and others expressed themselves alarmed at the idea of Meth- odism having crept into the place. It was illjudg- ed and unkind. He should have entered into my design, or have been silent." About the middle of July, 1800, Mr. Cecil en- tered on the Livings of Bisley and Chobham in Surry. A few weeks after this 1 visited him with our dear and mutual friend Dr. Fearon. Here I saw him in a quite different situation from any in which I had seen him before, and was not a little curious to remark the manner in which he would treat a set of plain and homely villagers. Though he was repeatedly in great anguish during the day which we passed with him, yet his mind, 54 CHARACTER OF .MR. CECIL. in the intervals, was so vigorous and luminous that I have scarcely ever gathered so much from him in an equal time. On this occasion, among other things which are recorded in his " Remains," he stated to us bis views and feelings respecting his new charge. "Bisley is a rectory. It is completely out of the world. The farmers in these parts are mostly oc- cupiers of their own land. They crowded round me when I first came, anil were eager to make bargains with me for the tythe. I told them I was ignorant of such matters, hut that I would propose a measure which none of them could object to. The farmers of Bisley should nominate three fann- ers of Ghobheill parish : and whatever those three Chohham farmers should appoint me to receive, that they should pay. This was putting myself into their power indeed, but the one grand point with me was to conciliate their minds, ami pave the way for the gospel in these parishes. And so far it answered my purpose. I had desired the three farmers to throw the weight, in dubious cases into the termer's scale. After we had settled the business, one of the three, to convince the Bisley farmers that they had acted in the very spirit of my directions, proposed to find a person who would immediately give them 50/. a year for their bargain with me. This has given them an idea that we act upon high and holy motives. What a noble trait is ibis of his upright and dis- interested mind ? One might almost with confi- dence predict that such an introduction into his parishes was a presage of great usefulness. A minister has no right to wanton away the support of his family ; but, having secured that, whatever sacrifices he may make with such holy motives as these, will be abundantly repaid ; probably in the success of his ministry, certainly in his masters CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 55 Approbation and the peace of bis own bosom. Those sacrifices of what may be strictly bis due, which a narrow and worldly man may refuse to make, though he entail discord and feuds on his parish, will be trifles to the mind of a true Chris- tian minister. "I hardly think it likely that a man could have been received in a more friendly manner than I have been. About 500 people attended at Chob- ham, and 300 at Hisley. I find I can do any thing with them while 1 am serious. A Baptist preacher had been somewhere in the neighbourhood before I came, lie seems to have been wild and eccen- tric, and to have planted a prejudice in conse- <|uenceof this in the people's minds, who appear to have had no other notion of Methodism than that it was eccentricity. " While I am grave and serious they will allow me to say or do any thing. For instance ; a few Sundays since it rained so prodigiously hard when 1 had finished my sermon at Bisley, that I saw it was impracticable for any body to leave the church. 1 then told the people, that as it was likely to con- tinue for some time, we had better employ our- selves as well as we could, and so I would take up the subject again. 1 did so ; and they listened to me readily for another half-hour, though I had preached to them three quarters of an hour before 1 had com hided. All this they bear, and think it nothing strange ; but one wild brother with one eccentric sermon woidd do me more mischief than i should be able in many months to cure." A very strong instance of personal attachment to him occurred soon after he took Chobham. A stranger was observed to attend church every Sun- day, and to leave the village immediately afterser- vice was over. Every new face there was a phe- nomenon, and of course the appearance of this 5 6 CHARACTER OF SIR. CECIL. man led to inquiry. He was found to be one of his hearers at St. John's — a poor, working-man, whom the advantages received under his ministry had so knit to his pastor, that lie found himself i a- paid for a weekly journey of fifty miles. Mr. U. remonstrated with him on the inexpediency and impropriety of thus spending his Sabbath, when the pure word of God might he heard so much nearer home. But we must approach the closing scene of this great man's life and lahors. No touches need to he added to the affecting picture which Mrs. Cecil has drawn of his gradu- al descent to the grave. 1 will only subjoin here some remarks on his views and feelings with re- spect to that Gospel of which lie had been so long an eminent and successful minister. His views of Christianity were modified, as has been seen by his constitution and the circumstan- ces of his life. His dispensation was to meet n particular class of liearers. He was fitted beyond most men, to assert the reality, dignity, and glory of religion — as contrasted with the vanity, mean- ness, and glare of the world. This subject he treated like a master. Men of the world felt that they were in the presence of their superior — of one who unmasked their real misery to themselves, and pursued them through all the false refuges of vain and carnal minds. While this was the principal character of Mr. Cecil's ministry for years, at that place for which he seems to have been specially prepared ; yet he was elsewhere, with equal wisdom, leading expe- rienced Christians forward in their way to heaven : and, latterly, the habit of his own mind and tl.e whole system of his ministry were manifestly rip- ening in those views which are peculiar to the Gospel. CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 57 No man had a more just view of his own minis- try than he had; nor could any one more highly value the excellence which he saw in others, though it was of a different class from his own. " 1 have been lately selecting," he said to me, "some of C — 's letters for publication* With the utmost difficulty, I have given some little variety. He hegins with Jesus Christ, carries him through, and closes with him. If a broken leg orarm turns him aside, he seems impatient to dismiss it as an intrusive suhject, and to get hack again to his top- ic. I feel as I read his letters — ' Why, you said this in the last sentence! What, over and over again ! What, nothing else! No variety of view ! No illustration !' And yet, I confess, that, when I have walked out and my mind has been a good deal exercised on his letters, I have caught a sym- pathy — 'It is one thing, without variety or relief; but this otic thing is a talisman!' — I have raised my head— I have trod firmly — my heart has ex- panded—I have felt wings ! Men must not he view- ed indiscriminately. To a certain degree I produce effect in my way, and with my views. The utter ruin and bankruptcy of man is so wrought intomv experience, that 1 handle this suhject natural^. Other men may use God's more direct means as naturally as I can use his more indirect and col- lateral ones. Every man, however, must rather follow than lead his experience; though, to a cer- tain degree, if he finds his habits diverting him from Jesus Christ as the grand, prominent, only feature, he must force himself to choose such top- ics as shall lead his mind to him. I am obliged to suhject myself to this discipline. 1 frequently choose subjects and enter into my plan, before I discover that the Saviour occupies a part too sub- ordinate : 1 throw them away, and take up others which point more directly and naturally to him." SB CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. In his last illness, lie spoke, with great feel- ing on the same subject: "That Christianity may he very sincere, which is not sublime. Let a man read Mattlaurin's sermon on the Cross of Christ, and enter into the subject with taste and relish, what beggary is the world to him ! The subject is so high and so glorious, that a man must go out of himself, as it were, to appre- hend it. The apostle had such a view when he said I count nil things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I remember the time, even after I became really serious in re- ligion, when I could not understand what St. Paul meant — not by setting forth the glory of Christ, but by talking of it in such hyperbolical terms, and al- ways dwelling on the subject: whatever topic he began on, I saw that he could not but glide into \ the same subject. But I now understand why he did so, and wonder no tnorp ; for there is no other subject, comparatively, worthy ottr thoughts, and therefore it is that advanced Christians dwell on little else. I am fully persuaded, that the whole world becomes vain and empty to a man, in pro- portion as he enters into living views of Jesus Christ." His fke lings on religion, as they respected his submission to the divine will, were admirably ex- pressed by himself: — " We are servants, and we must not choose our station. I am now called to go down very low, hut I must not resist. God is saying to me, 'You have not been doing my work in my way: you have been too hasty. Now sit down, and be content to be a quiet idler: and wait till I give you leave again to go on in your labors.' " In respect to his personal comfort, he had said — " I have attained satisfaction as to my state, CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 50 by a consciousness of change in my own breast, mixed with a consciousness of integrity. Two evidences are satisfactory to me: — 1. A consciousness of approving God's plan of government in the Gospel. 2. A consciousness, that, in trouble, I run to God as a child." These evidences Mr. C. illustrated even in his diseased moments before his death. On that af- flicting dispensation I shall make no remarks of my own, ns I think nothing can be added to what my friend, his successor, has so well said in the second of his funeral sermons, and which is here subjoined. "During the whole period of his last illness, a space of nearly three years, the state of Ins mind fluctuated with his malady. Every one, who has had opportunities of observing the operation of palsy, knows, that, without destroying, or, propeily speaking, perverting, the reasoning powers, it agi- tates and enervates them. Every object is present- ed through a discolored medium. False premises are assumed ; and the mind is sometimes more than usually expert in drawing inferences accordingly. In a word, the whole system is deranged and shat- tered. An excessive care anil irritation and des- pondency arc produced under the impression of which the sufferer acts every moment, without be- ing at all aware of the cause. His morbid anxiety is, besides, fixed on some inconsiderable or ideal matter, which he magnifies and distorts; while he remains incapable of attending to concerns of su- perior moment, and any attempts to rectify his misapprehensions, quicken the irritation, and in- crease the effects of the disorder. "Under this peculiar visitation it pleased God that our late venerable father should labor. The energy, and decision, and grandeur of his natural 00 CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL- powers, therefore, gradually gave way, and a mor- bid feebleness succeeded. Yet even in this afflict- ing state, with his body on one side almost lifeless, his organs of speech impaired, and his judgment weakened, the spiritual disposition of his heart displayed themselves in a remarkable manner. He appeared great in the ruins of nature; and his em- inently religious character manifested itself, to the honor of divine grace, in a manner which surpris- ed all who were acquainted with the ordinary ef- fects of paralytic complaints. The actings of hope were, of course, impeded ; but the habit of grace which had been forming in his mind for thirty or forty years shone through the cloud. At such a period there was no room for fresh acquisitions. The real character of the man could only appear, when disease allowed it to appear at all, according to the grand leading habits of his life. If his hab- its had been ambitious, or sensual, or covetous, or worldly, these tendencies, if any, would have dis- played themselves: hut as his soul had been long established in grace, and spiritual religion had been incorporated with all his trains of sentiment and affection, and had become like a second nature, the holy dispositions of his heart acted with re- markable constancy uuder'all the variations of Jus illness: so that one of his oldest friends observed to me, that if he had to choose the portion of his life, since he first knew hi CD, in which the eviden- ces of a state of salvation were most decisive, he should, without a moment's hesitation, select the period of his last distressing malady. "Throughout his illness, his whole mind, instead of being fixed on some mean and insignificant concern, was riveted on spiritual objects. Every other topic was so uninteresting to him, and even burdensome, that he could with reluctance allow it to be introduced. The value of his soul, the emp- CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. m tiness of the world, the nearness and solemnity of death, were ever on his lips. He spent his whole time in reading the Scripture, and one or two old divines, particularly Archbishop Leighton. All he said and did was as a man on the brink of an eter- nal state. "His humility, also, evidently ripened as he ap- proached his end. lie was willing to receive ad- vice from every quarter. He listened with anxie- ty to any hint that was offered him. His view of his own misery and helplessness as a sinner, and of the necessity of being entirely indebted to divine grace, and being saved as the greatest monument of its efficacy, was continually on the increase. "His simplicity and fervor in speaking of the Saviour, were also very remarkable. As he drew nearer to death, his one topic was — Jesus Christ. All his anxiety and cnre were centred in this grand point. His apprehensions of the work and glory of Christ, of the extent and suitableness of his salvation, and of the unspeakable importance of being spiritually united to him, were more dis- tinct and simple, if possible, than at any period of his life. He spake of him to his family, with the feeling, anil interest, and seriousness of the aged and dying believer. "His faith, also, never failed. I have heard him with faltering and feeble lips, speak of the great foundations of Christianity with the fullest confi- dence. He said, he never saw so clearly the truth of the doctrines which he had been preaching, as since his illness. His view of the certainty and excellency of God's promises in Christ was un- shaken. " The interest, likewise, which he took in the success of the Gospel, was prominent, when his disease at all remitted. His own people lay near his heart; and, when a providence had occurred G2 CHARACTER OF SIR. CECIL. which he hoped would promote their benefit, he expressed himself with old Simeon, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.' "The principal effect of his distemper was in throwing a cloud over his comfort; yet, in produc- ing this, the spiritual tendency of his mind appear- ed. His diseased depression operated indeed, but it was in leading him to set a high standard of ho- liness to bring together elevated marks of regenera- tion, and to require decisive evidences of a spirit of faith and adoption. The acuteness of his judg- ment then argued so strongly from these false pre- mises, that he necessarily excluded himself almost entirely from the consolation of hope. If I may be allowed a theological term — the objective acts of faith; those that related to the grand objects proposed in the scriptures on the testimony of God, such as the work of redemption, the person of Christ, and the virtue of his blood, remained the same ; nay, were ripened and strengthened as his dissolution approached: but the subjective acts of faith, those which respected bis own interest in these blessings, and which gave life to the exer- cises of hope, rose and sunk with his disease. He was precisely like a man oppressed by a heavy weight: as the load was lightened, he began to move and exert himself in his natural manner : when the burden was increased, he sunk down again under the oppression. "About a year before his death, when his pow- ers of mind had for a long time been debilitated, but still retained some remnants of their lormer vigor, his religious feelings were at times truly de- sirable. His intellectual powers were indeed too far weakened for joy ; but there w as a resignation, a tranquillity, a ripeness of grace, a calm and holy repose on the bosom of the Saviour, that quite alarmed, if I may so speak, his anxious family, under the impression that there appeared nothing CHARACTER OF MR. CECIL. 63 left for grace to tlo, and that he would soon be re- moved from them, as a shock of com cometh in its season- Even when his disease had made still further progress, as often as the slightest allevia- tion was afforded him, his judgment became more distinct, his morbid depression lessened, and he was moderately composed. It was only a lew weeks before his dissolution that such an interval was vouchsafed to him. He then spake with great feeling from the scriptures, in family worship, for about half an hour; and dwelt on the love, and grace, and power of Christ with particular com- posure of mind. I had the happiness of visiting him at this season. He was so much relieved from his disease, as to enter with me on general topics relating to religion, and to give me some ex- cellent directions as to my conduct as a minister. In reply to various questions which I put to him, he spake to trie to the following purport: 'I know myself to be a wretched, worthless, sinner,' (the seriousness and feeling with which he spake I shall never forget,) 'having nothing in myself but poverty and sin. I know Jesus Christ to be a glo- rious and almighty Saviour. I see the lull efficacy of his atonement and grace ; and I cast myself entirely on him, and wait at his footstool. I am aware that my diseased and broken mind makes me incapable of receiving consolation ; but I sub- mit myself wholly to the merciful and wise dispen- sations of God.' "One or two other interesting testimonies of the spiritual and devoted state of his heart may be here mentioned. A short time before his ilim nBB , he requested one of his family to write down for him in a book the following sentence; '"None but Christ, none but Christ," said Lambert dying at a stake: the same, in dying circumstances, with iiis whole heart, saith Richard Cecil.' The 64 CHARACTER Or MR. CECIL. name was signed by himself, with his left hand in a manner hardly legible through infirmity." Such was Mr. Cecil. I sincerely regret that some masterly observer did not both enjoy and improve opportunities of delineating a more per- fect picture of his great mind. I have, however, faithfully detailed the impressions which his char- acter made on me, during a long course of affec- tionate admiration of him : nor have I shrunk from intermingling such remarks, as every faith- lul observer must find occasion to make while he is watching the unfoldings of the best and greatest of men. Christian Parents, and particularly chris- tian mothers, may gather from the history and character of our departed friend every possible encouragement to the unwearied care of their children. While St. Austin, Bishop Hall, Richard Hooker, John Newton, Richard Cecil, and many- other great and eminent servants of Christ, have left on record their grateful acknowledgments to their pious mothers, as the instruments, under the grace and blessing of God, of winning them to himself, let no woman of faith and prayer despair respecting even her most untoward child. Mr. Cecil's mere admirers should feel what a weight of responsibility his ministry and his char- acter have laid them under. They gave him the ear, but he labored for the heart. They were pleased with the man, but he prayed that they might become displeased with themselves. They would aid him in his schemes, but he was anx- ious that they should serve his Master. How soon must they meet him at that judgment-seat before which all must ap|>ear, to receive ac- cording to what they have done in the body whether good or evil t CHARACTER Or MR. CECIL. Go His sincere friends are called to imitate his example — to follow him as lie followed Christ — to live above this vain world — to sacrifice every thing to the honor of Christ and the interests of eternity — to bear up under pain and weariness and anxiety, leaning on Almighty strength ; till they join him in that world where weakness shall be felt no more t JOSIAH PRATT- REMAINS OF THE REV. RICHARD CECIL, M. A. REMARKS MADE BY MR. CECIL CHIEFLY IN CONVERSATION WITH THE ED- ITOR, OR IN DISCUSSIONS WHEN HE WAS PRESENT. " Multa ab eo prudcntcr disputata, multa etiam brctiter et commode dicta memoria- mandabam, fieriqitc sttcdc- bam ejus prudcntia doctior. — Cic. tie Ainicit. I. On the Christian Life and Conflict. The direct cause of a Christian's spiritual life, is union with Christ. All attention to the mere circumstantials of religion, has u tendency to draw the soul away from this union. Few men, except ministers, are called, by the nature of their station, to enter much into these circumstantials : — such, for instance, as the evidences of the truth of re- ligion. Ministers leel this deadening effect of any considerable or continued attention to externals: much more must private Christians. The head may be strengthened, till the heart is starved. Some private Christians, however, may be called on, by the nature of those circles in which they move, to be qualified to meet and refute the ob- jections which may be urged against religion. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. G7 Sucli men as well as ministers, while they are fur- nishing themselves for this purpose, must acquiesce in the work which God appoints for them, with prayer and watchfulness. If they cannot always live and abide close to the ark, and the pot of manna, and the cherubim, and the mercy seat : yet they are drawing the water and gathering the wood necessary for the service of the camp. But let their hearts still turn toward the place where the Glory resideth. The Christian's fellowship with God is rather a habit, than a rapture. He is a pilgrim, who has the habit of looking forward to the light before him : he has the habit of not looking back ; he has the habit of walking steadily in the way, whatever be the weather, and whaiever the road. These are his habits: and the Lord of the Way is his Guide, Protector, Friend, and Felicity. As the Christian's exigencies arise, he has a spiritual habit of turning to God, and say ing, with the Church, " Tell me, O thou whom my soul lovelh, where thou feedest, ivhere thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon. I have tried to find rest elsewhere. I have (led to shelters, which held out great prom- ise of repose; but I have now long since learned to turn unto thee : " TM me, O thou ivhoia my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon." The Christian will look hack, throughout eter- nity, with interest and delight, on the steps and means of his conversion. " My father told me this! My mother told that! Such an event was sanctified to me! In such a place, God visited my soul!" These recollections will never grow dull and wearisome. 08 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. A volume misht be written on the various methods which God has taken, in providence, to lead men first to think of him. The history of a man's own life is, to himself, the most interesting history in she world, next to that of the Scriptures. Every man is an original and solitary character. None can either under- stand or feel the book of his own life like himself. The lives of other men are to him dry ar.d vapid, when set beside his own. He enters very little into the spirit of the Old Testament, who does not see God culling on him to turn over the pages of this history when he says to the Jew, Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years. He sees God teaching the Jew to look at the records of his deliverance from the Red Sea, of the manna showered down on him from heaven, and of the Amalekites pat to flight before him. There are such grand events in the life and experience of every Christian, it may be well for him to review them often. 1 have, in some cases, vowed before God to appro- priate yearly remembrances of some of the signal turns of my life. Having made the vow, I hold it as obligatory: but I would advise others to greater circumspection ; as they may bring a galling yoke on themselves, which God designed not to put on them. True grace is a growing principle. The Chris- tian grows in discernment: a child may play with a serpent ; but the man gets as far from it aa he can : a child may taste poison ; but the man will not suffer a speck of poison near him. He grows in humility: the blade shoots up boldly, and the young ear keeps erect with confidence : but the full corn in the ear inclines itself toward REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. CO the earth nothecause it is feebler, but because it is matured. He grows in strength : the new wine ferments and frets; but the old wine acquires a body and a firmness. Tenderness of conscience is always to be dis- tinguished from scrupulousness. The conscience cannot be kept too sensible and tender : but scru- pulousness arises from bodily or mental infirmity, and discovers itself in a multitude of ridiculous, and Superstitious, and painful feelings. The head is dull, in discerning the value of God's expedients; and the Dealt cold, sluggish, and reluctant, in submitting to tliem : but the head is lively, in the invention of its own expedients; and the heart eager and sanguine, in pursuit of them. No wonder, then, that God subjects both the head and the heart to a course of continual correction. Every man will have his own criterion in form- ing his judgment of others. I depend very much on the effect of affliction. I consider how a man comes out of the furnace: gold will lie for a month in 1 1 10 furnace without losing a grain. And, while under trial, a child has a habit of turning to his father: he is not like a penitent, who has been whipped into this state : it is natu- ral to him. It is dark, and the child has no where to run, but to his father. Defilement is inseparable from the world. A man can no where rest his foot on it without sink- ing. A strong principle of assimilation combines the world and the heart together.' There are, es- pecially, certain occasions, when the current hurries a man away, and he has lost the religious 70 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. government of himself. When the pilot finds, on making the port of Messina, that the ship will not obey the helm, he knows that she is got within the influence of that attraction, which will bury her in the whirlpool. We are to avoid the danger, rather than to oppose it. This is a great doctrine of Scripture. An active force against the world is not so much inculcated, as a retreating, declin- ing spirit. Keep thyself unspotted from the tvorld. There are seasons when a Christian's distin- guishing character is hidden from man. A Chris- tian merchant on 'Change is not called to show any difference in his mere exterior carriage from another merchant. He gives a reasonable answer if he is asked a question. He does not fanatically intrude religion into every sentence he utters. He does not suppose his religion to be inconsistent with the common interchange of civilities. He is affable and courteous. He can ask the news of the day, and take up any public topic of conversa- tion. Hut is he, therefore, not different from other men ? He is like another merchant in the mere exterior circumstance, which is least in God's re- gard ; — but, in his taste! — his views! — bis sci- ence ! — his hopes ! — his happiness ! he is as differ- ent from those around him as light is from dark- ness. He waits for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who never passes perhaps through the thoughts of those he talks with, hut to be neg- lected and despised ! The Christian is called to he like Abraham, in conduct; like Paul, in labors; and like John, in spirit. Though, as a man of faith, he goes forth not knowing whither, and his principle is hidden from the world, yet he will oblige the world to acknowledge: "His views, it is true, we do not REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 71 understand. His principles and general conduct are a mystery to us. But a more upright, noble, gener- ous," disinterested, peaceable, and benevolent man, we know not where to find." The world may even count him a madman ; and false brethren may vilify his character, and calumniate his motives : yet he will bear down evil, by repaying good ; and will silence his enemies, by the abundance of his labors. He may be shut out from the world — cast into prison — banished into obscurity — no eye to observe him, no hand to help him — but it is enough for him, if his Saviour will speak to him and smile on him. Christians are too little aware what their re- ligion requires from them, with regard to their wishes. When we wish things to be otherwise than they are, we lose sight of the great practical parts of the life of godliness. We wish, and wish — when, if we have done all that lies on us, we should fall quietly into the hands of God. Such wishing cuts the very sinews of our privileges and consolations. You are leaving me for a time; and you say you wish you could leave me better, or leave me with some assistance: but, if it is right for you to go, it is right for me to meet what lies on me, without a wish that 1 had less to meet, or were better able to meet it. I could write down twenty cases, wherein I wished God had done otherwise than he did ; but which I now see, had I had my own will, would have led to extensive mischief. The life of a Christian is a life of paradoxes. He must lay hold on God : he must follow hard after him: he must determine not to let him go. And yet he must learn to let God alone. Quietness before God is one of the most difficult of all Christian graces — to sit where 72 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. lie places us; to be what he would have us to be, and this as long as he pleases. We are like a player at bowls; if he has given his bowl too little bias, he cries, " Flee :" it' he has given it too much, he cries, "Rub," you see him lilting his leg, and bending his body, in conformity to the motion he would impart to the bowl. Thus I have felt with regard to my dispensations : I would urge them or restrain them: 1 would as- similate them to the habit of my mind. But I have smarted for this under severe visitations. It may seem a harsh, but it is a wise and gracious dispensation, toward a man, when, the instant he stretches out his hand to order his affairs, God forces him to withdraw it. Concerning what is morally good or evil, we are sufficiently informed for our direction; but concerning what is natu- rally good or evil, we are ignorance itself. Rest- lessness and self-will are opposed to our duty in these cases. Schooling the heart is the grand means of personal religion. To bring motives under faith- ful examination, is a high state of religious char- acter : with regard to the depravity of the heart we live daily in the disbelief of our own creed. We indulge thoughts and feelings, which are founded upon the presumption that all around us are imperfect and corrupted, but that we are ex- empted. The self-will and ambition and passion of public characters in the religious world, all arise from this sort of practical infidelity. And though its effects are so manifest in these men, because they are leaders of parties, and are set upon a pinnacle so that all who are without the influence of their vortex can see them : yet every man's own breast has an infallible, dogmatizing, excommunicating, and anathematizing spirit work- ing within. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL- 73 Acting from the occasion, without recollection and inquiry, is the death of personal religion. It will not suffice merely to retire to the study or the closet. The mind is sometimes, in private, most ardently pursuing its particular object ; and, as it then acts from the occasion, nothing is further from it tint reeollectedness. I have for weeks together, in pursuit of some scheme, acted so en- tirely from the occasion, that, when I have at length called myself to account, I have seemed like one awaked from a dream. "Am I the man who could think and speak so and so ? Am I the man who could feci such a disposition, or discover such conduct?" The fascination and enchant- ment of the occasion is vanished ; and I stand like David in similar circumstances before Nathan. Such cases in experience are, in truth, a moral intoxication ; and the man is only then sober, when he begins to school his heart. The servant of God has not only natural sensi- bilities, by which he feels, in common with other men, the sorrows of life ; but he has moral sensi- bilities, which are peculiar to his character. When David was driven from his kingdom, be not only fi'lt depressed as an exile and wan- derer; but he would recollect his own sin as pun- ished in the affliction, Eli had not only to suffer the pangs of a father in the loss of his sons ; but he would recal, with bitterness of spirit, his own mismanagement, in bringing up these sons. St, Paul had not only to endure the thorn in the flesh ; but he would feel that he carried about him pro- pensities to self exaltation, which rendered that thorn necessary and salutary. Dangerous predicaments are the brinks of temptations. A niau often gives evidence to 74 REMAINS OP MR. CECIL. others that he is giddy, though he is not aware of it perhaps himself. Whoever has heen in danger himself will guess very shrewdly concern- ing the dangerous state of such a man. A haughty spirit is a symptom of extreme dan- ger — 4 haughty spirit goeth before a fall. Presumptuous carelessness indicates danger. "Who tears?" This is to he feared, that you feel no cause of fear. Such was Peter's state : Though all men forsake thee, yet irtU not I. Venturing on the borders of danger is much akin to this. A man goes on pretty well till he ventures within the atmosphere of danger : hut the atmos- phere of danger infatuates him. The ship is got within the influence of the vortex, and will not ohey the helm. David was sitting in this atmos- phere on the house-top, and was ensnared and fell. An accession of trcedth is a dangerous predica- ment for a man. At first he is stunned, if the ac- cession be sudden : he is very humble and very grateful. Then he begins to speak a little louder, people think him more sensible, and soon he thinks himself so. A man is in imminent danger when in suspected circumsta7ices, he is disposed to equivocate, as Abra- ham did with Pharaoh, and Isaac with Abimelech. Stupidity of conscience under chastisement — an advancement to power, when a man begins to relish sur.h power — popularity — self-indulgence — a disposition to gad about, like Dinah — all these are symptoms ol spiritual danger. A chance of circumstances in our condition oflifeisa critical period. No man who has not passed through such a change, can form any ade- quate notion of its effects upon the mind. When money comes into the pocket of a poor man in small sums, it goes out as it came in, and more REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 75 follows it in tlie same way ; and with a certain freedom and indifference, it is applied to its proper uses: but when he hegins to receive round sums, that may yield him an interest, and when this in- terest comes to he added to his principal, and the sweets of augmentation to creep over him, it is quite a new world to him. In a rise of circum- stances, too, the man becomes, in his own opinion, a wiser man, a greater man ; and pride of station crosses him in his way. Nor is the contrary change less dangerous. Poverty has its trials. That is a fine trait in the Pilgrim's Progress, that Christian stumbled in going down the Hill into the Valley of Humiliation. A sound head, a simple heart, anil a spirit de- pendent on Christ, will suffice to conduct us in every variety of circumstances. I cannot look through my past life without trembling. A variation in my circumstances has been attended with dangers and difficulties, little of which I saw at the time compared with what reflection has since shewn me, but which in the review of them make me shudder, and ought to fill me with gratitude. He, who views this sub- ject aright, will put up particular prayer against sudden attacks. God will have the Christian thoroughly hum- bled and dependent. Strong minds think perhaps sometimes, that they can effect great things in ex- perience by keeping themselves girt up, by the recurrence of habit, by vigorous exertion. This is their unquestionable duty. But God often strips them, lest they should grow confident. He lays them bare — He makes them feel poor, dark, impotent. He seems to say, " Strive with all your vigor, but yet I am he that worketh all in all." 76 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. There is no calling or profession, however en- snaring in many respects to a Christian mind, provided it be not in itself simply unlawful, wherein God has not [frequently raised up faith- ful witnesses, who have stood forth for examples to others, in like situations, of the practicability of uniting great eminence in the Christian life with the discharge of the duties of their profession, however difficult. Fear has the most steady effect on the consti- tutional temperament of some Christians, to keep them in their course. A strong sense of dvtt fixes on the minds of others, and is the prevailing principle of conduct, without any direct reference to consequences. On minds of a stubborn, re- fractory, and self-willed temper, fear and dujy have in general little efiect : they brave fear, and a mere sense of duly is a cold and lifeless prin- ciple; but gratitude, under a strong and sub- duing sense of mercies, melts them into obedience. There is a large class, who would confound nature and grace. These are chiefly women. They sit at home, nursing themselves over a fire, and then trace up the natural effects of solitude and want of air and exercise into spiritual deser- tion. There is more pride in this than they are aware of. They are unwilling to allow so simple and natural a cause of their feelings; and wisli to find something in the thing more sublime. There are so many things to lower a man's topsails — he is such a dependent creature — he is to pay such court to his stomach, his food, his sleep, his exercise — that, in truth, a hero is an idle word. Man seems formed to be a hero in suffer- ing — not a hero in action. Men err in nothing more than in their estimate which they make of REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 77 hum nn labor. The hero of the world is the man that makes a hustle — the man that makes the road smoke under his chaise-and-four — the man that raises a dust about him — the man that manages or devastates empires ! But what is the real labor of this man — compared with that of a silent sufferer? He lives on his projects. He encounters, perhaps, rough roads — incommodious inns — bad food — storms and perils — weary days and sleepless nights : — but what are these! — his project — his point — the thing that has laid hold on his heart — glory — a name — consequence — pleasure — wealth — -these render the man callous to the pains and efforts of the body ! I ha» e been in both states, and therefore understand them ; and I know that men form this false estimate. Besides — there is something in bustle, and slir, and activity, that supports itself. At one period, I preached and read five times on a .Sunday, and rode sixteen miles. But what did it cost me ? Nothing! Yet most men would have looked on while I was rat- tling from village to village, with all the dogs balking at my heels, and would have called me a hero: whereas, if they were to look at me now, they would call me an idle, lounging fellow. "He makes a Sermon on the Saturday —he gets into his study — he walks from end to end — he scribbles on a scrap of paper — he throws it away and scribbles on another — be takes snuff — he sits down — scribbles again — walks about." The man cannot see that here is an exhaustion of the spirit, which, at night, will leave me worn to the extremity of endurance. He cannot see the num- berless efforts of mind, which are crossed and stifled, and recoil on the spirits; like the fruitless efforts of a traveller to get firm footing among the ashes on the steep sides of Mount Etna.* * See Hie Adventurer, No. cxxvii. J. P. 73 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. Elijah appears to have been a man of what we call a great spirit : yet we never find him rising against the humiliating methods, which God was sometimes pleased to take with him ; whether he is to depend for his daily food on the ravens, or is to be nourished by the slender pittance of a perish- ing widow. Pride would choose for us such means of provision, as have some appearance of our own agency in them; and stout-heartedness would lead lis to refuse things, if we cannot have them in our own way. The blessed man is he, who is under education in God's school ; where he endures chastisement, and by chastisement is instructed. The foolish creature is bewitched, sometimes with the en- chantments and sorceries of life. He begins to lose the lively sense of that something, which is superior to the glory of the world. His grovelling soul begins to say, '' Is not this fine ? Is not that charming ? Is not that noble house worth a wish ? Is not that equipage worth a sigh ?" He must go to the word of God to know what a thing is wurth. He must be taught there to call things by their proper names. If he have lost this habit, when his heart puts the questions he will answer them like a fool ; as I have done a thousand times. He will forget that God puts his children into posses- sion of these things, as mere stewards; and that the possession of them increases their responsibil- ity. He will sit down and plan, and scheme to ob- tain possession of things, which he forgets are to be burnt and destroyed. But God dashes the fond scheme in pieces. He disappoints the project. And, with the chastisement he sends instruction; for he knows that the silly creature if left to him- self, would begin, like the spider whose web has been swept away, to spin again. And then the man REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 79 sees tliat Job is blessed — not, when God gives him sons and daughters, and flocks and herds, and power, and honor; but when God takes all these away — not when the schemes of his carnal heart are indulged ; but when they are crossed and dis- appointed. A stubborn and rebellious mind in a Christian, must be kept low by dark and trying dispensations. The language of God, in his prov- idence, to such an one, is generally of this kind: "I will not wholly bide myself. I will be seen by thee. But thou shall never meet me, except in a dark night and ill a storm." Ministers of such a natural spirit are often fitted for eminent useful- ness by these means. The Christian, in his sufferings, is often tempted to think himself forgotten. But his affections are the clearest proofs, that he is an object both of Sa- tan's enmity, and of God's fatherly discipline. Sa- tan would not have man suffer a single trouble all his life long, if he might have his way. He would give him the thing his heart is set upon. He would work in with his ambition. He would pamper his lusts and his pride. But God has better things in reserve for his children : and they must be brought to desire them and seek them; and this will be through 'lie wreck and sacrifice of all that the heart holds dear. The Christian prays for fuller manifestations of Christ's power and glory and love to him ; but he is often not aware, that this is, in truth, praying to he brought into the furnace; for in the furnace only it is, that Christ can walk with his friends, and display, in their preservation and deliverance, his own almighty power. Yet when brought thither, it is one of the worst parts of the trial, that the Christian often thinks himself, for a time at least, abandoned. Job thought so. But while he looked on himself as an outcast, the 30 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. infinite Spirit and the wicked Spirit were holding a dialogue on his case ! He was more an object of notice and interest, than the largest armies that were ever assembled, and the mightiest revolutions that ever shook the world, considered merely in their temporal interests and consequences. Let the Christian he deeply concerned, in all his trials, to honor his Master before such observers ! Affliction has a tendency, especially if long continued, to generate a kind of despondency and ill-temper : ami spiritual incapacity is closely con- nected with pain and sickness. The spirit of prayer does not necessarily come with affliction. If this be not poured out upon the man, he will like a wounded beast, skulk to his den and growl there. God has marked implicitness and simplicity of faith with peculiar approbation. He has done this throughout the Scripture ; and he is doing it daily in the Christian life. An unsuspecting, un- questioning, unhesitating spirit, he delights to hon- or. He does not delight in a credulous, weak, and unstable mind. He gives us full evidence, when he calls and leads ; but he expects to find in us — what he himself bestows — an open ear and dispos- ed heart. Though he gives us not the evidence of sense ; yet he gives such evidence as will be heard by an open ear, and followed by a disposed heart : — Thomas ! because thou hast seen me, thou hast better- ed : blessed are they that hare not seen, and yet hart believed. We are witnesses w hat an open ear and a disposed heart will do in men of the world. If wealth is in pursuit — if a place presents itself be- fore them — if their persons and families and affairs are the object — a whisper, a hint, a probability, a mere chance, is a sufficient ground of action. It is this very state of mind with regard to religion, REMAINS OF MB. CECIL. 81 which God delights in and honors. He seems to put forth his hand, and to say — "Put thy hand in- to mine. Follow all my leadings. Keep thyself attentive to every turn." A sound heart is an excellent casuist. Men stand douhting what they shall do, while an evil heart is at the bottom. If, with St. Paul, they simply did one thing, the way would be plain. A miser, or an ambitious man, knows his points ; and he has such a simplicity in the pursuit of them, that you seldom find him at a loss about the steps which he should take to attain them. He has acquired a sort of instinctive habit in his pursuit. Simplicity and rectitude would have prevented a thousand schisms in the Church ; which have generally risen from men having something else in plan and pros- pect, and not the one thing. What I do thou knowest not now ; but thou shall know hereafter — is the unwearied language of God, in his providence. He will have credit every step. He will not assign reasons, because he will exercise flith. Pride urges men to inquire into the Philosopht of divine truth. They are not contented, for ex- ample, with the account which the Bible gives of the origin of evil, and its actual influence on man- kind ; but they would supply what God has left untold. They would explain the fitness and pro- priety of things. A mathematician may summon his scholars round his chair, and from self-evident principles deduce and demonstrate his conclusions : he has axioms; but concerning evil we have none. A Christian may say on this subject, as Sir Christopher Wren did concerning the roof of King's College Chapel— " Show me how to fix S3 RF.MAI-NS OF MR. CF.C1L. the first stone, and I will finish the building." — "Explain the origin of evil, and I will explain ev- ery other difficulty respecting evil." We ore placed in a disposition and constitution of things, under a r'lghteous Governor. If we will not rest satisfied with this, something is wrong in our state of mind. It is ii solid satisfaction to every man who has been seduced into foolish inquiries that it is utterly im- possible to advance one inch by them. He must come back to rest in God's appointment ; he must come back to sit patiently, meekly, and with docil- ity, at the feet of a teacher. Dctif.s are ours: events are God's. This re- moves an infinite burden from the shoulders of a miserable, tempted, dying creature. On this con- sideration only, can lie securely lay down his head and close his eyes. The Christian often thinks, and schemes, and talks, like a practical Atheist. His eye is so con- versant with second causes, that the great Mover is little regarded. And yet those sentiments and that conduct of others, by which his af- fairs are influenced, are not formed by rhanceand at random. They are attracted tow ard the system of his affairs, or repelled from them, by the highest power. We talk of attraction in the universe; but there is no such thing, as we are accustomed to con- sider it The natural and moral worlds are held together in their respective operations, by an in- cessant administration. It is the mighty grasp of a controlling hand, which keeps every thing in its station. Were this control suspended, there is nothing adequate to the preservation of harmony and affection between my mind and that of my dearest friend, for a single hour. Lord Chesterfield tells bis son, that when he REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 83 entered into the world and heard the conjectures and notions about public affairs, he was surprised at their folly ; because he was in the secret, and knew what was passing in the cabinet. We negotiate. We make treaties. We make war. We cry for peace. We have public hopes anil fears. Wedistrust one minister, and we repose on another. We recal one general or admiral, because he has lost the national confidence, and we send out another with a full tide of hopes and expecta- tions. We find something in men and measures, as the sufficient cause of all sufferings or anticipa- tions. — But a religious man enters the cabinet. He sees, in all public fears and difficulties, the pres- sure of God's hand. So long as this pressure con- tinues, he knows that we may move heaven and earth in vain: every thing is bound up in icy fetters. But, when God removes his hand, the waters flow, measures avail, and hopes are accom- plished. We are too apt to forget our actual dependence on providence, for the circumstances of every in- stant. The most trivial events may determine our state in the world. Turning up one street instead qf another, may bring us into company with a per- son whom we should not otherwise have met ; and this may lead to a train of other events, which may determine the happiness or misery of our lives. Light may break in upon a man after he has taken a particular step ; but he will not condemn himself for the step taken in a less degree of light : he may hereafter see still better than he now does, and have reason to alter his opinion again. It is enough to satisfy us of our duty, if we are con- scious that at the time we take a step, we have an 84 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. adequate motive. If we are conscious of a wrong motive, or of a rash proceeding, for such steps we must expect to suffer. Trouble or difficulty befalling us after any par- ticular step, is not, of itself, an argument that the step was wrong. A storm overtook the disciples in the ship; but this was no proof that they had done wrong to go on board. Esau met Jacob, and occasioned him great fear and anxiety, when he left Laban ; but this did not prove him to have done wrong in the step which he had taken. Dif- ficulties are no ground of presumption against us, when we did not run into them in following our own will : yet the Israelites were with difficulty convinced that they were in the path of duty, when they found themselves shut in by the Red Sea- Christians, and especially ministers, must expect troubles: it is in this way that God leads them : he conducts them "per ardua ad astra." They would be in imminent danger if the multitude at all times cried Hosanna ! We must remember that we are short-sighted creatures. We are like an unskilful chess-player, who takes the next piece, while a skilful one looks further. He, who sets the end from the beginning, will often appoint us a most inexplicable way to walk in. Joseph was put into the pit and the dun- geon : but this was the way which led to the throne. We often want to know too much and too soon. We want the light of to-morrow, but it will not come till to-morrow. And then a slight turn, per- haps, will throw such light on our path, that we shall be astonished we saw not our way before. " I can wait," says Lavater. This is a high attain- ment. We must labor, therefore, to he quiet in that path, from which we cannot recede without danger and evil. REMAINS Or MB. CECIL. 85 There is not a nobler sight in the world, than an aged and experienced Christian, who, having been sifted in the sieve of temptation, stands forth as a confirmer of the assaulted — testifying, from his own trials, the reality of religion ; and meeting, by his warnings and directions and consolations, the cases of all who may be tempted to doubt it. The Christian expects his reward, not as due to merit ; but as connected, in a constitution of grace, with tho?e acts which grace enables him to per- form. The pilgrim, who has been led to the gate of heaven, will not knock there as worthy of being admitted ; but the gate shall open to him, because he is brought thither. He, who sows, even tvith tears, the precious seed of faith, hope and \ove, shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him ; because it is in the very nature of that seed, to yield, under the kindly influence secured to it, a joyful hai vest. ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. On a Minister's qualifying himself for his office. When a young minister sets our, he should sit down and ask himself now he may best qual- ify himself for his office. How does a physician qualify himself! It is not enough that he offers to feel the pulse. He must read, and inquire, and observe, and make experi- ments, and correct himself again and again. He must lay in a stock of medical knowledge before he begins to feel the pulse. 86 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. The minister is a jihysician of a far higher order. He has a vast field before him. He has to study an infinite variety of constitutions. He is to furnish himself with the knowledge of the whole system of remedies. He is to be a man of skill and expe- dient. If one thing fail, he must know how to apply another. Many intricate and perplexed cases will come before him: it will be disgraceful to him not to be prepared for such. His patients will put many questions to him: it will be dis- graceful to him not to be prepared to answer them. He is a merchant embarking in extensive concerns. A litile ready money in the pocket will not answer the demands that will be made upon him. Some of us seem to think it will. But they are grossly deceived. There must be a well furnished account at the banker's. But it is not all gold that glitters. A young minister must learn to separate and select his materials. A man who talks to himself will find out what suits the heart of man: some things respond : they ring again. Nothing of this nature is lost on mankind: it is worth its weight in gold, for the service of a minister. He must remark, too, what it is that puzzles and distracts the mind : all this is to be avoided : it may wear the garb of deep research, and great acumen, and extensive learning; but it is nothing to the mass of mankind. One of the most important considerations in making a sermon, is to disembarrass it as much as possible. The sermons of the last century were like their large, unwieldy chairs. Men have now a far more true idea of a chair. They consider it as a piece of furniture to sit upon, and they cut away from it every thing that embarrasses and encumbers it. It requires as much reflection and wisdom to know what is not to be put into a ser- mon, as what is. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. S7 A young minister should likewise look round him, that he may see what has succeeded and what has not. Truth is to be his companion, but lie is to clothe her so as to gain her access. Truth must never how to fashion or prejudice ; but her garb may be varied. No man was ever eminently successful in his ministry, who did not make Truth his friend. Such a man might not see her, indeed, in all her beauty and proportions; but, certainly, he saw and loved her. A young minis- ter should remember that she does not wear the dress of a party. Wherever she is, she is one and the same, however variously men may array her. He, who is ignorant of her prominent and distin- guishing features, is like a musician who plays half score: it grates on every well-formed ear; as fatal error finds no corresponding vibration in the renewed heart. Truth forms an immediate acquaintance with such a heart, by a certain fit- ness and suitableness to its state and feelings. She is something different from the picture which n Churchman draws of her. A Dissenter misses her perfect figure. A Frenchman distorts her features in one wav : and an Englishman in another. Every one makes his own cast and color too essential to her. Knowledge, then, and truth, are to he the con- stant aim of a young minister. But where shall he find them? Let him learn from a fool, if a fool can teach him any thing. Let him be every- where, and always a learner. He should imitate Gainsborough. Gainsborough transfused nature into his landscapes, beyond almost any of his con- temporaries: because Gainsborough was every- where the painter. Every remarkable feature or position of a tree — every fine stroke of nature — was copied into his pocket-book on the spot; and, in his next picture, appeared with a life and vivac- 88 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. ity and nature, which no strength of memory or imagination could have supplied. There is a certain wise way, too, in which he should accustom himself to look down on the pur- suits of all other men. No man of eminence in his profession is destitute of such a partial feel- ing for his profession; though his judgment may remonstrate with him thereon, as an unfounded partiality. The minister, however, is required so to view all other pursuits. He alone is the man whose aim is eternity. He alone is the man, whose office and profession, in all their parts, are raised into dignity and importance, by their direct reference to eternity. For eternity he schemes, and plans, and labors. He should become a philosopher also. He should make experiments on himself and others, in order to find out what will produce effect. He is a fisherman; and the fisherman must fit himself to his employment. If some fish will bite only by day, he must fish by day : if others will bite only by moon-light, he must fish for them by moon- light. He has an engine to work, and it must be his most assiduous endeavor to work his engine to the full extent of its powers: and, to find out its powers, is the first step toward success and effect. Many men play admirably on the organ, if you would allow to them that there is no difference between an organ and a harpsichord, but they have utterly mistaken its powers. Combination is the unrivalled excellence of the organ ; and there- fore he only can display its powers, who studies the chords and stops in all their infinite variety of resolution and composition, rather than the rapid motion of his fingers only. But all the minister's efforts will be vanity, or worse than vanity, if he have not unction. Unc- tion must come down from heaven, and spread a savor and relish and feeling over his ministry. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 89 And, among all the other means of qualifying himself for his office, the Bihle must hold the first place, and the last also must be given to the word of God and prayer. On the Assistance which a Minister has reason to expect in the Discharge of his Public Duty. Me* have carried their views on this subject to extremes. Enthusiasts have said that learning, and that studying and writing sermons, have in- jured the church. The accurate men have said, "Go and hear one of these enthusiasts hold forth !" But both classes may be rendered useful. Let each correct its evils, yet do its work in its own way. Some men set up exorbitant notions about ac- curacy. But exquisite accuracy is totally lost on mankind. The greater part of those who hear, cannot be brought to see the points of the accurate man. The Scriptures are not written in this man- ner. I should advise a young minister to break through all such cobwebs, as these unphilosophi- cal men would spin round him. An humble and modest man is silenced, if he sees one of these critics before him. He should say, "I am God's servant. To my own master I stand or fall. I will labor according to the utmost ability which God giveth, and leave all consequences to him." We are especially taught in the New Testa- ment, to glorify the Spirit of God; and, in his gracious operations in our ministry, we are nearer the apostolic times than we often think ourselves. But this assistance is to be expected by us, as la- borers in the vineyard ; not as rhapsodists. Idle men may be pointed out, who have abused the 90 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. doctrine of divine assistance; but what has not been abused ? We must expect a special blessing to accompany the truth : not to supersede labor, but to rest on and accompany labor. A minister is to be in season, and out of season ; and, therefore, every where a minister. He will not employ himself in writing secular histories: he will nut busy himself in prosecuting mathe- matical inquiries. He will labor directly in his high calling: and indirectly, in avast variety of ways, as he may be enabled: and God may bless that word in private, which may have been long heard in public in vain. A minister should satisfy himself in saying, "It matters not what men think of my talents. Am I doing what I can?" — for there is great encourage- ment in that commendation of our Lord's, She hath done what she could. It would betray a wrong state of mind to say, " If I had discharged my duty in such and such a way, I should have succeeded." This is a carnal spirit. If God bless the simple manner in which \ou spoke, that will do good; if not, no manner of speaking could have done it. There is such a thing in the religious world as a cold, carnal wisdom ; every thing must be nicely weighed in the scales: every thing must be ex- actly measured by the rule. I question if this is not worse, in its consequences, than the enthu- siasm which it opposes. Both are evil anil to be shunned. But I scarcely ever knew a preacher or writer of this class who did much good. We are to go forth, expecting the excellency of Gorf's power to accompany us, since we are but earthen vessels: and if. in the apostolic days, dili- gence was necessary, how much more requisite is it now ! But, to the exercise of this diligence, a suffi- ciency in all things is promised. What does a REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 91 minister require ? In all these respects the promise is applicable to him. He needs, for instance, courage and patience: he may, therefore, expect that the Holy Spirit will enable him for the exer- cise of these graces. A minister may expect more superintendence, more elevation, than a hearer. It can scarcely be questioned that he ought to pray for this ; if so, he has a ground in Scripture thus to pray. I have been cured of expecting the Holy Spirit's influence without due preparation on our part, by observing how men preach who take up that error. I have heard such men talk nonsense by the hour. We must combine Luther with St. Paul — "Bene orasse est bene stvdvisse," must be united with St. Paul's Meditate upon these things : give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. One errs who says, " I will preach a reputable ser- mon :" and another errs who says, " 1 will leave all to the assistance of the Holy Spirit," while he has neglected a ddigent preparation. On Preaching Christ. We. preach Christ crucified— I Cor. i. 23. Christ is God's great ordinance. Nothing ever has been done, or will be done to purpose, but so far as he is held forth with simplicity. All the lines must centre in him. I feel this in my own experience, and therefore I govern my minis- try by it: but then this is to be done according to the an ogy of faith — not ignorantly, absurdly, and falsely. 1 doubt not, indeed, but that excess on this side is less pernicious than excess on the other; because God will bless his own especial 92 REMAINS OP MR. CECIL. ordinance, though partially understood and par- tially exhibited. There are many weighty reasons for render- ing Christ prominent in our ministry : — 1. Christ cheers the prospect. Every thing con- nected with him has light and gladness thrown round it. I look out of my window : — the scene is scowling — dark — frigid — forbidding: I shudder — my heart is chilled. But ht the sun break forth from the cloud — I can feel — I can act — I can spring. 2. God descending and dwelling with man, is a truth so infinitely grand, that it mvst absorb all other. "You are his attendants ! Well! but the king ! There he is ! — the kino !" 3. Out of Christ God is not intelligible, much less amiable. Such men as Clarke and Abernethy talk sublime nonsense. A sick woman said to me — 'Sir! I have no notion of God. I can form no notion of him. You talk to me ahout him, but I cannot get a single idea that seems to contain any thing' — ' But you know how to conceive of Jesus Christ as a man ! God comes down to you in him, full of kindness and condescension.' — 'Ah! Sir, that gives me something to lay hold on. There I can rest. I understand God in his Son.' But if God is not intelligible out of Christ, much less is he amiable, though 1 ought to feel him so. He is an object of horror and aversion to me, corrupted as I am ! I fear — I tremble — I resist— I hate — 1 rebel. 4. A preacher may pursue his topic, without being led by it to Christ. A man who is accus- tomed to investigate topics is in danger. He takes up his topic and pursues it. He takes up another and pursues it. At length Jesus Christ be- comes his topic, and then he pursues that. If he cannot so feel and think as to bend all subjects REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 93 naturally and gracefully to Christ, he must seek his remedy in selecting such as are more evan- gelical. 5. God puts peculiar honor on the preaching of Christ crucified. A philosopher may philosophize his hearers, hut the preaching of Christ must con- vert them. John the Baptist will make his hear- ers tremble; but, if the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he, let him exhibit that pe- culiar feature of his superiority — Jesus Christ. Men may preach Christ ignorantly— blunderingly — absurdly : yet God will give it efficacy, be- cause he is determined to magnify bis own ordinance. G. God seems, in the doctrine of the cross, to design the destruction of man's pride. Even the murderer and the adulterer sometimes become subjects of the grace of the Gospel, because the murderer and adulterer are more easily convinced and humbled : but the man of virtue is seldom reached, because the man of virtue disdains to descend. Remember me, saved a dying malefac- tor! — God, I thank Thee, condemned a proud Pharisee ! Every minister should therefore inquire, "What IS FOR ME THE WISEST WAY OF PREACHING CHRIST to men?" Some seem to think that in the choice of a wise way, there lurks always a trimming dis- position. There are men, doubtless, who will sacrifice to self, even Christ Jtsus the Lord: but they, of all men, are farthest from the thing. There is a secret in doing it, which none but an honest man can discover. The knave is not half wise enough. We are not to judge one another in these things. Sufficient it is to us, to know what we have to do. There are different ways of doing the same thing, 94 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. and that with success and acceptance. We see this in the apostles themselves. They not only preached Christ in different ways; but, what is more, they could not do this like one another. They declare this fact themselves ; and acknowl- edge t tie grace of (iod in their respective gifts. Our beloved brother Paul writes, says St. Peter, ac- cording to the wisdom given unto him. But there are Peters, in our days, who would say — " Paul is too learned. Away with these things, which are hard to be understood. He should he more simple. I dislike all this reasoning." And there are Pauls, who would say, "Peter is rash and unguarded. He should put a curb on his impetuosity." And there are Johns, who would say, "They should both discharge their office in my solt and winning manner. No good will come of this fire and noise." Nothing of this sort ! Each hath his proper gift of God; one after this manner, and another after that: and each seems only desirous to occupy faithfully till his Master come, leaving his biethren to stand or fall to their oivn Master. Too much dependance is often placed on a system of rational co.ntriva.ncr. An ingenious man thinks he can so manage to preach Christ, that his hearers will say — "Here is nothing of methodism ! This lias nothing to do with that sys- tem !" I will venture to say, if this is the senti- ment communicated by his ministry, that he has not delivered his message. The people do not know what he means, or he has kept back part of God's truth. He has fallen on a carnal con- trivance, to avoid a cross, anil he does no good to souls. The whole message must be delivered ; and it is better it should be delivered even coarsely, than not at all. We may lay it down as a prin- ciple — That if the Gospel be a m f.dici.ne, and a specific too — as it is — it must be got down such REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 05 as it is. Any attempt to sophisticate and adul- terate will deprive it of its efficacy: and will often recoil on the man who makes the attempt, to his shame and confusion. The Jesuits tried to render Christianity palatable to the Chinese by adulter- ating it ; hut the Jesuits were driven with abhor- rence from the empire. If we have to deal with men of learning, let us shew learning so far as to demonstrate that it bears its testimony to the truth. But accommoda- tion in manner must often spring from humility. We must condescend to the capacity of men, and make the truth intelligible to them. If this be our manner of preaching Christ, we must make up our minds not to regard the little caviller who will judge us by the standard of his favorite author or preacher. We must be cau- tious, too, since men of God have been and ever will be the butt and scorn of the world, of think- ing that we can escape its snares and its censures. It is a foolish project — To avoid giving offence ; but it is our duty to avoid giving unnecessary offence. It is necessary offence, if is given by the truth ; but it is unnecessary, if our own spirit oc- casion it. I have often thought that St. Paid was raised up peculiarly to be an example to others, in labor- ing to discover the wisest way of exhibiting the Gospel ; not only that he was to be a great pat- tern in other points, but designedly raised up for this very thing. How does lie labor to make the truth reasonably plain ! How does he strain every nerve and ransack every corner of the heart, to make it reasonably palatable! We need not be instructed in his particular meaning when he says, I became all things to all men, if by any means I might save some. His history is a com- ment on the declaration. 96 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is a wonderful mystery. Some men think they preach Christ gloriously because they name him every two minutes in their sermons. But that is not preach- ing Christ. To understand, and enter into, and open his various offices and characters — the glo- ries of his person and work — his relation to us. and ours to him, and to God the Father and God the Spirit through him — this is the knowledge of Christ. The divines of the present day are stunted dwarfs in this knowledge, compared with the great men of the last ago. To know Jesus Christ for ourselves, is to make him a consolation, — de- light, — strength, — righteousness, — compan- ion, — and end. This is the aspect in which religion should be presented to mankind : it is suited, above all other, to produce effect; and effect is our object. We must lake human nature as we find human nature. We must take human nature in great cities, as we find human nature in great cities. We may say — -'this or that is the aspect which ought to have most effect: we must illuminate the mind : we must enlist the reason : we must attack the conscience." We may do all this, and yet our comparative want of success in begetting and educating the sons of glory, may demonstrate to us that there is some more effective way; and that sound sense and philosophy call on us to adopt that way, because it is the most effective. Our system of preaching must meet mankind : they must find it possible to live in the bustle of the world, and yet serve God : after being worried and harassed with its concerns, let them hear cheering truths concerning Christ's love and care and pity, which will operate like an enchantment in dispelling the cares of life, and calming the anxious perturbations of conscience. Bring for- REMAINS Or MR. CECIL- 97 ward privileges and enforce duties, in their proper places and proportions. Let there be no extremes: yet I am arrived at this conviction :— Men, who lean toward the ex- treme of evangelical privileges in their ministry, do much more to the conversion of their hearers; than they do, who lean toward the extreme of requirement. And my own experience con- firms my observation. I feel myself repelled, if any thing chills, loads, or urges me. This is my nature, and I see it to be very much the nature of other men. But, let me hear, Son of man, thou hast played the harlot with many lovers ; yet return again to me, saith the Lord — 1 am melted and subdued. On a Minister's Familiar Intercourse with his Hearers. What passes, on these occasions, too often savors of this world. We become one among our hearers. Tliey come to church on Sunday ; and we preach : the week comes round again and its non- sense with it. Now if a minister were what he should be, the people would feel it. They would not attempt to introduce this silly, di- urnal chat! When we countenance this, it looks as though, "On the Sunday 1 am ready to do Mr business; and, in the week, you may do ronas." This lowers the tone of what I say on the Sab- bath. It forms a sad comment on my preaching. I have traced, I think, some of the evil that lies at the root of this. We are more concerned to be thought gentlemen, than to be felt as ministers. Now being desirous to be thought a man who has kept good company, strikes at the root of thtt rough work — the bringing of God into his own OS REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. ■world. It is hnrd and rough work to bring God into his own world. To talk of a Creator, and Preserver, and Redeemer, is an outrage on the feelings of most companies. There is important truth in what Mr. Wesley said to his preachers, when rightly understood, however it may have been ridiculed: — "You have mo more to do with being gentlemen, than dancing piasters." The character of a minister is far be- yond that of a mere gentleman. It takes a higher walk. He will, indeed, study to be a real gentle- man : he will be the farthest possible from a rude man : he will not disdain to learn nor to practise the decencies of society : but he will sustain a still higher character. It is a snare to a minister when in company, to be drawn out to converse largely on the state of the funds, and on the news of the day. lie should know the world, and what is doing in the world, and should give things of this nature their due place and proportion ; but if he can be drawn out to give twenty opinions on this or that subject of politics or literature, he is lowered in his tone. A man of sense feels something violent in the tran- sition from such conversation to the Bible and to prayer. Dinner visits can seldom be rendered really profitable to the mind. The company are bo much occupied, that little good is to be done. A minister should shew his sense of the value of time: it is a snd thing when those around him begin to yawn. He must be a man of business. It is not sufficiently considered how great the sin of idleness is. We talk in the pulpit of the value of time, but we act too little on what we say. Let a minister who declines associating much with his hearers, satisfy himself that he has a good reason for doing so. If reproached for not REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 99 visiting them so much as they wish, let him hav« a just reason to assign. A man who is at work for his family, may have as much love for them an the wife, though she is always with them. I fell into a mistake, when a young man, in thinking that 1 could talk with men of the world on their own ground, and could thus win them over to mine. I was fond of painting, and so talked with them on that subject. This pleased them : but I did not consider that 1 gave a conse- quence to their pursuits which does not belong to them ; whereas I ought to have endeavored to raise them above these, that they might engage in higher. I did not see this at the time : but I now see it to have been a great error. A wealthy man builds a fine house, and opens to himself fine pros- pects : he wants you to see them, for he is sick of them himself. They thus draw you into their schemes. A man has got ten thousand pounds : you congratulate him on it, and that without any intimation of his danger or his responsibility. Now you may tell him in the pulpit that riches are nothing worth; but you will tell him this in vain, while you tell him out of it that they are. Lord Chesterfield says, a man's character is de- graded when he is to be had. A minister ought never to be had. On a Minister's encouraging Animadversion an himse\f. It is a serious inquiry for a minister, how far HE SHOULD ENCOURAGE ANIMADVERSION ON HIM- SELF in his hearers. He will encounter many ignorant and many censorious remarks, but he may gain much on the whole. He should lay down to himself a few princi- ples. 100 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. It is better that a minister smart than mistake. It is better that a traveller meet a surly, impertinent fellow to direct him his way, than lose his way. A minister is so important in his office, that, what- ever others think of it, lie should regard this and this only as the transaction for eternity. But a man may be laboring in the fire : he may be turning the world upside down, ar.d yet be wrong. You say he must read his Bible. True! but he must use all means. He must build his useful- ness on this principle — if by ant means. If the wheel hitches, let him, by ant means, discover where it hitches. This principle is to he worked continually in his mind. He must labor to keep it up to a fine, keen edge. Let him never believe that his view of himself is sufficient. A merchant sailing in quest of gain, is so intent on his object, that he will take a hint from any man. If we had all the meaning to which we pretend in our pur- suits, we should feel and act like him. A minister must lay it down also as a principle, that he will never sxijficiently understand his own pride and self-love ; and that confidtnee in his own sense, which cleaves closely to every man. He must consider this as the general malady. Alan is blind and obstinate — poor and proud. This silly crea- ture through ignorance of this principle, will not only not hear a vulgar hearer, who animadverts on him; but he will scarcely listen to a superior man among his hearers. He attends to such a one, be- cause it would he indecent not to attend. But he finds some excuse for himself in his own bosom. He reverences what is said very little, if at ail. He strokes and flatters himself, and makes up the af- fair very well in his own miud. A minister should consider how much mere easily a weak man can read a wise man, than a wise man can read himself : and that for this reason — no man REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 101 can see and hear himself. He is too much formed in his own habits — his family notions — his closet notions — to detect himself. He, who stands by and sees a game played, has vast advantages over the players. Besides, preachers err systematically — learnedly — scientifically. The simple hearer has an appeal to nature in his heart. He can often feel that his minister is wrong, when he is not able to set him right. Dr. Manton, no doubt, thought he had preached well, and as became him, before the Lord Mayor; but he felt himself reproved and instructed, when a poor man pulled him by the sleeve, and told him he had understood noth- ing of his sermon : there was an appeal in this poor man's breast to nature: nature could not make any thing of the Doctor's learning. When Apelles took his stand behind his picture, he was a wise man : and he was a wise man too, when he alter- ed the shoe on the hint of the cobhler : the cobbler in his place, was to be heard. A minister should consider, too, that few will venture to speak to a public man. It is a rare thing to hear a man say — "Upon my word that thing, or your general manner, is defective or improper." If a w\>e man says this, he shows a regard, which the united stock ot five hundred flatters will not equal. I would set down half the blunders of min- isters to their not listening to animadversion. I have heard it said — for the men, who would ani- madvert on us, talk among themselves, if we refuse to let them talk to us I have heard it said, " Why don't you talk to him ?" — " Why don't you talk to him! because he will not hear!" Let him consider, moreover, that this aversion from reproof is not wise. This is a symptom of the disease. Why should he want this hushing up of the disorder? This is a mark of a little mind. A great man can aflbrd to lose : a little insignificant fellow is afraid of being snufied out. 102 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. A minister mistakes who should refuse to read any anonymous letters. He may, perhaps, see nothing in them the first time; but, let him read them again and again. The writer raises his su- perstructure, probably, on a slight basis; yet there is generally some sort of occasion. If he points out but a small error, yet that is worth detecting. In the present habits of men, it is so difficult to get them to tell the naked truth, that a minister should show a disposition to be corrected : he should show himself to be sensible of the want of it. He is not to encourage idle people: that could be productive of no possible good. These are some of the reasons for a minister's encouragement in a judicious manner, of animad- version on himself in his hecrers. Sometimes, however, a man will come who ap- pears to be an impertinent man, independently of what he has to remark — a man who has evidently disposed to be troublesome. Such a man came to me, with — "Sir, you said such a thing that seemed to lean to the doctrine of universal redemption. Pray, Sir, may I speak a little with you on that subject?" The manner of the man at once marked his character. He seemed to bring with him this kind of sentiment — " I'll go and set that man right. I'll call that man to account." It was a sort of democratic insolence of mind. Instead of answer- ing him as he expected, I treated him as a child. I turned it into an occasion of preaching a sermon to him : — " Sir, do you corne to instruct me, or to be instructed ? Before we enter on a question which has exercised the greatest men, we want a preparedness of mind: we want a deep humili- ty — a teachableness — a spirit of dependence — of which you seem to me to have but little." On the other hand, a man may come, quite as ignorant as the other, yet a simple character. I REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 103 have distressed him. Though he cannot, perhaps lie made to understand what he inquires about — yet a minister should say to himself, "'Have I puz- zled him ? He is wounded, and he comes for help." A minister should remember that he is not al- ways to act and speak authoritatively. He sits on tiis friend's chair, and his friend says his things to hiui with frankness. They may want perhaps a little decorum ; hut he should receive them in the most friendly and good humoured way in the world. A thing strikes this man and that man : he may depend on it, that it has some foundation. But there are persons, whom a minister should more than encourage to animadvert on him. He should employ them. He should explain himself to them. He does not merely want an account of his sermon, hut he employs them on business. To such sensible persons, he will say — "What serious judgment do you lorm of my preaching? Do tell me what sort of a man 1 am." A minister has to treat with another sort of hearers — uncandid men, and yet men of capacity: a sort of men, who are not now pleased, and then displeased. They spy a blot every where. He is likely to make a mistake with regard to such men : — " What signifies the opinion of that man ? That man can never be pleased." True ! that man cannot be pleased ; hut it does not follow that he tells you no truth. In treating with such a man he should say — His edge may be too keen for candor and sound judgment; yet if it lays open to me what I could not otherwise see, let me improve by its keenness. What hurt can he do to me? He may damp or irritate others, by talking thus to them; but let me learn what is to be learnt from him." Such a man lifts a minister from his standing, where he settles down too easily and firmly. If 1 know u man to be of this class, I will 104 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. distinguish: "This is the man: but that is my- self !" If I would write a book to stand the fire, Jet rne find out the severest censor. My friend is but hall the man : there is a consentaneousuess of sentiment between us: we have fallen in together, till we scarcely know how to differ from each other. Let the man come who says — •' Here I can discover you to yourself; and there !" The best hints are obtained from snarling people. Medicaments make the patient smart, but they heal. Yet a minister must not take this in the gross. He is not to invite rude men round his door. If he suffer his hearers to treat him irreverently, if he allow them to dispute with him on every occa- sion, he will bring ruin on the Church. The priest's lips must keep knowledge. If a parent allow his children to question every thing, so that nothing is to be settled without a hundred proofs, they will soon despise their teacher, for they will think themselves able to teach liim. The minister must have decided superiority and authority, or he will want one of the principal qualities of his ministry. This is not inconsistent with receiving hints. He may mistake in some things: but he should mark the complexion of his congregation in deciding how far they are to be heard on his mistakes. If the people are heady, forward, con- fident in their own sense, they are never to be encouraged. They are gone too far. On the Limits ivhich a Minister should put to the indulgence of his curiosity with regard to Pub- lic Exhibitions. An extreme is to be avoided. Some persons would condemn even rational curiosity. But Me works of the Lord are great : sovght out of all REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 105 them that have pleasure therein. I would not ob- ject, therefore, to visit the museum ; or to go to see the rare natural productions often exhibited. I would enlarge, too, my views of man and the world by frequenting the panoramas of cities. And though I would not run after every sight, yet I wotdd use my liberty in selecting. But some are in ati opposite extreme. They are found every- where. Hut be, who sustains a character of a scribe of the kingdom of heaven, ought not to be found every where. The man, who is seeking a heavenly country, will show the spirit of one whose conversation is there. There is something in religion, when rightly ap- prehended, that is masculine and grand. It re- moves those little desires, which are "the constant hectic of a fool." Every thing of the drama, and whatever is so distinctly the course of this world, must be shunned. If a minister take one step into the world, bis bearers will take two. Much maybe learnt from the sentiments of men of the world. If a man of this character who heard me preach, should meet me where be would say, "Why, I did not expect to see you here!" — then he ought not have seen me there. There must be measure and proportion in our at- tention to arts and sciences. These were the very idols of the heathen world : and what are they, who now follow them with an idolatrous eager- ness, but like children, who are charmed with the sparkling of a rocket, and yet see nothing in the sun ? Yet I would not indulge a cynical temper. If I go through a gentleman's gallery of pictures, I would say, "This is an admirable Claude!" but I would take occasion to drop a hint of something 106 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. higher and better, and to make it felt that I fell in with these things rather incidental); than purpose- ly. But all this must be done with tenderness and humility : "I tread on the pride of Plato," said Diogenes, as he walked over Plato's carpet : Yes — and with more pride," said Plato. "They pass best over the world," said queen Elizabeth, " who trip over it quickly: for it is but a bog. If we stop, we sink." I would not make it my criterion — "Christ would not come hither!" / must take a lower standard in these things. / am a poor creature, and must be contented to learn in many places and by many scenes, which Christ need not to have frequented. On the mer.ns of promoting a Spirit of Devotion in Congregations. Let us ask, " What is man ?" He is a creature of feeling, as well as of intellect. We must inter- est him as we can. It is unphilqsophical to depend on the mere statement of truth. No doubt there is a contrary error: for what is the cnrl of exciting attention, if there is nothing deserving attention ? It is of the first importance to put meaning into every part of the service. In either extreme, of appealing to the understanding or the feelings, there may be no meaning: in a dull and lifeless preacher, there is no meaning; and in one of a contrary character there may be nothing worthy of the name. There is, besides, too little attention, in many churches, to man as man. I would consult his convenience in all lawful points. If he could sit easier on cushions, he should have cushions. I would not tell him to be warm in God's service, REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 107 while I leave him to shiver with cold. No doors should creak : no windows should rattle. Music has an important effect on devotion. Wherever fantastical music enters, it betrays a cor- rupt principle. A congregation cannot enter into it ; or if it does, it cannot be a Christian congrega- tion. Wherever there is an attempt to set off the music in the service, and the attempt is apparent, it is the first step toward carnality. Though there is too little life in the style of music adopted among the Moravians, yet the simplicity of Christianity pervades their devotion. Order is important. Some persons by coming in when they please, propagate a loose habit of mind. For man is a sympathetic creature; and what he sees others neglect, he is in danger of growing negligent in himself. If the reader goes through the service as though the great business for which they are assembled is not yet begun, the people will soon feel thus themselves. The minister should take occasion frequently to impress on the people the importance of the work in which they are engaged. It is not enough to take it for granted that they feel this. We must take nothing for granted. Man needs to be remind- ed of every thing, for he soon forgets every thing. Monotony must be, above all things, avoided. The mind is vagrant: monotony cannot recal it. There may be continued vehemence, while the at- tention is not excited; it is disturbance and noise: there is nothing to lead the mind into a useful train of thought or feeling. There is an opposite error to vehemence. Men of sense and literature depress devotion by treating things abstracted ly. Simplicity, with good sense, is of unspeakable value. Religion must not be rendered abstract and curious. If a curious re- mark presents itself, reserve it for another place. The hearer gets away from the bustle and busi- 108 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. ness of the week: he comes trembling under his fears: he would mount upward in his spirit: but a curious etymological disquisition chills and re- pels him. In truth, we should he men of business in our congregations. We should endeavor both to ex- cite and instruct our hearers. We should render the service an interesting affair in ail its parts. We should rouse men : we should bind up the broken hearted : we should comfort the feeble minded : we should support theweak : we should become all things to all men, if by any means we may save some. On the Marriage of Christian Ministers. It seems to me, that many men do not give suf- ficient weight to our Lord's observations upon those uho made themselves eunitchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, nor to St. Paul's reasoning on the subject of marriage. I would only imply, that both our Lord and the apostle seem to establish it in a principle, that a single state when it can be chosen and is chosen for the sake of the gospel, is the su- perior state. This, I fear, is too much forgotten ; and those men, who might have received the saying, and have done more service to the church of God by receiving it, have given it little or no weight in their deliberations. And yet it ought to be considered, that the very character which would best fit men for living in a single state, would abstract them too much from the feelings and wants of their people. Iam fully sen- sible that I should have been hardened against the distresses of my hearers, if I had not been reduced from my natural stoicism by domestic sufferings. The cases, I allow, are extremely few, in which a man may do, on the whole, more service to the REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 109 church, by imitating St. Paul, than by marrying : yet there are such cases ; and it behooves every minister seriously to consider himself and his situ - ation, before he determines on marriage. He should not regard this state as indispensably ne- cessary to him, but should always remember, that, caeteris paribus, he, who remains single is most worthy of honour. But, when it is proper that a minister should marry, and he has determined to do it, how few select such women as suit their high and holy character! A minister is like a man who has under- taken to traverse the world. He has not only fair and pleasant ground to travel over, but he must encounter deserts and marshes and mountains. The traveller wants a firm and steady stay. His wife should be above all things, a woman of faith and prayer — a woman, too, of a sound mind and of a tender heart — and one who will account it her glory to lay herself out in co-operating with her husband by meeting his wants and soothing his cares. She should he his unfailing resource, so far as he ought to seek this in the creature. Bless- ed is she, who is thus qualified and thus lives! But after all, the married minister, if he would live devotedly, must move in a determined sphere. Whatever his wife may be, yet she is a woman — and if things are to go on well, they must have two separate worlds. There may, indeed, be cases, when a man with something of a soft and feminine cast about his mind, may be united to a woman of a mind so superior and cultivated, that he may choose to make it his plan that they shall move in the same world. In such rare cases it may be done with less inconvenience than in any other. But, even here, the highest end is sacrificed to feeling. Every man, whatever be his natuial dis- position, who would urge his powers to the highest no REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. end, must be a man of solitary studies. Some ux- orious men of considerable minds have moved so much in the women's world, that reflection, dis- quisition, and the energies of thought, have been ruined by the habit ot indulging the lighter, softer, and more playful qualities. Such a man is indeed the idol of the female world ; but he would rather deserve to be so, if he stood upon his own ground while he attempted to meet their wants, instead of descending to mingle among them. God has put a difference between the sexes, but education and manners have put a still greater. They are designed to move in separate spheres, but occasionally to unite together in order to soften and relieve each other. To attempt any subver- sion of God's design herein, is being wiser than He who make us ; and who has so established this affair that each sex has its separate and appropri- ate excellence — only to he attained by pursuing it in the order of nature. Thought is or ought to be the characterizing feature of the man, and feeling that of the woman. Every man and woman in the world has an ap- propriate mind ; and that in proportion to their strength of thought and feeling." Each has a way of their own — a habit— a system — a world — sepa- rated and solitary in which no person on earth can have communion with them. Job says of God. He knoweth the ivay that I take ; and, when the Chris- tian finds a want of competency in his bosom friend to understand and meet his way, he turns with an especial nearness and familiarity of confidence to God, who knoweth it in all its connexions and as- sociations, its peculiarities and its imperfections. I may be thought to speak harshly of the female character ; but whatever persuasion I have of its intended distinction from that of man, I esteem a woman, who aims only to be what God d signed REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. Ill lier to be, as honorable as any man on earth. She stands not in the same order of excellence, but she is equally honorable. But women have made themselves, and weak men have contributed to make them, what God never designed them to be. Let any thinking man survey the female character as it now stands— of- ten nervous, debilitated, and imaginative, and this super-induced chiefly by education and manners — and he will find it impossible that any great vigor of mind can be, preserved, or any high intellectual pursuits cultivated, so far as this character stands in his way. "Doing as others do," is the prevalent princi- ple of the present female character, to whatever absurd, preposterous, masculine, or even wicked lengths it may lead This is so far as it avails with man or woman, the ruin, death, and grave of all that is noble, and virtuous and praise-worthy. A studious man, whose time is chiefly spent at home, and especially a minister, ought not to have to meet the imaginary wants of his wife. The dis- orders of an imaginative mind are beyond calcula- tion. He is not worthy the name of a husband, who will not with delight nurse his wife, with all possible tenderness and love, through a real visita- tion, however long ; hut he is ruined, if he falls up- on a woman of a sickly fancy. It is scarcely to be calculated what an influence the spir.t of his wife will have on his own, and on all his ministerial af- fairs. If she conies not up to the full standard, she will so far impede him, derange him, unsanc- tify him. If there is such a thing as good in this world, it is in the ministerial office. The affairs of this employment are the greatest in the world. In prosecuting these with a right spirit, the minister keeps in motion a vast machine ; and, such are 112 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL- the incalculable consequences of his wife's char- acter to him, that, if she assist him not in urging forward the machine, she will hang as a dead weight upon its wheels. A woman may have a high taste : her natural temper may be peevish and fretful : she may have a delicate and fastidious mind : she may long for every thing she sees. It is not enough that she is, in reality, a pious woman. Her taste, her mind, her manners, must have a decorum and congruity to her husband's office and situation. She must bear to be crossed in her wishes for unsuitable ob- jects: he will say, with firmness, " This shall not be. It is not enough, that it would gratify you : it is wrong. It is not enough, (fiat it is not fla- grantly sinful: it is improper, unsuitable to our character and station.* It is not enough that money will buy it, and I have cot money : it would be a culpable use of our talent. It is not enough that your friend possesses such a thing: we stand and fall to our own Master." On Visiting Death-beds. I have found it, in many cases, a difficult tiling to deal with a Death-Bed. We are called in to death-beds of various kinds: — The true pilgrim sends for us to set before him the food on which he has fed throughout his journey. He has a keen appetite. He wants strength and vigor for the last effort ; and, then, all is forever well! He is gone home, and is at rest ! Another man sends for us because it is decent; or his friends importune him ; or his conscience is * Nec, tibi quid liceat, sed quid fecisae decebit, Occurrat. Claudian. J. P. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 113 alarmed : but he is ignorant of sin and of salvation : he is either indifferent about both, or he has made up his mind in his own way: he wants the minis- ter to confirm him in his own views, and smooth over the wound. I have seen such men mad with rage, while I have been beating down their refuges of lies, and setting forth to them God's refuge. There is a wise and holy medium to be observed in treating such cases; — "I am not come to daub you over with untempered mortar : I am not come to send you to the bar of God with a lie in your right-hand. But neither am I come to mortify you, to |)iit you to unnecessary pain, to imbitter you, or to exasperate you." There is a kindness, affection, tenderness, meekness, and patience, which a man's feelings and conscience will con- demn him while be opposes! I have found it a very effectual method to begin with myself: it awakens attention, conciliates the mind, and insin- uates conviction: "Whatever others think of themselves, I stand condemned before God : my heart is so desperately wicked, that, if God had not showed me in bis word a remedy in Jesus Christ, I should be in despair: I can only tell you what I am, and what 1 have found. If you believe yourselves to be what God has told me I am and all men are, then I can tell you where and how to find mercy and eternal life : if you will not believe that you are this sort of man, 1 have noth- ing to offer you. I know of nothing else for man beside that which God has showed me." My des- criptions of my own fallen nature have excited perfect astonishment: sometimes my patients have seemed scarcely able to credit me, but I have found that God has fastened, by this means, con- viction on the conscience. In some cases an in- direct method of addressing the conscience may .apparently be^ in truth, the most direct; but we 114 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. are to use this method wisely and sparingly. It seems to me to be one of the characteristics of the day, in the religious world, to err on this subject. We have found out a circoitocs way of exhibiting truth. The plain, direct, simple ex- hibition of it is often abandoned, even where no circumstances justify and require a more insinu- ating manner. There is dexterity indeed, and ad- dress in this; but too little of the simple decla- ration of the testimony of God, which St. Paul opposes to excellency of speech or of wisdom, and to enticing words of man's wisdom. We have done very little when we have merely persuaded meu to think as we do. But we have to deal with a worse death-bed character, than with the man who opposes the truth. Some men assent to every thing",' which we propose. They will even anticipate us. And yet we see that they mean nothing. I have often felt when with such persons : "1 would they could be brought to contradict and oppose! That would lead to discussion. God might, peradventure, clash the stony heart in pieces. But this heart is like water. The impression dies as fast as it is made." I have sought for such views as might rouse and stir up opposition. I have tried to irri- tate the torpid mind. But all in vain. 1 once visited a young clergyman of this character, who was seized with a dangerous illness at a coffee- house in town, whither some business had brought him : the first time I saw him, we conversed very closely together; and, in the prospect of death, he seemed solicitous to prepare for it. But I could make no sort of impression upon him : all I could possibly say met his entire approbation, though I saw his heart felt no interest in it. When 1 visited him a second time, the fear of death was gone : aud, with it, all solicitude about religion. He was REMAINS OF MR. CECIt. 115 still civil and grateful, but he tried to parry off the business on which he knew I came. " I will show you, Sir, some little things with which I have worn away the hours of my confinement and soli- tude'" He brought out a quantity of pretty and tasty drawings. I was at a loss how to express, with suitable force and delicacy, the high sense I felt of his indecorum and insipidity, and to leave a deep impression on his conscience — 1 rose, how- ever, instantly — said my lime was expired — wished him well, and withdrew. Sometimes we have a painful part to act with sincere men, who would have been carried too much into the world. I was railed in to visit such a man. " I find no comfort," he said. "God veils his face from me. Every thing round me is dark and uncertain. I did not dare to act the flatterer. I said — " Let us look faithfully into the state of things. I should have been surprised if you had not felt thus. I believe you to be sincere. Your state of feelings evinces your sincerity. Had 1 found you exidting in God, I should have con- cluded that you were either deceived or a de- ceiver: for, while God acts in his usual order, how could you expect to feel otherwise on the approach of death, than you do feel ? You have driven hard after the world. Your spirit has been absorbed in its cares. Your sentiment — your conversation have been in the spirit of the world. And have you any reason to expect the response of conscience, and the clear evidence which await the man who has walked and lived in the close friendship with God ! You know that what I say is true." His wife interrupted me, by assuring me that he had been an excellent man. "Silence!" said the dying penitent, " it is all true !" Soon after I came to St. John's I was called on to visit a dying lady, whom I saw many times 116 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. before her death. I found that she had taken God for her portion and rest. She approached him with the penitence of a sinner grateful for his provision of mercy in Christ. She told me she had found religion in her Common Prayer Book. She blessed God that she had "always been kept steady to her church ; and that she had never fol- lowed the people called Methodists, who were se- ducing so many on all sides." I thought it would be unadviseahle to attempt the removal of preju- dices, which, in her dying case, were harmless, and which would soon he removed by the light which would beam in on her glorified soul. We had more interesting subjects of conversation, from which this would have led us away. Some persons may tax her with a want of charily: but, alas ! 1 fear they are persons, who, knowing more than she did of the doctrines of the gospel, have so little of its divine charity in their hearts, that, as they cannot allow for her prejudices, neither would they have been the last to stigmatize her as a dead formalist and a phaiisee. God knoweth them that are his; and they are often seen by him, where we see them not. Were a benighted inhab- itant ofOtaheite to feel the wretchness of his pres- ent life, and lift up his soul to the God he wor- shipped as a Supreme Being for happiness, no doubt God would hear such a prayer. Miscellaneous Remarks on the Christian .Ministry. Every book really worth a minister's studying he ought, if possible, to have in his own library. I have used large libraries, but I soon left them. Time was frittered away: my mind was uncon- centrated. Besides, the habit which it begets of turning over a multitude of books is a pernicious REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 117 habit. And the usual contents of such libraries are injurious to a spiritual man, whose business it is to transact with men's minds. They have a dry, cold, deadening effect. It may suit dead men to walk among the dead ; but send not a living man to be chilled among the ruins of Tadmor in the wilderness! Christianity is so great and surprising in its nature, that, in preaching it to others, I have no encouragement but the belief of a continued divine operation. It is no difficult thing to change a man's opinions. It is no difficult thing to attach a man to my person and notions. It is no diffi- cult thing to convert a proud man to spiritual pride, or a passionate man to passionate zeal for some religious party. But, to bring a man to love God — to love the law of God, while it condemns him — to loath himself before God — to tread the earth under his feet — to hunger and thirst after God in Christ, and after the mind that was in Christ — with man this is impossible! But God has said it shall he done: and bills me go forth and preach, that by me as his instrument, lie may effect these great ends; and therefore 1 go. — Yet I am obliged continually to call my mind back to my principles. 1 feel angry, perhaps, with a man, because he will not let me convert him : in spite of all I can say, he will still love the world. St. Paul admonishes Timothy to endure hard- ness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It sometimes falls to the lot of a minister to endure the hard labor of a nurse, in a greater measure than that of a soldier. He has to encounter the difficulties of a peculiar situation : he is the parent of a family of children, of various tempers, manners, habits, and prejudices: if he does not continually mortify lis REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. himself, lie will bear hardly upon some of his chil- dren. — He has, however, to endure the hardness of calling his child, his friend, to an account; of being thought a severe, jealous, legal man. If a man will let matters take their chance, he may Jive smoothly and quietly enough ; but if he will stir among the servants, and sift things to the bot- tom, he must bear the consequences. He must account himself o Man of Strife. His language must be — "It is not enough that you feed me, or fill my pocket — there is something between me and thee." The most tender and delicate of his flock have their failings. His warmest and most zealous supporters break down some where. A sun-shiny day breeds most reptiles. It is not enough, therefore, that the sun shines out in his church. It is not enough that numbers shout applause. A minister may be placed in a discouraging situation. He may not suit the popular taste. He may not he able to fall into the fashionable style. He may not play icell on an instrument. Though an effective man, and a man of energy, he may be under a cloud. The door may be shut against him. Yet it is a dangerous thing for such a man to force open the door. He should rather say — "I have a lesson to learn here. If I teach the people nothing, perhaps they may teach me." The work of winter is to be done, as well as the work of summer. The hardness which I have to endure is this — Here are a number of families, which show me every kind of regard. But I see that they are not right. They somehow so combine the things which they hear, with the things which they do, that I am afraid they will at last lie down in sor- roio .' Here is my difficulty. I must meet them with gentleness; but I must detect and uncover REMAINS OF NR. CECIL. 119 the evil. I shall want real kindness and common honesty, if I do not. Ephraim hath grey hairs ; yet he icnoweth it not. Ephraim is a cake not turned. But, if I tell him these things, he and I shall he- come two persons. He must, however, he so touched in private ; for he will not be touched in the pulpit. He will say, I am not the man." A minister must keep under his body and bring it into subjection. A Newmarket groom will sweat himself thin, that he may befit for his office: Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown ; but toe, an incorruptible ! is come from college. He has a refined, accurate, sensible mind. Some of our friends wished to get him a station at Calcutta. They think him just adapted for that sphere. I differ widely in my view of the matter. A new man, with his college accuracy about him, is not the man for the dissipated and fashionable court at Calcutta. Such a congregation will bid nothing for his acuteness and reasoning. — lie, who is to talk to them with any effect, must have seen life and the world. He must be able to treat with them on their own ground. And he must be able to do it with the authority of a messenger from God, not with the arts and shifts of human elo- quence and reasonings. Dr. Patten said admira- bly well, in a sermon which I heard him preach at Oxford: "Beware how you suffer the infidel to draw you upon metaphysical ground. If he get you there, he will have something to say. The evidences and the declarations of God's word are the weapon with which he must be combatted, and before which he must fall." London is very peculiar as a ministerial walk. 120 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. Almost all a minister can do, is by the pulpit and the pen. His hearers are so occupied in the world, that if he visit them, every minute perhaps brings in some interruption. It is a serious question — Whether a minister ought to preach at all beyond his experience. — He is to stand forth as a witness — but a witness of what he knows, not of what he has been told. He must preach as he feels. If he fuels not as he might and ought, he must pray for such feelings : but, till he has them, ought he pretend to them.- Going faster than the experience led, has been the bane ol many. Men have preached in cer- tain terms and phrases according to the tone given by others, While the thing has never beer made out even to their conviction, much less in their experience. It is a most important point of duty, in a min- ister to redeem time. A young minister has sometimes called an old one out of his study, only to ask him how he did : there is a tone to be ob- served toward such an idler: an intimation may be given, which he will understand, "This is not the house!" In order to redeem lime, he must refuse to engage in secular affairs : .Vo man, that icarreth, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. He must watch, too, against a dozing away of time : the clock- weight goes down slowly, yet it draws all the works with it. Owen remarks that it is not sufficiently consid- ered how much a minister's personal religion is exposed to danger, from the very circumstance of religion being his profession and employment. He must go through the acts of religion : he must put on the appearances of religion : he must utter REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 121 the language r.nd display the feelings of religion. It requires double diligence and vigilance to main- tain, under such circumstances, the spirit of relig- ion. I have prayed : I have talked : I have preached: but now I should perish, after, all, if I did not feed on the bread which I have broken to others. A MINISTER mUSt CULTIVATE A TENDER SPIRIT. If he does this so as to carry a savor and unc- tion into his work, he will have far more weight than other men. This is the result of a devotional habit. To affect feeling is nauseous and soon de- tected ; but to feel, is the readiest way to the hearts of others. The leading defect in Christian ministers is want of a devotional habit. The church of Rome made much of this habit. The contests accompanying and following the Reformation, with something of an indiscriminate enmity against some of the good of that church as well as the evil, combined to repress this spirit in the Protes- tant writings; whereas the mind of Christ seems, in fact, to be the grand end of Christianity in its operation upon man. There is a manifest want of spiritual influence on the ministry of the present day. I feel it in my own case, and I see it in that of others. I am afraid that there is too much of a low, managing, contriving, maneuvering temper of mind among us. VVe are laying ourselves out, more than is expedient, to meet one man's taste, and another man's prejudices. The ministry is a grand and holy affair, and it should find in us a simple habit of spirit, and a holy but humble indifference to all consequences. 122 REMAINS Or MR. CECIL. A man of the world will bear to henr me read in the desk that awful passage: Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction ; and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life ; and few there be that find it. Nay, he will approve it: — " The minister is in the desk : he is reading the lesson of the day." But this very man — were I to go home with him, and tell him in his parlour that most of those whom he knows and loves are going on in that road to eternal des- truction — this very man would lira ml the senti- ment as harsh and uncharitable. Though uttered by Christ himself, it is a declaration as fanatical and uncandid, in the judgment of the world, as could be put together in language. Many hearers cannot enter into the reasons of the Cross. They adopt what 1 think is Butler's grand defect on this subject. He speaks of the Cross as an appointment of God, and therefore to be submitted to : but God has said much in bis word of the reasons of this appointment : that fie might be just, and the justifier of him that beliereth. Several things are required, to enable a min- ister to attain a proper variety in his manner. He must be in continual practice: if I were to preach but once a month, I should lose the ability of preaching. He must know that bis hearers are attached to him — that they will grant him indul- gences and liberties. He must, in some measure, feel himself above bis congregation. The presence of a certain brother chills me ; because I feel that I can talk on no one subject in the pulpit, with which he is not far better acquainted than I am. The first duty of a minister, is, To call on his REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 123 hearers to turn to the Lord. " We have much to speak to you upon. We have many duties to urge ou you. We have much instruction to give you — but all will he thrown away, till you have turned to the Lord." Let me illustrate this by a familiar comparison. You see your child sinking in the water: his education lies near your heart: you are anxious to train him up so, that he may oc- cupy well the post assigned to him in life. But, when you see him drowning, the first thoughts are — not how you may educate him, but how you may save him. Restore him to lifj, and then call that life into action. A disinterested regard to truth should be, what it very seldom is, the most striking char- acter in a Christian minister. His purpose should be to make proselytes to truth, and not to any thing which may he particular in his views of it. " Read my books," says one. — " No !" says another, "read mine." And thus religion is taken up by piece-meal ; and the mind is diverted from its true nature by false associations. If the teach- er whom this man has chosen for his oracle, dis- grace religion by irreligious conduct, he stumbles. He stumbles, because he has not been fixed upon the sole and immoveable basis of the religion of the Bible. The mind, well instructed in the Scrip- tures, can bear to see even its spiritual father make shipwreck of the faith and scandalize the gospel ; but will remain itself unmoved. The man is in possession of a treasure, which, if others are foolish enough to abandon, yet they cannot de- tract any thing from the value attached to it in his esteem. That a minister may learn how to magnify his office, let him study the character, the spirit, and 124 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. the history of St. Paul. His life and death were one magnifying of his office: mark bis object — to win souls ! — to execute the will of God ! As the man rises in his own esteem, his office sinks ; but, as the office rises in his view, the man falls. He must be in constant hostility with himself, if he would magnify his office. He must hold himself in readiness to make sacrifices, when called to do so : he will not barter his office, like Balaam ; but will refuse to sell his service, like Hicaiab. Like Ezra and Nehemiah, he will refuse to come down from the great work which he has to do. He may be calumniated ; but he will avoid hasty vin- dications of his character: it does not appear that Elisha sent after Naaman to vindicate himself from the falsehoods of Gehazi: there appears to me.much true dignity in this conduct: I fear 1 should have wanted patience to act thus. Some young ministers have been greatly injured, by taking up their creed from a sort of second or third rate writers. Toplady, perhaps, has said that he has found his preaching most successful, when it has turned on the grand doctrines of Cal- vinism. A young man admires Toplady, and adopts the same notion concerning his own min- istry. But let him turn to a master on the subject. He will find such a man as Traill handling the sovereignty of God, and such high points of doc- trine wish a holy and heavenly sweetness ; which, while it renders it almost impossible not to re- ceive his sentiments, leaves nothing on the mind but a religious savor. The grand aim of a minister must be the exhi- bition of gospel truth. Statesmen may make the greatest blunders in the world, but that is not His affair. Like a King's messenger, he must not REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 125 stop to take care of a person fallen down : if he can render any kindness consistently with his duty, lie will do it ; if not, he will prefer his office. Our method of preaching is not that hy which Christianity was propagated: yet the genius of Christianity is not changed. There was nothing in the primitive method set or formal. The primi- tive bishop stood up, and read the gospel, or some other portion of Scripture, and pressed on the hearers, with great earnestness and affection, a few plain and forcible truths evidently resulting from that portion of the Divine Word: we take a text, and make an oration. Edification was then the object of both speaker and hearers ; and, while this continues to be the object, no better method can be found. A parable, or history, or passage of Scripture, thus illustrated and enforced, is the best method of introducing truth to any people who are ignorant of it, ami of setting it home with power on those who know it ; and not formal, doctrinal, argumentative discourses. Truth and simplicity are the soul of an effica- cious ministry. The Puritans were still farther removed from the primitive method of preaching : they would preach fifteen or sixteen sermons on a text. A primitive bishop would have been shocked with one of" our sermons; and, such is our taste, we should he shocked with his. They brought for- ward Scripture: we bring forward our statements. They directed all their observations to throw light on Scripture: we tpjote Scripture to throw light on our observations. More faith and more grace would make us better preachers, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Chrys- ostom's was the right method. Leighton's Lec- tures on Peter approach very neur to this method. 136 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. In acting on matter, the art of man is mighty. The steam-engine is a mighty machine. But, in religion, the art of man is mere feebleness. The armor of Saul is armor in the camp of the Is- raelites, or in the camp of the Philistines — but we want the sling and the stone. I honor Metaphy- sicians, Logicians, Critics, and Historians — in their places. Look at facts. Men, who lay out their strength in statements, preach churches empty. Few men have a wisdom so large, as to see that the way which they cannot attain may yet be the best way. I dare not tell most academical, logi- cal, frigid men how little I account of their opin- ion, concerning the true method of preaching to the popular ear. I hear them talk, as utterly in- competent judges. Such men would have said St. Paul was fit only for the tabernacle. What he would have said they were fit for, I cannot tell. They are often great men — first-rate men — un- equalled men — in their class and sphere: but it is not their sphere to manage the world. Ik a minister could work miracles, he would do little more than interest the curiosity of men " I want to eat, and I want to drink, and I do it, I get on with difficulty enough, as things are; and you talk about treating with heaven ! I know noth- ing of the matter, and 1 want no such thing" — This is the language of man's heart. A future thing! An indefinitely future thing! No! if a man could even authoritatively declare, that the day of judgment would be this day seven years, he would have little influence on mankind. Very few would be driven from the play-house — very few from the gaming table — very few from the brothel. — The din on 'Change would be very little diminished. I frequently look back on the early periods of my life, and imagine myself treating with such a char- REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 127 ncter as I know I then was. I say to myself, " What now can 1 possibly say, that will affect and interest that young fellow of eighteen ?" P Some Christian ministers fail in their effect on their hearers, by not entering as philosophers into the state of human nature. They do not consider how low the patient is reduced — that he is to be treated more as a child — that he is to have milk ad- ministered to him, instead of strong meat. They set themselves to plant principles and prove points, when they should labor to interest the heart. But, after all, men will carry their natural character into their ministry. Ifa man has a dry, logical, scholastic turn of mind, we shall rarely find him an interest- ing preacher. One in a thousand may meet him, but not more. The Christian will sometimes be brought to walk in a solitary path. God seems to cut away his props, that he may reduce him to himself. His reli- gion is to be felt as a personal, particular, appro- priate possession. He is to feel, that, as there is but one Jehovah to bless, so there seems to him as though there were but one penitent in the uni- verse to be blessed by Dim. Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre was brought to this state. She might have said, " I know not where Peter is : he is gone away — perhaps into the world — perhapsto weep over his fall. I know not where John is. What are the feelings and states of my brethren, I know not. I am left here alone. No one accompa- nies and strengthens me. But if none other will seek my Lord, yet will I seek him !" There is a commanding energy in religious sympathy. A minister, for example, while his preaching seems effective, and life and feeling show themselves around him, moves on with ease and pleasure- But 12S REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. there is much of the man here. If Goil change the scene — if discouragements meet him — if ho seem to be kid by, in any measure, as an instrument — if the love of his hearers to his person and ministry decay — this is a severe trial : yet most of us need this trial, that we may be reduced simply to God, and may feel that the whole affair is between him and ourselves. A dead fisli will swim with the stream, whatever be its direction : But a living one will not only resist the stream: but, if it chooses, it can swim against it. The soul that lives from God, will seek God, and follow God — more easily and pleasantly, indeed, if the stream flow toward the point whit her God leads; but still, it will follow God as its sole rest and centre, though the stream of men and opinions would hurry it away from him. Gravity is, doubtless, obligatory on ministers. The apostle connects it with simplicity. Yet it must be natural — not affected. Some men give every thing in an oracular sty le : this lookslike af- fectation, and will disgust others: they will at- tribute it to religion : but this not a sanctified grav- ity. Other men are always disposed to levity: not that a man of original fancy is to be condemned, for thinking in his own way : but the minister must consider that be is a man of a consecrated charac- ter : if it should not be difficult to himself to make transitions from levity to gravity, it will be difficult to carry others with him therein. Who has not felt, if God brings him into a trying situation, in which he sees that it is an awful thing to suffer or to die, that gravity is then natural ? every thing else is offen- sive ! That, too, is evil, which lets down the tone of a company : when a minister loses his gravity, the company will take liberties with him. Yet, with a right principle, we must not play the fool. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 123 Gravity must be natural and simple. There must be urbanity and tenderness in it. A man must not formalize on every thing. He, who formalizes on every thing, is a fool : and a grave fool is perhaps more injurious than a light fool. We are called to build a spiritual house. One woikman is not to busy himself in telling another bis duty. We are placed in different circumstan- ces, with various talents : and each is called to do what he can. Two men, equally accepted of God, may be exceedingly distinct in the account which they will give of their employ. A regular clergyman can do no more in the discharge of his duty, than our church requires of him. He may full far short of her requirements ; but he cannot exceed by the most devoted life, the duties which he has prescribed. What man on earth is so pernicious a drone, as an idle clergy- man! — a man, engaged in the most serious profes- sion in the world : who rises Jo eat, and drink, and lounge, and trifle : and goes to bed ; and then rises again, to do the same ! Our office is the most la- borious in the world. The mind must be always on the stretch, to acquire wisdom and grace, and to communicate them to all who come near. It is well, indeed, when a clergyman of genius and learning devotes himself to the publication of clas- sics and works of literature, if he cannot be prevail- ed on to turn his genius and learning to a more im- portant end. Enter into this kind of society, what do you hear ? — " Have you seen the new edition of Sophocles ?" — " No ! is a new edition of Sophocles undertaken ?" — and this makes up the conversation, and these are the ends of men who, by profession, should win souls! I received a most useful hint from M 130 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. Dr. Bacon, then Father of the University, when I was at College. I used frequently to visit him at his Living near Oxford : he would say to me, " What are you doing? What are your studies ?" — "I am reading so and so." — " You are quite wrong. When I was young I could turn any piece of Hebrew into Greek verse with ease. But, when I came into this parish, and had to teach ignorant people, I was wholly at a loss ; I bad no furniture. They thought me a great man, hut that was their ignorance ; for 1 knew as little as they did, of what it was most important to them to know. Study chiefly what you can turn to good account in your future life." And yet this wise man had not just views of seri- ous religion : he was one of those who are for re- forming the parish making the maids industri- ous, and the men sober and honest — hut when I ventured to ask, " Sir, must not all this he effected by the infusion of a divine principle into the mind ? a union of the soul with the great head of influ- ence?" — No more of that ; no more of that, I pray !" A wise minister stands between practical Athe- ism and religious enthusiasm. A sermon, that has more head infused into it than Jieart, will not come home with efficacy to the hearers. "You must do so and so: such and such consequences will follow if you do not: such and such advantages will result from doing it:" — this is cold, dead, and spiritless, when it stands alone ; or even when it is most prominent. Let the preacher's head be stored with wisdom ; but, above all, let bis heart so feel his subject, that he may in- fuse life and interest into it, by speaking like one who actually possesses and feels what he says. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 131 Faith is the master-spring of a minister. " Hell is before me, and thousands of souls shut up there in everlasting agonies — Jesus Christ stands forth to save men from rushing into this bottomless abyss — He sends me to proclaim his ability and his love : I want no fourth idea! — every fourth idea is con- temptible! — every fourth idea is a grand imperti- nence !" The meanness of the earthen vessel, which con- veys to others the Gospel treasure, takes nothing from the value of the treasure. A dying hand may sign a deed of gift of incalculable value. A shep- herd's boy may point out the way to a philosopher. A beggar may be the bearer of an invaluable pres- ent. A writer of sermons has often no idea how many words he uses, to which the common people affix either no meaning, or a false one. He speaks, perhaps, of" relation to God ;" but the people, who hear him, affix no other idea to the word, than that of father, or brother, or relative. The preacher must converse with the people, that he may acquire their words and phrases. It sometimes pleases God to disqualify ministers for their work, before he takes them to their reward. Where he gives them wisdom to perceive this, and grace to acquiesce in the dispensation — such a close of an honorable life, where the desire to be publicly useful survives the power, is a loud amen to all former labors. 132 REMAI.NS OP MR. CECIL. On Infidelity and Poptry. Infidel writings are ultimately productive of little or no danger to the church of God. Nay we are less at a loss in judging of the wisdom of Providence in permitting them, than we are in judging of many other of its designs. They may shake the simple, humhle, spiritual mind ; hut they are, in the end, the means of enlightening and settling it. There are but two sorts of people in the world. Some walk by the light of the Lord, and all others lie in the wicked one in darkness and in the shadow of death. Where there is not an enlightened, sim- ple, humhle, spiritual mind, notions and opinions are of little consequence. The impudent and re- futed misrepresentations of infidels may turn a dark mind to some other notions and way of think- ing ; but it is in the dark Still. Till a man sees by the light of the Lord, every change of opinions is on- ly putting a new dress on a dead carcase, and call- ing it alive. The grace of God must give simplicity. Wherev- er that is, it is a security against dangerous error; wherever it is not, erroneous opinions may per- haps less predispose the mind against the truth of God in its lively* power on the soul, than true no- tions destitute of all life and influence do. Yet the writings of infidels must he read with caution and fear. There are cold, intellectual, speculative, malignant foes to Christianity. I dare not tamper with such, when I am in my right mind. I have received serious injury, for a time, even when my duty has called me to read what they have to say. The daring impiety of Belsham's answer to Wilberforce ruffled the calm of my spir- its. I read it over while at Bath, in the autumn of 1798. I waked in pain, about two o'clock in REMAINS Or MR. CECIL 1:33 the morning. I tried to cheer myself by an exer- cise of faith on Jesus Christ. I lifted up my heart to him, as sympathizing with me and engaged to support me. Many times have I thus obtained quiet and repose : but now I could lay no hold on him: I had given the enemy an advantage over me : my habit had imbibed poison : my nerves trembled ! my strength was gone ! — "Jesus Christ sympathize with you, and relieve you ! It is all en- thusiasm ! It is idolatry ! Jesus Christ has preached his sermons, and done his duty, and is gone to heaven ! And there he is, as other good men are! Address your prayers to the Supreme Being !" — I obtain relief in such cases, by dismissing from my thoughts all that enemies or friends can say. 1 will have nothing to do with Belsham or with Wil- berforce. I come to Christ himself. I hear what he says. I turn over the gospels. I read his con- versations. I dwell especially on bis farewell dis- course with his disciples in St. John's gospel. If there he meaning in words, and if Christ were not a deceiver or deceived, the reality of the Christian's life, in him and from him by faith, is written there as with a sun-beam. This temptation besets me to this day, and I know not that I have any other which is so par- ticular in its attacks upon me. I am sometimes rest- less in bed ; and, when I find myself so, I general- ly think that the parenthesis cannot be so well em- ployed as in prayer. While my mind is thus as- cending to Christ and communing with him, it of- ten comes across me — "What a fool art thou, to imagine these mental effusions can he known to any other Being ! what a senseless enthusiast, to imagine that the man who was nailed to a cross can have any knowledge of these secrets of thy soul !" On one o( these occasions it struck me with great and commanding evidence — "Why 134 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. might not St. John, in the Isle of Patmos — impris- oned perhaps in a cave — why might not he have said so? Why might not he have douhted wheth- er Christ the crucified could have knowledge of his feelings, when he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day? He had no doubt communion with Christ in the Spirit, before he had those palpable evidences of his presence which immediately followed." In the permission of certain bold infidel charac- ters and writings, we may discern plain evidences of that awful system of judicial government, with which God has been pleased to rule the world. Where there is a moral indisposition, where men are inclined to be deceived, where they are wait- ing as it were for a leader — there he sends such men or such writings, as harden them in their im- piety : while a teachable and humble mind will discern the true character of such men or writings, and escape the danger. I can conceive a character much more perni- cious in its influence, than the daring and impu- dent infidel. A man — in the estimation of all the world modest, amiable, benevolent — who should, with deep concern, lament the obligation under which he feels himself to depart from the religion of Europe, the religion of his country, the religion of his family; and should profess his unfeigned desire to find this religion true, but that he cannot possibly bring his mind to believe it, and that for such and such reasons: when he should thus introduce all the strongest points that can be urged on the subject. But God governs the world. It is not in his de- sign to permit such men to arise. The infidel has always had something about him, which has ascer- tained his obliquity to the eye, that has not been dimmed by the moral indisposition of the heart. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 135 The low and scurrilous writers against Revela- tion carry their own condemnation with them. They are like an ill looking fellow, who comes into a Court of Justice to give evidence ; but carries the aspect, on the first glance, of a town bully, ready to swear whatever shall be suggested to him. Borke has painted the spirit of democracy to the life. I have fallen in with some democrats, who knew nothing of me. They have been sub- jects of great curiosity, when I could forget the horrid display of sin that was before me. I saw a malignant eye — a ferocity — an intensity of mind on their point. Viewed in its temper and tenden- cies, Jacobinism is Devilism — Belialism. It takes the yoke of God and man — puts it on the ground — and stamps on it. Every man is called out into ex- ertion against it. It is an inveterate, malignant, blaspheming, atheistical, fierce spirit. It seems a toss up with these met;, whether Satan himself shall govern the world. Before such men, I say not a word. Our Master has commanded us not to cast pearls before swine. I am vastly delighted with character — true and original character : but this is an awful and affecting display of it. The church has endured a pagan and a papal persecution. There remains for her an infidel persecution — general, bitter, purifying, cementing. It is, perhaps, impossible, in the very nature of things, that such another scheme as Popery could be invented. It is in truth, the mystery of iniquity ; that it should be able to work itself into the sim- ple, grand, sublime, holy institution of Christianity, and so to interweave its abominations with the truth, as to occupy the strongest passions of the soul, and to control the strongest understandings ! 136 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. While Pascal can speak of Popery as he does, its influence over the mass of the people can excite no surprise. Those two master principles — That we must believe as the church ordains — and, That there is no salvation out of this church — oppose, in the ignorance and fear which they beget, an al- most insuperable barrier against the truth. I have not such expectations of a millennium as many entertain : yet I believe that the figures and expressions of prophecy have never received their accomplishment. They are too grand and ample, to have been fulfilled by any state, which the church has hitherto seen. Christianity has yet had no face suitable to its dignity. It has savored hitherto too much of man — of his institutions — of his prejudices — of his follies — of his sin. It must be drawn out — depicted — exhibited — demonstrated to the world. Its chief enemies have been the men by whom, under the professions of Hail, Mas- ter! it has been distorted, abused, and vilified. Popery was the master-piece of Satan. I believe him utterly incapable of such another contrivance. It was a systematic and infallible plan, for forming manacles and mufflers for the human mind. It was a well laid design to render Christianity contemptible, by the abuse of its prin- ciples and its institutions. It was formed to over- whelm — to enchant — to sit as the great whore, making the earth drunk irith her fornications. The infidel conspiracy approaches nearest to Popery. But infidelity is a suicide. It dies by its own malignity. It is known and read of all men. No man was ever injured essentially by it, who was fortified with a small portion of the genuine spirit of Christianity — its contrition and its docil- ity. Nor is it one in its efforts: its end is one ; but its means are disjointed, various, and often REMAINS OF MB. CECIL. 137 clashing. Popery debases and alloys Christianity ; but infidelity is a furnace, wherein it is purified and refined. The injuries done to it by Popery, will be repaired by the very attacks of infidelity. In the mean time, Christianity wears an en- chanting form to all, who can penetrate through the mists thrown around it by its false friends and its avowed foes. The exiled French Priest raises the pity and indignation of all Christians, while he describes the infernal plots of the infidel conspira- tors against Christianity, and shews them in suc- cessful operation against his church.* We seem, for a while, to forget her errors: and we view her, for the moment, only so far as she possesses Christianity iu common with ourselves. But when he charges the origin of this infidel con- spiracy on the principles asserted by the Walden- ses or the church of Geneva, the enchantment dis- solves. We see that he is under the influence of a sophism: by which, having imposed upon him- self, he would impose upon others. With him, Christianity and his church mean one and the same thing. A separation from his church, is a separation from Christianity ; and proceeds on principles which lead necessarily, if pursued to their issues, to every abomination of infidelity. But let him know that the church of Geneva pro- tested against the false friend of Christianity ; and that, if the avowed enemy of Christianity had then elevated himself, she would have protested with equal zeal against him. Let him know, that, if his church had listened to the voice of the Re- former, the enemy of Christianity would have wanted ground for footing to his attacks. The Papist falsely charges the Reformer as the father of infidelity : the infidel maliciously confounds * Alluding to Barruel's Memoirs of Jacobinism. J. P. 138 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. Popery and Christianity: but the true Christian is as far from the licentiousness of the infidel, as he is from the corruption of the Papist. I am not inclined to view things in a gloomy aspect. Christianity must undergo a renova- tion. If God has sent his Son, and has declared that he will exalt him on his throne — the earth and all that it inherits are contemptible in the view of such a plan! If this be God's design — proceed it does, and proceed it will. Christianity is such a holy and spiritual affair, that perhaps all human institutions are to be destroyed to make way for it. Men may fashion things as they will; but, if there is no effusion of the Spirit of God on their institutions, they will remain barren and life- less. Many Christians appear to have forgotten this. On a Christian's duly in these eventful times. Ours is a period of no common kind. The path of duty tn a Christian is now unusually difficult. It seems to me, however, to be comprehended in two words — Be quiet and useful. The precept is short ; but the application of it requires much grace and wisdom. Take not a single step out of a quiet obscurity, to which you are not compelled by a sense of utility. Two parties have divided the world. The jacobins are desperadoes: — the earth's torment and plague. Bishop Horsley said well of them, lately from the pulpit — "These are they who have poisoned Watts's Hymns for children. These are they who are making efforts to con- taminate every means of access to the public mind. And what is their aim ? — What are their pretensions? — That they will have neither Lord nor King over them. But, verily, one is their REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 13ends on action, that every- thing seems to say loudly to every man, " Do some- thing" — u do it" — "do it." Providence is a greater mystery than religion. The state of the world is more humiliating to our reason, than the doctrines of the Gospel. A re- flecting Christian sees more to excite his aston- ishment and to exercise his faith in the state of things betweeu Temple Bar and St. Paul's, than in what he reads from Genesis to Revelation. See the description of the working of God's Provi- dence, in the account of the clierul ims in the 1st and tenth chapters of Ezekiel, The scheme and machinery of redemption may be illustrated by the water-works at Marly. We consider a part of that complicated machinery, and we cannot calculate on the effects; but we see that they are produced. We cannot explain to a philosopher the system of redemption, and the uiode of conducting and communicating its bene- fits to the human soul ; hut we know that it yields the water of life-r-civilization, to a barbarian- direction, to a wanderer — support, to those (hat are ready to perish, 206 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. It is manifest that God designed to promote in- tercourse and commerce among men, by giving to each climate its appropriate productions. It is in iteelf, not only innocent, but laudable. All trade, however, which is founded in embellishment, is founded in depravity. So also is that spirit of trade, which pushes men on dangerous competi- tions. Many tradesmen, professedly religious, seem to look on their trade as a vast engine, which will be worked to no good effect, if it be not worked with the whole vigor of the soul. This is an intoxicating and ruinous mistake. So far as they live under the power of religion, they will pursue their trade for sustenance and provision ; but not even that, with unseasonable atteniion and with eagerness: much less will religion suffer them to bury themselves in it, when its objects are some thing beyond these: and, least of all, will it leave them to deceive themselves with cer- tain commercial maxims, so far removed from sim- plicity and integrity that I have been often shock- ed beyond measure, at hearing them countenanced and adopted by some religious professors. Evert man should aim to do one thing well. If he dissipates his attention on several objects he may have excellent talents intrusted to him, but they will bi; intrusted to no good end. Concen- trated on his proper object, they might have a vast energy; but, dissipated on several, they will have none. Let other objects be pursued, indeed ; but only so far as they may subserve the main purpose. By neglecting this rule, I have seen frivolity, and futility written on minds of great power; and, by regarding it, I have seen very limited minds acting in the first rank of their profession — I have seen a targe capital end a great stock dissipated, and the REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 207 man reduced to beggary ; nnd I have seen a small capital and stock improved to great riches. To effect any purpose, in study, the mind must be concentrated. If any other subject pl'iys on the fancy, than that which ought to be exclusively before it, the mind is divided ; and both are neu- tralized, so as to lose their effect. Just as when I learnt two systems of short-hand. I was familiar with Gurney's method, and wrote it with ease; but, when I took it into my bead to learn Byrom's, they destroyed each other, and 1 could write neither. There should be something obvious, determin- ate, and positive, in a man's reasons lor taking a journey; especially if lie be a minister. Such events and consequences may be connected with it in every step, that he ought, in no case, to be more simply dependent on the great Appoiuier of means and occasions. Several journies which I thought myself called on to take, I have since had reason to think I should not have taken. Nega- tive, and even doubtful reasons, may justify him in choosing the safer side of staying at home ; but there ought to be something more in the reasons which put him out of his way, to meet the un- known consequences of a voluntary change of sta- tion. Let there always be a " because" to meet the "why?" I sometimes see, as I sit in my pew at St. John's during the service, an idle fellow saunter into the chapel. He gapes about him for a few minutes: finds nothing to interest and arrest him, seems scarcely to understand what is going for- ward ; and, after a lounge or two, goes out again. I look at him, and think, "Thou art a wonderful 208 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. creature ! A perfect miracle ! What a machine is that body ! curiously, — fearfully, — wonderfully framed ! An intricate — delicate — but harmonious and perfect structure ! And, then, to ascend to thy soul ! — its nature ! — its capacities! — its actual state ! its designation ! — its eternal condition ! — I am lost in amazement ! — While he seems to have no more consciousness of all this than the brutes which per- ish V Sin, pursued to its tendencies, would pull God from his throne. Though I have a deep convic- tion of its exceeding sinfulness, I live not a week without seeing some exhibition of its malignity which draws from me — "Well! who could have imagined this!" Sin would subjugate heaven, earth, and hell to itself. It would make the uni- verse the minion of its lusts, and all beings bow down and worship. It is one of the most awful points of view in which we can consider God, that, as a righteous governor of the world, concerned to vindicate his own glory, he has laid himself under a kind of ho- ly necessity to purify the unclean, or to sink him into perdition. It is one of the curses of error, that the man, who is the subject of it, if he has had the opportu- nity of being better informed, cannot possibly do right, so far as he is under it. He has brought himself into an utter incapacity of acting virtuous- ly ; since it is vicious to obey an ill-informed con- science, if that conscience might have been better informed; and certainly vicious to disobey con- science, whether it be well or ill informed. REMAINS OF MR. CKCIL. 209 The approaches of sin are like the conduct of Jael. It brings butter in a lordly dish. It bids high for the soul. But when it lias fascinated and lulled the victim, the nail and the hammer are behind. I have met with one case in my ministry, very frequent and very distressing. A man says to me, " I approve all you say. I see things to be just as you state them. I see a necessity, a propriety, a beauty in the religion of Christ. I see it to be in- teresting and important. But I do not feel it. I cannot feel it. 1 have no spirit of prayer. My heart belies my head : its affections refuse to fol- low my convictions." If this complaint be ingen- uous, it is an evidence of grace; and I say, "Wait for God, and he will appear." But, too often, it is not ingenuous : the heart is actually indisposed: some tyrant holds it in bondage. The complaint is a mockery — because there is no sincerity of en- deavor to obtain the object of which it pretends to lament the want — there is no sincere desire and prayer for the quickening and breathing of God's Holy Spirit on the torpid soul. The man who labors to please his neighbor for his good to edification, has the mind that was in Christ. It is a sinner trying to help a sinner. How differ- ent the face of things if this spirit prevailed ! — If Dissenters were like Henry, and Watts, and Dod- dridge : and churchmen like Leighton! The man who comes prominently forward in any way may expect to be found fault with : one will call him harsh, and another a trimmer. A hard man may be reverenced, but men will like him best at a dis- tance : he is an iron man: he is not like Jesus Christ: Christ might have driven Thomas from his presence for his unreasonable incredulity — but 210 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL* not so ! It is as though he had said, " I will come down to thy weakness: if thou canst not believe without thrusting thy hand into my side, then thrust in thy hand." Even a feeble, but kind and tender man, will effect more than a genius, who is rough or artificial. There is danger, doubtless, of humoring others, and against this we must be on our guard. It is a kind and accommodating spirit at which we must aim. When the two goats met on the bridge which was too narrow to allow them either to pass each other, or to return, the goat which lay down that the other might walk over him, was a finer gentleman than Lord Chesterfield. To expect disease wherever he goes, and to lay himself out in the application of remedies, is that habit of mind which is best suited to a Christian while he passes through the world, if he would be most effectually useful. The Papists and Puritans erred in opposite ex- tremes, in their treatment of mankind. Tiie pa- pists, almost to a man, considered the mass of men as mere animals, and to be led by the senses. Even Fetyfion fell into this way of thinking. Some few fine spirits were to be found, which were ca- pable of other treatment : but the herd they thought capable of nothing but seeing and hearing. The puritans, on the contrary, treated man as though he had nothing of the animal about him. There was among them a total excision of all amusement and recreation. Every thing was effort. Every thing was se»ere. I have heard a man of this school preach on the distinction between justify- ing and saving faith. He tried to make his hear- ers enter into these niceties; whereas, faith in its bold and leading features, should have been present- ed to them, if any effect was expected. The bulk of RKMA1.VS OF MR. CECIL. 211 mankind are capable of much more than the Pa- pist allows, but are incapable of that which the Puritan supposes. They should be treated, in op- position to both, as rational and feeling creatures, but upon a bold and palpable ground. I have seen such sin in the church, that I have been often brought by it to a sickly state of mind. But, when I have turned to the world, I have seen sin working there in such measures and forms, that I have turned back again to the church with more wisdom of mind and more affection to it — tainted as it is. I see sin, however, no where put on such an odious appearance as in the church. It mixes itself with the most holy thing?, and debases them, and turns them to its own purposes. It builds its nest in the very pinnacles of the temple. The his- tory of the primitive ages of the church has also checked the disgust which would arise from seeing the impure state of things before our eyes. Folly and wickedness sported themselves even then in almost all possible forms. I turn, in such states of mind, to two portraits in my study — John Bradford and Aph. Leiuhtun. These never fail, in such cases, to speak forcibly to my heart, that, in the midst of all, there is pure religion, and to tell me what that religion is. The joy of religion is an exorcist to the mind. It expels the demons of carnal mirth and madness. The union of Christians to Christ, their common bead; and, by means of the influence which they derive from him, one to another, may be illustra- ted by the loadstone. It not only attracts the par- ticles of iron to itself, by the magnetic virtue ; but by this virtue, it unites them one among another. 212 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. Some considerable defect is always visible, in the greatest men, to a discerning eye. We idolize the best characters, because we see them partially. Let us acknowledge excellence, and ascribe the glory where it is due, while we honor ihe posses- or: but let us remember that God has, by leaving his greatest servants to the natural operation of human frailty in some point or other of their char- acter written on the face of the Christian Church, Cease ye from man ! He does, by perfection in character, as he did by the body of Moses — he hides it, that it may not be idolized. Our affec- tions, our prejudices, or our ignorance, cover the creature with a dazzling veil : but he lifts it up; and seems to say, "see the creature you admire !" A man, who thinks himself to have attained Christian perfection, in the sense in which it has been insisted on by some persons, either deceives himself, by calling sin, infirmity — or Satan leaves him undisturbed in false security — or the demon ot pride overcomes the demon of lust. The trials of the tempted Christian are often sent for the use of others, and are made the ricbes of all around him, If I were not penetrated with a conviction of the truth of the Bible, and the reality of my own experience, I should be confounded on all sides — from within, and from without — in the world, and in the church. If a good man cannot prevent evil, he will hong heavy on its wings, and retard its progress. We are too much disposed to look at the out- side of things. The face of every affair chiefly a f- REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 213 fects us. Were God to draw aside the veil, and to shew us hut a little of the reality, and the relations of the most apparently mysterious and complica- ted dispensations, we should acquiesce with rev- erence ami admiration. A minister, for example, may he taken away in the beginning of a promis- ing career, or in the midst of great usefulness. If we cannot perceive any direct reason for this Providence, we stand amazed. But, if we could look forward into the farther life of such men, we should probably see that they were taken away in mercy to themselves — to the church — or to the world. I have seen too much of life, to have any thing to do in the troubled waters ol my friends, by way of giving advice; unless they will allow tne to re- main in secret. This especially applies to some Christians of more sincerity than prudence. An opinion given on difficult and controverted cases, in confidence of its being used only as a private principle of action, has been quoted as authority in defence of the conduct founded on it. Many duties arc involved on the very nature of religion, concerning which there is perhaps not one express precept to be found in the Scriptures. Private, family, or public devotions, are no where enjoined, as to the time, or frequency, or manner of performing them. Yet they are so strongly im- plied in the very nature of religion, and they are supposed so necessarily to flow from the divine principle of spiritual life in the soul, that those men greatly err, who think themselves not obliged by their religion to the most diligent use of them that circumstances will allow. And, surely, we may trace here the footsteps of divine wisdom. If it had been said, "Thou shalt do this or that, at such 214 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. nnd such times," this would have brought a yoke on the neck of the Christian; and, even when ab- solutely unavoidable circumstances prevented him from complying with the injunction, would have left sin on his conscience. While the way in which the duty is enforced leaves him a Christian liberty that is abundantly guarded against all li- centiousness, fie sees the duty implied and exem- plified in a thousand instances throughout the Scripture. The same principle is applicable to certain pursuits, which occupy the men of the world j the general unlawfulness of which is fully implied, though they neither are nor could have been forbidden by name.* Nothing seems important to me but so far as it is connected with morals. The end — the cui bono ? —enters into my view of everything. Even the highest acts of the intellect become criminal tri- fling, when they occupy much of the time of a moral creature, and especially of a minister. If the mind cannot feel and treat mathematics and music and every thing else as a trifle, it has been seduced and enslaved. Brainerd, and Grimshaw, and Fletcher, were men. Most of us are dwarfs. In imitating examples, there are two rules to be regarded : we must not stretch ours beyond our measure: nor must we despise that in another, which is unsuitable to ourselves. A piece has been written to prove that the Gos- pel is preached to sinners, only in the lowest stale * See tins idea illustrated with regard ti Articles of Faith in Jones's " Short view of the argument between the church of EnjlanH and Dissenters," in the " Scholar Armed." Vol. ii. p. 59. J. P. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. of misery and imbecility. Some men get hold of nn opinion, and push it so far tliat it meets and contra- dicts other opinions, fairly dediicihle from Scrip- ture. And it is no uncommon thing with them to suppose, that nobody else holds the same opinion ; when, if they would look into the minds of other men, they would find themselves deceived. We preach the Gospel to sinners in the lowest condi- tion ; and the only reason I do not preach it to devils, is, that I find no gospel provided for devils. As to the Roman Catholic notion of a grace of con- gruity, in their sense of it, 1 utterly disclaim it. Some of the hest of them taught that God prepar- ed the heart fur himself in various unseen ways. And who can deny this ? hut this is far different from the notion, that some minds have a natural congruity or suitableness to tlx- Gospel. The fal- low-ground of the heart may he broken up. plough- ed, and prepared by unseen and most circuitous means. I have gone from hearing a man preach incomparable nonsense who knew spiritual reli- gion, to hearing a man of a carnal mind and habits who knew nothing of spiritual religion preach in- comparable sense, and I thought the carnal preach- er much most likely to call men to some feeling of religion. The imagination is th? grand organ, whereby truth can make successful approaches to the mind. Some preachers deal much with the passions : they attack the hopes and fears of men. But this is a very different thing from the right use of the im- agination, as the medium of impressing truth. Je- sus Christ has left perfect patterns of this way of managing men. — But it is a distinct talent, and a talent committed to very few. It is an easy thing to move the passions: a rude, blunt, illiterate at- tack may do this. But, to form one new figure for 216 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. the conveyance of truth to the mind, is a difficult thing. The world is under no small obligation to the man who forms such a figure. The French strain this point so far that the effort is continually seen. To he effective — there must he about it a naivete — an ease — a self-evidence. The figures of the French writers vanish from the mind, like the flourish of a musical band. The figures of Jesus Christ sink into the mind, and leave there the in- delible impress of the truth which, they convey. The religious world has a great momentum. — Money and power in almost any quantity, are brought forth into action, when any fair object is set before it. It is a pendulum, that swings with prodigious force. But it wants a regulator. If there is no regulating force on it of sufficient pow- er, its motions will be so violent and eccentric, that it will tear the machine to pieces. And, therefore, when I have any influence in its designs and schemes, I cannot help watching them with ex- treme jealousy, to throw in every directing and regulating power which can be obtained from auy quarter. Nothing can be proposed so wild or so absurd, as not to find a party — and often a very large party — ready to espouse it. It is a sad reflection on human nature, but it is too true. Every day's ex- perience and history confirm it. It would have argued gross ignorance of mankind to expect even Swedenborgianism to be rejected at once by the common sense of men. He, who laid the snare, knew that if a few characters of some learning and respectability could be brought to espouse it, there would be soon a silly multitude ready to fol- low. REMAINS OF NR. CECIL. 217 The religions world has many features, which arc distressing to a holy man. He sees in it much proposal and ostentation, covering much sin lace. But Christianity is deep and substantial. A man is soon enlisted ; but be is not soon made a soldier. He is easily put into the ranks, to make a show there ; but be is not so easily brought to do the duties of the ranks. We are too much like an army of Asiatics; they count well, and cut a good figure ; but when they come into action, one has no flint, another has no cartridge — the arms of one are rusty, and another has not learnt to handle them. This was not the complaint equally at all times. It belongs too peculiarly to the present day. The fault lies in the muster. We are like Falstnff. He took the king's money to press good men and true, but got together such ragamuffins that he was asham- ed to muster them. What is the consequence? People groan under their connections. Respecta- ble persons tell me such stories of their servants who profess religion, as to shame and distress me. High pretensions to spirituality! Warm zeal for certain sentiments! Priding themselves in Mr. Suc.h-a-one's ministry ! But what becomes of their duties?— Oh these are "beggarly elements" in- deed! Such persons are alive to religious talk ; but, if you speak to them on religious tempers. the subject grows irksome. Admiration and feeling are very distinct from each other. Some music and oratory enchant and astonish, but they speak not to the heart. I have been overwhelmed by Handel's music: the Det- tingen Te Deum is perhaps, the greatest composi- tion in the world : yet I never, in my life, heard Handel, but I could think of something else at the same time. There is a kind of music that will not T •218 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. allow this. Dr. Worgan has so touched the organ at St. John's, that I have been turning backward and forward over the Prayer Book lor the first lesson in Isaiah, and wondered that I could not find Isaiah there ! The musician and the orator fall short of the full power of their science, if the hearer is left in possession of himself. The church of England is not fitted in its pres- ent state, for a general church. lis secularity must be purged away. We shall hasten that day when Christians shall be of one heart and one mind, if we inculcate the spirit of charity in our respective circles. I have aimed much at this point, and shall push it farther. The rest must be left to Providence. He only can, by unknown means, heal the schisms of the church, and unite it togeth- er as one external body : and that this will be done as some think, by persecution, appears highly probable. I see no ether means adequate to the end. Htpocrisi is folly. It is much easier, safer, and pleasanter, to be the thing which a man aims to ap- pear, than to keep up the appearance of being what he is not. When a Christian is truly such he acts from a nature — a new nature — and all the actings of that nature have the ease and pleasant- ness and nature in them. Humiliation is the spirit of our dispensation — not a creeping, servile, canting humility: hut an entire self-renunciation. The Mystics often talk admirably on the subject. Pride is the most uni- versal and inveterate of all vires. Every man is a proud man, though all are not equally proud. No sin harasses the Christian so much, nor accom- panies him so unwearicdly. Its forms of exhibit- REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 219 ing itself are infinitely varied, and none are more common than the affectation of humility. The assumption of the garb of humility, in all its shades is generally but an expression of a proud mind, Pride is the master-sin of the spirit; and the grace of God, in the whole tenor of our dispensation, is directed against it. I extend the circle of real religion very widely. Many men fear God, and love God, and have a sin- cere desire to serve him, whose views of religious truth are very imperfect, and in some points per- haps utterly false. But I doubt not that many such persons have a state of heart acceptable before God. Man is a creature of extremes. The middle path is generally the wise path ; but there are few wise enough to find it. Because Papists have made too much of some thincs, Protestants have made too little of them. The Papists treat man as all sense ; and, therefore, some Protestants would treat him as all spirit. Because one party has exalted the virgin Mary to a divinity, the oth- er can scarcely think of that most highly favored among women with common respect. The Papist puts the Apocrypha into his canon — the Protestant will scarcely regard it as an ancient record. The Popish heresy of human merit in justification, drove Luther on the other side into most unwar- rantable and unscriptural statements of that doc- trine. The Papists consider grace as inseparable from the participation of the sacraments — the Prot- estants too often lose sight of them as instituted means of conveying grace. The language of irreligion in the heart, is, " give — give — now — now — whatever the flesh and the : >20 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL- eye lust after, and whatever gratifies the pride of life. Give it now — for, as to any reversion, I will not sacrifice a single lust for it ; or if 1 must have a religion, it shall be any thing rather than that demeaning system which makes every thing a mere boon." Instead of attempting any logical and meta- physical explanation of justification by the im- puted righteousness of Christ, all which attempts have human infirmity stamped upon them, I would look at the subject in the great and impressive light in which scripture places it before me. It teaches me to regard the intervention of Christ for me, as the sole ground of all expectation toward God. In consideration of his sufferings, my guilt is remitted, and I am restored, to that which I had lost by sin. Let us add to this, that the sufferings of Christ were in our stead, and we shall see the point of view in which Scripture sets him forth as the deserver and procurer to us of all pardon and grace. The thing is declared — not explained. Let us not therefore darken a subject which is held forth in a prominent light, by our idle endeavors to make it better understood. Regeneration and conversion may be distin- guished from each other, though they cannot be separated. They may be distinguished; as a man's being disposed to go in a certain road, and his actually going in that road, may be distinguish- ed : for regeneration is God's disposing the heart to himself: but conversion is the actual turning of the heart to God. There is an immeasurable distance between the genuine and the spurious Christian. The genuine Christian may be weak, wild, eccentric, fanatical. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 221 faulty ; but he is right-hearted : you find the root of the matter in him. The spurious Christian is the most dangerous of men, and one of the most diffi- cult to deal with. You see what he is, but you find it almost impossible to keep clear of him. He will seek your acquaintance, in order to authenti- cate his own character — to indorse his own repu- tation. But avoid him. His errors and vices will be assigned to the church, by an indiscriminating world. There is less danger in associating with worldly people by profession, and more tenderness to be exercised toward them. St. Paul teaches us the distinction, J Cor. v. 9 — 11. I feel disposed to treat carnal men and carnal ministers with tenderness, not to show them that 1 am a spiritually proud man. Let tliem see that you have some secret in possession, which keeps you quiet, humble, patient, holy, meek, and affec- tionate, in a turbulent and passionate world. The character of Balaam is not uncommon in the church. I have been amazed to see religious professors, whose ungodly character has been known and read of all men, who have neverthe- less entertained a good opinion of themselves. I have accounted for it, by supposing that they build entirely on the distinction of their views of truth from those of other men. They "know the points ; they see the distinctions: and, moreover, they ap- prove what they know, and desire to dio the death of the righteous and be where they are — and, cer- tainly, they must be the men of God's council, and the men who stand on his side against the world !" I have long adopted an expedient, which I have found of singular service. 1 have a 6helf in my study, for tried authors; and one in my mind, for tried principles and characters. 222 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. When an author has stood a thorough exami- nation, and will bear to be taken as a guide, I put him on the shelf! When I have more fully made up my mind on a principle, 1 put it on the shelf! A hundred subtle objections may be brought against this principle: I may meet with some of them, perhaps; but my principle is on the shelf! Generally, I may be able to recal the reasons which weighed with me to put it there : but if not, I am not to he sent out to sea again. Time was, when 1 saw through and detected all the subtleties that could be brought against it. I have past evidence of having been fully convinced : and there on the shelf it shall lie! When I have turned a character over and over on all sides, and seen it through and through in all situations, I put it on the shelf. There may be conduct in the person which may stumble oth- ers : there may be great inconsistencies : there may be strange and unaccountable turns— but I have put that character on the shelf : difficulties will all be cleared up : every thing will come round again. I should be much chagrined, indeed, to be obliged to take a character down which I had once put up; but that has never been the case with me yet ; and the best guard against it, is — not to be too hasty in putting them there. Influence, whether derived from money, tal- ents or connexions, is power : there is no person so insignificant, but he fins much of this power: the little Israelite maid, in Naaman's family, is an instance: some,indeed, suppose that they have more power than they really have ; hut we generally think we have less than we in reality have. Who- ever neglects or misapplies this power, is an un- profitable servant ; unbelief, timidity, and delica- cy often cramp its exertion ; but it is our dutv to REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 223 call ourselves out to the exertion of this power, as Mordecai calleil out Esther (ch. iv. :) it is our duty to watch against every tiling that might hinder or pervert our influence : for mere regard to reputa- tion will often carry many into error: who would not follow Aaron in worshipping the golden calf? Even men of feeble public talents may acquire much influence by kindness and consistency of char- acter: ministers are defective in resting their per- sonal influence too much on their public ministry : time will give weight to a man's character ; and it is one advantage to a man to be cast early into his situation, that he may earn a chaiacter. The instances of artifice which occur in scrip- ture are not to he imitated, but avoided : if Abra- ham, or Isaac, or Jacob equivocate in order to ob- tain their ends, this is no warrant to me to do so : David's falsehood concerning Goliath's sword ar- gued distrust of God. If any part of the truth which I am bound to communicate he concealed, this is sinful artifice : the Jesuits in China, in order to remove the offence of the cross, declared that it was a falsehood invented by the Jews that Christ was crucified ; but they were expelled from the empire: and this was designed, perhaps, to be held up as a warning to all missionaries, that no good end is to be carried by artifice. But aduress is of a different nature. There is no falsehood, deception, or equivocation in address. St. Paul, for instance, employed lawful address, and not artifice, when he set the Saddueees and Pharisees at variance: he employed a la wful argu- ment to interest the Pharisees in his favor: this was great address, but it had nothing of criminal artifice. In Joshua's ambushes for the men of Ai there was nothing sinful: it was a lawful strata- gem of war : it would have been unlawful to tell 22 1 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. the men of Ai there was nn ambush : but they knew that they came out of their city liable to such ambushes. Christ's conduct at Emmaus, and that of the angels of Sodom, were meant as trials of the regard of those with whom they were con- versing. Precipitation is acting witho.it sufficient grounds of action. Youth is the peculiar season of precipitation : the young man's motto is " onward !" There is no such effectual cure of this evil, as ex- perience : when a man is made to feel the effects of his precipitation, both in body and mind : and God alone can thus bring a man acquainted with himself. There is a self-blindness in precipita- tion: a precipitate man is, at the time, a blind man: That be far from thee! said St. Peter : this shall not happen to thee. As the Lord liveth, said David, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die ! There is great criminality in precipitation. A man under its influence is continually tempted to take God's work out of his hands. It is not a state of dependence. It betrays want of patience with respect to God: and want of faith : Ishall one day perish by the hand of Saul. It discovers a want of charity: in a rash moment we may do an injury to our neighbor, which we can never repair. There are few, who do not feel that they are suffering through life the effects of their own pre- cipitation. He, then, that trusteth his oicn heart, is a fool. In precipitate moments we should learn to say, " I am not now the man to give an opinion, or to take a single step !" Method, as Mrs. More says, is the very hinge of business : and there is no method without punctuality. Punctuality is important, because REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 225 it subserves the peace and good temper of a fami- ly : the want of it not only infringes on necessary duty, but sometimes excludes this duty. Punctu- ality is important as it gains time: it is like pack- ing things in a box: a good packer will get in half as much more as a bad one. The calmness of mind which it produces, is another advantage of punctuality: a disorderly man is always in n hur- ry : lie has no time to speak with you, because he is going elsewhere; and when he gets there, he is too late for his business, or he must hurry away to another before lie can finish it. It was a wise maxim of the Duke of Newcastle — "I do one thing at a time." Punctuality gives weight to character. Such a man has made an appointment: then I know he will keep it." Anil this generates punc- tuality in you : for like other vii tues, it propagates itself: servarts and children must be punctual, where their leader is so. Appointments, indeed, become debts: I owe you punctuality, if I have made an appointment with you ; and have no right to throw away your time if I do my own. It is a difficult question in casuistry — How rAR A MAS IS BOUND TO BCTRAY CONFIDENCE FOR GEN- ERAL good. Let it be considered what conse- quences would follow from a man's disclosing all the evil he knows. The world would become a nest of scorpions. He must often mistake, and of course calumniate. Such is his incapacity to de- termine what is really evil in his neighbor, and such are the mischiefs frequently arising from the disclosure of even what should he in truth evii, that he seems rather called on to be silent, till cir- cumstances render it a case of duty to remain si- lent no longer. But if this be his general rule, it will be his duty to observe silence much oftener 226 REMAINS OK MB. CECIL. in cases of confidence. Professional men — a minister — a lawyer — a medical man — have an of- ficial secrecy imposed on them. If this were not the case — a distrest conscience could never un- burthen itself to its confessor. Incalculable inju- ries to health and properly must be sustained, for want of proper advisers. This applies in a very high sense to a minister, considered as a confessor — a director of the conscience. An alarmed con- science will unfold its most interior recesses before him. It is said Dr. Owen advised a man, who un- der religious convictions confessed to him a mur- der which he had perpetrated some years before, to surrender himself up to justice. The man did so, and was executed. I think Dr. Owen erred in his advice. I thought myself right, in urging on per- sons, who have opened their hearts to rue, deep humiliation before God for crimes commuted in an (incontroverted state: but, as it had pleased Hjm to give a thorough hatred of those crimes to the mind, and a consequent self-loathing and hu- miliation, and yet to allow in his providence that they should have remained undiscovered, I judged that the matter might be safely left with him. Yet there may be cases in which general consequences require that confidence should he betrayed. Such cases usually relate to evil in crooress. To pre- vent or counteract such evil, it may he necessary to disclose what lias been intrusted in confidence. Yet the party should be honestly warned, if its purposes are not changed, what duty your con- science will require, I have felt twice in my life very extraordinary impressions after sermons, and that from men least calculated to affect me. A man of great powers, but so dissipated on every thing that he knew nothing — a frivolous, futile babbler, whom 1 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 227 was ready almost to despise — surprised and chained me so, in my own church at Lewes, that I was thun- derstruck : I think it was concerning tiie dove not finding rest for the sole of her foot: he felt the snhject strongly himself; and in spite of all my prejudices against him and my real knowledge of his charac- ter, he made me feel it as I have scarcely ever done before or since. In the other instance, I had to do with a very different character : he was a simple, hut weak man : it pleased God, however, to shoot an arrow by his hand into my heart: I had been some time in a dry, fruitless frame, and was per- suading myself that all was going on well : he said one day, at Lewes, with an indescribable simplici- ty, that " men might cheer themselves in the morn- ing, and they might pass on tolerably well perhaps without God at noon ; but the cool of the day was coming," when God would come down to talk with them." It was a message from God to me : I felt as though God had descended into the church, and was about to call me to my account! In the former instance, I was more surprised and aston- ished than affected religiously ; but, in this, I was unspeakably moved. Constitutional bias is a suspicious interpreter of providential leadinos. A man's besetting sin lies in that to which his nature is most inclined ; and, therefore, to walk wisely and holily, he should be very jealous of such supposed leadings in Prov- idence as draw with his constitutional propensity. He is never safe, unless he is in the act of collaring his nature as a rebel, and forcing it into submission. A sanguine man sees a sign and token in every thing: in every ordinary occurrence, his. imagina- tion hears a call : his pious fancy is the source and food of an eager, disquieted, and restless habit of mind. An enterprising man has great facility iu 228 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. finding God in whatever seems to open to honor, or influence, or power. But he has lost the right estimate of things : if God seem to draw with an enterprising mind, the man should stand and trem- ble. Providence may really lead some retired and humble men into situations which the ambitious man would covet: hut, even in that case, it is not to be regarded as an evidence of favor, so much as an increase of trial and responsibility : hut he can never open before an enterprising and ambitious character, unless in judgment, or in such immi- nence of trial as should call the man to self-suspi- cion and humility. A pleasurable man easily dis- cerns God's hand in every thing, which seems to put his favorite indulgences within his power: such a thing was a great providence ! and he is vastly grateful ! while he sees not that he is led away to broken cisterns. An idle man has a con- stant tendency to torpidity, lie has adopted the Indian maxim — that it is better to walk than to run, and better to stand than to walk, and better to sit than to stand, and better to lie than to sit. He hugs himself into the notion, that God calls him to be quiet: — that he is not made fur bustling aud noise! — that such and such a thing plainly show him he ought to retire and sit sliM! A busy man is never at rest: he sees himself called so often into action, that be digs too much 10 suffer any thing to grow, and waters so profusely that he drowns. The danger in all these cases is, lest a man should bless himself in his snares! Adam well observes: — " A poor country parson, fighting against the devil in his parish, has nobler ideas than Alexander had." Men of the world know nothing of true glory: they know nothing of the grandeur of that sentiment — Thou, O God, art the thing that I long for! You may, perhaps, find REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. •229 this sentiment in the corner of some monastery, where a poor ignorant creature is mumbling over his prayers: or, it may even be found to exist with the nonsense and fanaticism of a Swedenborgian ; but, wherever it is, it is true dignity. Look at the bravery of the world ! Go into the Park. Who is the object of admiration there ? — The captain swelling and strutting at the head of his corps! And what is there at the court? — "Make way! Make way!" And who is this? A bit ofclay, with a ribbon tied round it ! Now it makes noth- ing against the comparative emptiness and little- ness of these things, that 1 or any man should be ensnared by them, and play the fool with the rest of the species. Truth is truth, and dignity is dig- nity in spite of the errors and folly of any man liv- ing. But this is the outside. What are the greatest minds, and the noblest projects of the world, com- pared with a Christian ! Take Mr. Pitt for an in- stance: and contrast him with the most insignifi- cant old woman in the church of Christ ! If the Bible be not true, you have no standard : all your reasonings, and science, and philosophy, and meta- physics, are gross absurdity and folly. But if the Bible be true ; Mr. Pitt, great and noble as he is, yet, con- sidered as a mere politician, even Mr. Pitt has a lit- tle, contracted, mean mind ! — a driveller ! — an earth worm! Compared with his projects and schemes, the old woman, who rises at two o'clock in the morning, lights her farthing candle, stands all day over her wash-tub, at night puts on her red cloak, steals out to some place of worship, hears the truths of the gospel mangled perhaps with igno- rant yet honest zeal, but draws in good into an honest and prepared heart — why, this woman is a heroine— a noble mind— compared with the great- 230 REMAINS OF MR. CECIl- est of men, considered as a mere man of this world ! Bishop Wilkins has said admirably, That noth- ing in man is great, but, so far as it is connected with God. The only wise thing recorded of Xerxes, is his reflection on the sight of his army — That not one of that immense multitude would survive a hundred years: it seems to have been a momentary gleam of true light aud feeling. APPENDIX. REMARKS BY MR. CECIL, COMMUNICATED TO THE EDITOR BY SOME FRIENDS. A hiding-place implies secrecy. He who can say unto God, Thou art my kiding place, may go abroad about his affairs, and may pass through a thousand dangers, and yet at the same time, have such a hiding place, in the lavor and protection of God, that, when he seems to he exposed on every side, still he is secured and hidden from every evil. A cheat man, however high his office and tal- ents, is dependent on little things. Jonah ivas ex- ceeding glad of his gourd. However splendid and toweling, man is crushed beneath the moth, if God does Dot uphold him : so that while we are admiring the great man as he is called, and however he may be disposed to admire himself and to speak great swelling words of vanity, facts will show that lie is a poor, dependent creature, who cannot live a mo- ment without God. IF the Holy Spirit opens his eyes, he will perceive that he cannot stand alone; but can only support himself and climb, like the ivy, by clasping one stronger than himself. Dreams nre common to sleeping. No man be- gins to slumber in religion, hut he falls into some golden dream. It is a device of Satan to seduce men into a drowsy state, and then to beguile them 232 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. with some dream. When the duties of religion he- come irksome, then he presents some novelty which allures and deceives us: whereas, had we been in life and vigor, we should have detected the deceit. There are no greater objects of pity in the world, than men who are admired by all around for their nice discernment and fine taste in every thing of a worldly nature, but have no taste for the riches that endure forever — no love for God or his word — no love for Christ or their souls. In such a state, however admired or respected, they cannot see the kingdom of God. A Spiritual man is a character that rises far above all Worldly wisdom and science. He is de- scribed by our Lord as born of the Spirit. Spiritual senses are given to him. He has a spiritual taste that rejects whatever is injurious, and gladly re- ceives whatever is salutary to the spiritual life : he desires the sincere milk of the word, that he 7nay grow thereby. He has a spiritual sight : he looks not at the things ivhich are seen, but at the things which are not seen. He smells a sweet savor in the things of God. His name is as ointment poured forth. He has a quick feeling. And he has a spiritual BAH': My sheep hear my voice. He lives in a world of his own : he is tried by spiritual conflicts, and supported by spiritual comforts. If the things of God do not afford him consolation, he droops, and nothing in this world can lift up his head : he will say to eve- ry other object, Miserable comforters are ye all ! He is pursuing a spiritual end, and while others boast and are puffed up with their great attain- ments, he is humbled in the dust, and gives all glory to God. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 233 There nre critical circumstances, under which a man who is in general on his guard, is called to redouble his Christian vigilance. If he is ahout to encounter imminent danger, for instance, he will take care to secure himself by every possible means. A house may be well guarded and se- cured, but, if there is any fear and expectation of thieves, every place will be doubly barred and watched. Good care may be taken, in the gen- eral habits of a family, to guard against fire ; but if it be known that a spark has fallen among any combustibles, every possible search is made to discover it and to prevent its ravages. Thus should every servant of Christ redouble his guard in critical circumstances. He should remember, that, while awful providences seem to be threaten- ing us, and while we are surrounded with dangers on every side, and while the enemy of our souls is going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, it ill becomes us to trifle. Let us stir up ourselves, and attend to our Master's admonition, Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burn- ing, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord. If St. Paul had not been on entire character, he would not have spoken so ingenuously of himself as he does in the 7th to the Romans. He would have acted as many others have done : he would have put the best aspect on things. He would not have opened the chambers of imagery; and have shewed, while all the church was admiring him, what was passing within. Here were real sim- plicity and humility — nothing of that Pharisee which he once was. The Pharisee is become a Publican : the reality is coming forward ; and he seems to say, " Is any man groaning under a body of sin and death ?— on searching his heart, does he 234 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL* find that therein dwelleth no good thing?— This is my case also ; anil if I have any thin;; wherein to glory, it is in Christ and not in myself." Charitt should teach us to exercise hope and love toward all men — hope toward those who are without, and love toward those who are within, the walls of the city of God. Of those without, we are apt to despair too soon, and to say, There is no hope; when we should lahor to allure (hem into the church of God, and to impress thern with a sense of its glory and its privileges. Toward those within the walls, we sometimes fail in the exercise of love: we are too much influenced in our feelings toward them by a difference of edu- cation, taste, or disposition ; while the great ques- tion ought to he, "Are they really fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God ?" — and if so, whatever their defects may he, we ought to honor and love tliein as the temples of the Hohi Ghost. J J When Christians are delivered from trouble, they are apt soon to forget it ; and to lose sight of the holy resolutions formed while under affliction: the strong impressions soon decay. Whereas if we were enabled to glory in tribulation— -if our con- science were made tender — if more reality were put into our prayers — we should take heed how We give way to an evil heart of unbelief: we should remember, too, how our troubles were brought on us, and the benefits which we received while they continued: we should watch that we might not estimate them falsely: and at all times, we should bear it in our mind, v'jtJt it ' s not suffer- ing which hurts us, but sin, REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 233 Some men will follow Christ on certain conditions — if lie will not lead them through rough roads— if he will not enjoin tliein any painful tasks — if the sun and wind do not annoy them— if he will remit a part of his plan and order. But the true Chris- tian, who has the spirit of Jesus, will say, as Ruth said to Naomi, " Whither thou goest, 1 ivill go ."' whatever difficulties and dangers may be in the way. It is our happiness, as Christians, that, however we may chana* our place, we shall never change our object. Whatever we lose, we shall not lose that which we esteem better than life. God has made to us this gracious promise— 1'tnB dwell in them, and walk in them. And though we may endure much affliction, and pass through many deep waters, yet this is our honour and comfort, the Lord is with us ! and then— what is difficul- ty ? — what is tribulation ?— what is death ?— Death to a Christian is hut an entrance into the city of God! it is hut joining a more blessed company, and singing in a more exalted strain, than he can do in this world. The way of every man is declarative of the end of that man. How difficult is it to show those who afe in the house of mourning, that God is teaching then)) that, if they had not leaned so much on their creature-supports, they had not been so broken ! Still they are crying, O Absalom, my son, my son ! Why is it that we are shocked to see the world falling to pieces around us, when we shall leave it ourselves to-morrow — perhaps to-day? We for- get l hat it is the design of God to dash every thing to pieces. It is by these trials that we begin to 236 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. learn we have been walking by sense rather than by faith — and looking at our children and our possessions as though we were never to lose them. It is by faith that we are relieved under the difficulties of sense. Sense revolts, when it views our great high Priest on the cross — Faith glories in this object! Sense talks like the Jews: He saved others : himself he cannot save : if he be now the King of Israel, lit him come down from the cross, and we will believe him. — Faith lays hold on him as the Saviour of the world, and cries, Lord! remem- ber me when thou comest into thy kingdom! Sense envies the prosperous worldling, and calls him happy — Faith goes into the sanctuary, to see what his end will be. When the waves run high, Sense clamors— Faith says, " Speak hut the word, and the winds and waves shall obey thee." When we feel our earthly house of this tabernacle taking down, Sense Sinks — but Faith says, We know, that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, ice have a building of God, a hcuse not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Wisdom prepares for the worst : but folly leaves the worst lor that day when it comes. Abraham teaches us the right way of convers- ing with Goil :—And Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him ! When we plead with him our faces should be in the dust : we shall not then speak lightly of him, nor complain ; nor will there be any more boasting. We shall abase ourselves and exalt God ! The Christian's secret intercourse with God will make itself manifest to the world. We may not see the husbandman cast the seed into the REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. •23? ground, yet when the corn grows and ripens we know that it was sown. The mere professor, who may be found every where but in his secret cham- ber, may think that with care he shall pass for a good Christian: but he mistakes, for the spirit will discover itself, of what sort it is. He, who would walk safely and honorably, must walk closely with God in secret. A variety of circumstances render the sinner's firsf approaches to Christ difficult. They, who find an easy access, will find an easy departure when troubles arise. The most likely method we can take to hasten the removal of what we love, is, to value it too much — to think on it with endle.-s anxiety — to live on its favor with solicitude. It shall soon cither become a thorn in our side, or be taken away. Be ye not unequally yoked. If a believer marries an unbeliever, the miseries which ensue are end- less. Were they determined, in kindness, to grant all they could to each other; yet they live as in two separate worlds. There is a great gulf be- tween them, which cannot be passed without the grace of God ; on which, while all should hope and pray for it, none should presume. They can- not taste the same pleasures, nor share the same sorrows, nor pursue the same objects, nor walk in the same path. What hope, then, can there be of comfort? livery Christian rinds the corruptions of his own heart, the snares of the world, and the devices of Satan, together with innumerable se- cret anxieties, quite enough to struggle with in his journey to heaven, without adding another to his difficulties. 23 8 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. In studying the word of God, digest it under these two heads: either as removing obstructions, which keep God anil thee asunder ; nr as supply- ing some uniting power to bring God and thee together. Perhaps it is a greater energy of Divine Power, which keeps the Christian from day to day, from year to year — praying, hoping, running, believing — against all hinderances — which maintains turn as a living martyr — than that which bears him up for an hour in sacrificing himself at the stake. By the course of his providence God will assert the liberty of his council. Let me ask, every day, what reference it has to the day of judgment ; and cultivate a disposition to be reminded of that day. Indulge not a gloomy contempt of any thing which is in itself good: only let it keep its place. God has called us to meet his best uift to man — his only-begotten Son — not in a splendid court, but in a manger! — in the wilderness! — in Geth- seinane! — before the high priest, when they spat in his face and buffeted him, and smote him! — at the cross ! — and at the sepulchre ! Thus it is that lie corrects the pride and ambition of the human heart ! There is in sin, not only an infinite mischief done to the man, but it is accompanied by an in- fatuation that surpasses all description. ' When the heart declines from God, and loses commun- ion with Christ, the man resembles one in a con- sumption, who is on the brink of the grave and REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 230 yet talks of a speedy recovery ! A death will come on the spirit, which will be perceived and felt by all around : yet, when the most affectionate friends of such a man attempt to expostulate, they often find him not only insensible, but obstinate and stout-hearted. He who, like Samson, the cham- pion of Israel, lays his head in the lap of tempta- tion, will rarely rise again as he lay ' own : he may say, / will go out, us at other times before, and shake myself: but he icists not that the Lord is de- purled from him! — Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not ! The whole life of Christ was one continued ex- pression of the same desire. — " Let me lay aside my glory — let me expire on the cross— so that thy kingdom may come!" And the blood of every martyr, who ever suffered in the cause of God, cried, " Let thy kingdom come !" Growth in grace manifests itself by a simplicity — that is, a greater naturalness of character. There w ill I e more usefulness, and less noise ; more tenderness of conscience, and less scrupu- losity) therw will be more peace, more humility : when the full corn is in the ear, it bends down because it is full. The history of all the great characters of the Bible is summed up in this one sentence: — they acquainted themselves with God, and acquiesced in lus will in all things. God's way of answering the Christian's prayer for an increase of patience, experience, hope, and love — usually is to put him into the furnace of tribulation. St. James therefore says, Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. People of •2-10 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. the world count it all joy when they are in ease and uffluence; but a Christian its taught to. count it alljoy when he is tried as gold in ihe fire. In Christ we see the most perfect exhibition of every grace, to which we, as his followers, are called. Let there be but in us that poverty of spir- it — that disposition to bear with provocations, and to forgive injuries — that obedience to God and ac- quiescence in his will — that perseverance in doing good — that love which overcomcth all difficulties — that meekness, humility, patience, compassion, and gentleness which were found in Christ ; and if any man should be so ignorant and debased as to im- agine that this is not true dignity of character, ]et it be remembered that this was the mind xchich was also in Christ Jesus. Looking back is more than we can sustain with- out going back ! When the multitudes followed our Lord on a particular occasion, although he wished for retire- ment, and had gone purposely to seek it, yet he gave up his design and attended to them. Mark the condescension and tenderness of suc h conduct, in opposition to a sour, monastic, morose temper. We are too fond of our own will. We want to be doing what we fancy mighty things ; but the great point is, to do small things, when called to them, in a right spirit. The world will allow of a vehemence approach- ing to ecstasy, on almost any occasion but that, which, above all others, will justify it. A christian will find his parenthesis for prayer, even through his busiest hours. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 241 We treat sensible and present things as realities, and future and eternal things as fables: whereas the reverse should be our habit. An Enthusiast will court trouble, and that for itself : but a Christian, while he does not court it, yet rejoices in it : not for its own sake, but be- cause he knows that tribulation workelh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope — a hope that maketh not ashamed. While patience is tbe fruit of his conflicts and trials, he gains experience by them : he acquires the knowledge which a trav- eller obtains in performing along journey: he is in possession of a bundle of choice maxims'and ob- servations, gathered with much pains: he is taught by them to know his own heart : he is brought ac- quainted witli the faithfulness and mercy of God, in holding him up in the deep waters, and accompa- ning him through the fire of affliction. And this ex- perience produces hope — a hope that he is savingly united to Christ — ii hope that he is in the church of God— a hope of the glory of God— a. hope that maketh not ashamed, keeping us steady at anchor through every storm, and when every other sup- port fails. There are but two states in the world which may be pronounced happy— either that of the man who rejoices in the light of God's countenance, or that of him who mourns after it. Let the warm-hearted Christian be careful of receiving a wrong bias in religion. When a ball is in motion, almost any thing presented to it ob- liquely will turn it wholly out of its course. Be- ware, therefore, of a wrong direction in Christian- ity. Fix your attention ever on such examples as St. John and St. Paul, and hear how they speak : 242 &EMAINS OF SIR. CECli.. If any man love not the Lord Jestts Christ, let him be .inathema, Maranalha .' God denies a Christian nothing, but with a de- sign to give him something better. God teaches some of his best lessons in the school of affliction. It is said that St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians has quite the spirit and air of a prison. That school must be truly excellent, which produces such experience and wisdom. We cannot build too confidently on the merits of Christ, as our only hope ; nor can we think too much of the wind that wus in Christ, as our great example. A christian does not glory in tribulation, as he does in the cross of Christ. The Cross of Christ is the object in which he glories: but he glories in tribulation as an appointed means and instru- ment in the band of God, of accomplishing his own pleasure and promoting our real good. Never was there a man of deep piety, who has not been brought into extremities — who has not been put into thefiie— who has not been taught to say, Though he slay me, yd will I trust in him ! A christian's steps are not only 'safe, but steady : — He that bclitvcth, shall not make haste. When danger approaches, be shall not be thrown into confusion from his alarm, so as to be ready to sav, "Whither shall I run?" but, finding himself on safe ground, be shall be quiet. Btinc built on the sure foundation and established in Christ, he shall not make baste in bis fxpectations : he shall not make haste with respect to the promises. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 243 as though they were long in their accomplishment, knowing that all the promises of God are Yea, and, in Christ, Amen ! In affliction, he shall not make haste in running to broken cisterns; as Asadid, when in his disease, he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians : lie shall not be alarmed, or driven about, as one who has not a strong hold to enter; but shall say, None of these things move me ! 7ieither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might fin- ish my course with joy ! With respect to his char- acter, the Christian shall not make haste: if a cloud come over his reputation, and men will suspect his integrity without grounds, he will commit himself to God, and wait his opportunity, and not make rash haste to justify and clear his character. When a man can say, " My God !" if he can add no more, that is sufficient : for my God is all- wise in appointing, and almighty to uphold and to deliver. My God is a Father to me in Christ: yea, he is a Father who hid his face from Christ for my good. If, then, I am in darkness, let me remember that God never had a Son that was not sometimes inthedaik; for even Christ, his only begotten Son, cried out, My God ! My God ! why hast thou forsaken me t Few Christians, if any, sufficiently honor Christ, as governing their concerns. They do not say, "Now, while 1 am praying on earth, my Saviour is working for mc in heaven. He is saying to one, ' Do this !' — and to another, ' Do that ! — and all for my good!" While Jeremiah was, doubtless, crying to God out of the dungeon, Ebed-melech was in- terceding lor him with the king, and they were preparing the means of his deliverance. See Jer. xxxviii. 244 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. Let the restless, comfortless state of a backslider, distinguish him from an apostate. If you have set out in the ways of God, do not stumble at present difficulties. Go forward. Look not behind. Something must be left as a test of the loyalty of the heart — in Paradise, the Tree : in Israel, a Canaanite : in us, Temptation. Religious joy, is a holy, a delicate deposit. It is a pledge of something greater, and must not be thought lightly of: for let it be withdrawn only for a little, and, notwithstanding the experience we may have had of it, we shall find no living crea- ture can restore it to us, and we can only, with David, cry, Restore unto me, O Lord, the joy of thy salvation. A christian should beware of that temptation, Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? He should remember, if it is a time of extremity, that is the very reason w hy he should wait. If his way is so hedged up that he cannot go forward, he should say, "Now is the time for me to stand still, and wait till God opens my way." Jf'henmy spirit teas overwhelmed within me, then thou kneuest my path. Human nature is always putting forth its fears and unbelief, in anxious questions concerning to- morrow', or some threatening calamity : but Christ says to every Christian, " Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid : I go to prepare a place for you ; and I w ill protect and guide you throughout the journey thither." God with us is the traveller's security. Jacob was destitute : he had a long and dreary journey : REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 24o but God said, Behold 1 am toith thee, and will keep Ihee in all places whither thougoest. God calls not for thousands of rams nor ten thou- sands of rivers of oil: he calls not li is creatures to live in sackcloth and ashes, nor set? them to per- form long pilgrimages, nor to inflict pains on their bodies. No! the rigors of superstition are from man. The voice of God is, " Be happy, here and forever! Fly that which will make you miser- able every where ! Come unto me, all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The voice of Christ is, My Son, give me thy heart! and to him, who obeys, he will say, "Go in peace! go into the grave! go to judgment! go in- to eternity ! go in peace !" A christian must stand in a posture to receive every message which God shall send. He must be so prepared, aa to he like one who is called to set off on a sudden journey, and has nothing to do hut to set out at a moment's notice : or like a merchant who has goods to send abroad, and has them all [tacked up and in readiness for the first sail. How many people go out of their sphere under good pretences ! A person who objects to tell a friend of his faults, because he has faults of his own, acts as a surgeon would who should refuse to dress another person's wound because he had a dangerous one himself. When the most insignificant person tells us we are wrong, we ought to listen. Let us believe it possible we may be wrong, when any one sup- 240 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. poses we are ; and enter into the true littleness which consists in receiving correction like a child. No man rejects a minister of God who faithfully performs his office, till he has rejected God. The plainest declarations of God's favor and the strongest encouragements, are generally manifest- ed in the darkest night of trial. Who could be more destitute than Jacob, when he lay down in the desert with a stone for his pillow? See also Acts xxvii. 20—24. 2 Cor. i. 3, 4, 5. The pride of Israel testificth to his face ; and they do not return to the Lord their God. This is the worst symptom in a sinner — when he is too proud to go to God. Whatever be our condition, if there is contrition of spirit under it, there is hope of that man. There is no room for despair, to whatever lengths a man may have gone in sin, if he can smite on his breast, and say, "O Lord ! though my sins testify against me, yet thou art a God of compassion. Do thou it, for thy name's sake." A christian should never attempt to try his state while under a temptation : he might as well attempt to examine the face of the moon while she is under an eclipse. But, when he finds cor- rupt nature setting in with a temptation — and who has not felt this r — let him remember his Great Physician. This is the glory of the Son of God, that no case, either of the body or of the soul, was ever found too hard for him ! Blessed be God, that we have in him a hiding-place — a covert from the storm — a refuge from all our enemies ! REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 217 The great care of the man who is content with the form of godliness without the power, is, that every tiling should he right without; while the true Christian is most careful that every thing should he right within. It would be nothing to him to he applauded by the whole world, if he had not the approbation of God and his own con- science. Real religion is, therefore, a living prin- ciple. Any one may make a show, anil be called a Christian, and unite himself to a sect, and be ad- mired, — but, for a man to enter into the sanctu- ary ; to hold secret communion with God; to re- tire into his closet, and transact all his affairs with an unseen Saviour ; to walk with God like Enoch, and yet to smite on his breast with the Publican, having no confidence in the flesh, and triumphing only in Christ Jesus — these are the life and acts of a new creature ? O Lord ! let me have any thing but they frown : and aki thing, with thy smile !* Whatever, below God, is the object of ourlove, will at some time or other, be the matter of our sorrow. Take care, Christian! whatever you meet with in your way, that you forget not your father ! When the proud and wealthy rush by in triumph, while you are poor and in sorrow, hear the voice of your Father saying," My Bon ! had I loved them, I should have corrected them too. 1 give them up to the ways of their own hearts: but to my * " Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor ! And with Thee rich, take what thou wilt away." Cowper, Task. V. J. P. 248 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. children, if I give sorrow, it is tlmt I may lead tliem to a crown of glory that fadeth not away ! It is by faith that we contemplate unseen things. To the eye of a clown, a planet appears but a twinkling star : but if he looked through a teles- cope, and were able to calculate, he would perceive that it was a great world, and would be astonish- ed at its distance and magnitude. While the gay and the busy are moving on their little mole-hills full of anxiety, faith thus reaches beyond the world : it views death as at hand : it looks at heaven, and catches a glimpse of its glory : it looks at hell and sees the torments of the condemned : it looks at judgment and realizes that awful day: it looks at eternity, and says, Our light affliction, ichich is hut for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory : while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; for the things irhich are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Where there is a real character, a man will not sit down in the Christian conflict, and say, "If I must carry about will) me this body of death, I must submit. I must bear these enemies as quiet- ly as I can." No! he will say, as St. Paul seems to say, " I will be on no terms with sin! I will raise an outcry against the corrupt nature ! I will triumph in my Physician! His grace is sufficient for ine : I will wait for a cure, and wait for it in the appointed way. I see light and hope, and liberty ; and I thank God, that, if 1 am a sinner, yet I am a saved sinner !" God hath set the day of prosperity and the day of adversity, the one over against the other — as the clouds are gathered, for ruin, by the shining of the REMAINS OP MR. CECIL. •249 sun : and, if for a moment they are blown aside, we must expect their return. — Where, in our sky, should we look for clouds ? — where it is brighest: where our expectations are highest. Our sharpest sorrows arise out of our sweetest comforts. Ra- chel said, Give me children, or else I die : and in ob- taining what she esteemed her highest comfort — what she would have at any rate — was hidden the cause of her sharpest grief. God gave her chil- dren ; and, in bearing her second child, it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she died.) that she called his name Ben-oni — the soa of my sorrow. Who is the most miserable man on earth ? — and Whither shall we go to seek him ? Not to the tav- ern ! not to the theatre ! not even to a brothel ! — hut to the church ! That man who has sat Sabbath after Sabbath under the awakening and affecting calls of the gospel, and has hardened his heart against these calls — he is the man whose condition is the most desperate of all others. Woe unto thee, Cho- razin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! — and thou, Caper- naum, which are exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. Give every kind of knowledge its due attention and respect : but what science is to be compared to the knowledge of Christ crucified ? Had a trav- eller lost his way in some desert, where he had wandered till he was fainting with hunger and thirst, for what would he first ask ? — for music ? — paintings? — No! — he would ask for bread — for water! Any thing else offered him would be a mocking of his misery. What an oppressive burden is taken off a Christian's shoulders, by his privilege of leaving 2SQ REMAINS OF SIR. CECIL. all consequences, while in the path of duty to God ! He has done with — " how shall /hear this trouhle !" —"How shall / remove this difficulty? — ''How shall / get through this deep water?" — but leaves himself in the hands of God. We may form some idea of the joys of heaven, by the innocent pleasures w hich God grants us on earth. Here is a fine situation, with wonder- ful prospects— every thing to delight the senses: yet all this we find in a world w hich is under a curse! what then may we not expect in a heaven- ly world, where God exercises all his power for our blessedness ? However ill men may treat us, we should nev- er give them a handle to say that we misbehaved ourselves. Were I to meet my mo*t bitter adversary, and know that he was come with the most mali- cious intentions, I should endeavour to be so on my guard, that be could not lay bis finger, with truth, on any part of my conduct. Toe motive determines the quality of actions. One man may do a penurious net, because he knows he shall be put to difficulties if he does not : anoth- er may do the same from mere avarice. The king of Edom offered up his son on the wall, and his abominable cruelty excited just indignation: but Abraham, having in intention offered up his son, is held forth to all generations for this act as the father of the faithful. It is always a sign of poverty of mind, where men are ever aiming to appear great: for they, who are really great, never seem to kuow it. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 251 What the world calls tlie best company is such as a pious mechanic would not condescend to keep: he would rather say, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. One way of reading the Bible with advantage is, to pay it great homage : so that, when we come to any part which we cannot connect with other pas- sages, we must conclude that this arises from our ignorance, but that the seeming contrarieties are in themselves quite reconcilable. Young Christians on setting out in life, often mistake greatly in not sufficiently attributing events to the immediate providence of God. They are not reluctant, at the end, to acknowledge that their way has been directed : but they do not enough mark it as they go on. There is a habit of Baying, " Such a thing may turn up," as if it de- pended on chance ; whereas nothing will turn up, but what was ordered long before. One cause of this evil is, that the divinity of our day deals too much in common-place : certain fundamental truths are set forth : and if a man professes these truths, too little account is made of the faith, dependence, and other "races of a Christian. When a man be- comes a Christian be is written upon, as it were, " to be provided for !" — and he ought, therefore, to notice, as he goes on, bow Providence does pro- vide for him. Men mistake in nothing so much, as when they resist their dispensation ; for, while God shutteth up a man, there can be no opening. Resistance does but make the dispensation harder to he borne. Job says, He teareth himself in his anger: but shall the rock be removed because of thee ! The man is, 852 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. as it were, in a labyrinth : ant) the hand, which brought him in, must be the hand to conduct him out. We require the. same hand to protect us in ap- parent safety, as in the most imminent and palpa- ble danger. One of the most wicked men in my neighborhood was riding near a precipice, and fell over: his horse was killed, but he escaped without injury : instead of thanking God for his deliverance, he refused to acknowledge the hand of God therein : but attributed his escape to chance. The same man was afterward riding on a very smooth road: his horse suddenly tripped and fell, and threw his rider over his head, and killed him on the spot, while the horse escaped unhurt. If a man is dead in sin, our attempting to correct his false notions is like laving a dead man straight, who before was lying crooked. The man is dead, and will remain so; though, before, he was lying crooked, and is now lying straight. It matters little what right notions we may have, while we are dead in sin ; for we shall never act up to them, till God awakens our hearts. To have too much forethought, is the part of a wretch ; to have too little, is the part of a fool. Self-will is so ardent and active, that it will break a world to pieces, to make a stool to sit on. We are too little acquainted with the sacred character of God. A certain man sold a possession, and brought a certain part of the price. We should have thought this a generous act : but God saw that there wanted a right estimation of his charac- REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 253 ter. Many sins are suffered to pass, to be punish- ed hereafter: but God sometimes breaks out, and strikes an offender dead in vindication of his own glory. Remember always to mix good sense with good things, or they will become disgusting. Things are not to be done by the effort of the moment, but by the preparation of past moments. If there is any person to whom you feel dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak. Irritability urges us to take a step as much too soon, as sloth does too late. When we read the Bible we must always re- member, that like the holy waters seen by Ezekiel* it is in some places, up to the mikles ; in others, up tothe knees ; in others, tip to the loins; and in some a river too deep to be fathomed, and that cannot be passed over. There is light enough to guide the humble and teachable to heaven, and obscurity enough to confound the unbeliever. True religion as revealed in the scriptures may be compared to a plum on the tree, covered with its bloom. Men gather the plum, and handle it, and turn and twist it about, till it is deprived of all its native bloom and beauty: the fairest hand ■would as much rob the plum of its bloom, as any other. Now all that little party-spirit, which so much prevails among men, and which leads them * Ezek. ch. xlvii. 251 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. to say, lam of Paul and I o/Apollos — is but hand- ling the plum till it loses its bloom. There are but too classes of the wise : — the men who serve God because they have found him: and the men who seek him, because they have found him not. All others may say, /*• there not a lie in my right hand ? Philosophy is a proud, sullen detecter of the poverty and misery of man. It may turn him from the world with a proud, sturdy contempt : but it cannot come forward, and say, " Here are rest — grace — peace — strength — consolation !" We hear much of a decent pride — a becoming pride — a noble pride — a laudable pride ! Can that be decent, of which we ought to be asham- ed? — Can that be becoming, of which God has set forth the deformity ? — Can that be noble, which God resists, and is determined to debase? — Can that be laudable, which God calls abomina- ble. Many things are spoken of, in the Scriptures, as good: but there is not one thing emphatically called good, which does not relate to Christ or his coming. Sat the strongest things you can, with candor and kindness, to a man's face ; and make the best excuse you can for him, witli truth and justice, behind his back. Many people labor to make the narrow way wider. They may dig a path into the broad way ; but the way to life must remain a narrow way to the end. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. '2.5.5 All extremes are error. The reverse of error is not truth, but error. Truth lies between these extremes. I have no doubt, but that there are persons of every description, under every possible circum- stance, in every lawful calling among Christians, who will go to heaven— that all the world may see, that neither their circumstances nor calling prevented their being among the number of the blessed. God has given us four books: — the Book of Grace; the Book of Nature; the Book of the World; and the Book of Providence. Every oc- currence is a leaf in one of these books: it does not become us to be negligent in the use of any of them. Eloquence is vehement simplicity. God is omniseent as well as omnipotent; and omniscience may see reason to withhold what omnipotence could bestow. Attend to the presence of God: this will dig- nify a small congregation, and annihilate a large one. Having some business to transact with a gen- tleman in the, city, I called one day at his count- ing house: he begged I would call again, as I had so much more time to spare than he had, who was a man of business. "An hour is nothing to you," said he — " An hour nothing to a clergyman!" said I: "you seem little to understand the nature of our profession. One hour of a clergyman's 250 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. time rightly employed, Sir, is worth more to him than all the gains of your merchandise." If a man has a quarrelsome temper, let him alone. The world will soon find him employment. He will soon meet with some one stronger than himself, who will repay him better than you can. A man may fight duels all his lile, if he is disposed to quarrel. One day I got off my horse to kill a rat, which I found on the road only half killed. I am shocked at the thoughtless cruelty of many people, yet I did a thing soon after, that has given me considerable uneasiness, and for which I reproach myself bit- terly. As I was riding homeward, I saw a wagon standing at a door, with three horses : the two foremost were eating their coi n from bags at their noses ; but I observed the third had riropt his on the ground, and could not stoop to get any food. However, I rode on, in absence, without assisting him. But when I had got nearly home, I re- membered what I had observed in my absence of mind, and felt extremely hurt at my neglect; and would have ridden back had I not thought the wagoner might have come out of the house and relieved the horse. A man could not have had a better demand for getting off his horse, than for such an act of humanity. It is by absence of inind, that we omit many duties. A wicked man is a candidate for nothing but hell ! — However he may live, if his conscience were awake, he would turn pale at this question: What shall I do in the end thereof? REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 257 There is n great defect in Gray's Elegy. You cannot read it without feeling a melancholy : there is no sunshine — no hope after death : it shews the dark side only of mortality. But a man refined as he was, and speculating on the hankruptcy of hu- man nature, if he brought not evangelical views into the estimate, could describe human nature only as hopeless and forlorn : whereas what he felt a subject of melancholy, is with me included in the calculation. I know it must he so, and, ac- cording lo my views, should he disappointed if it were not so — My kingdom, said our Lord, is not of this world. Revelation never staggers me. There may be a ttrtium quid, though we are not yet in possession of it, which would put an end to all our present doubts and questions. I w as one day riding with a friend: we were discussing a subject, and I ex- pressed myself surprised that such a measure was not adapted. "If I were to tell you one thing," said he, " it would make all clear." I gave him credit that there did exist something, which would entirely dispel my objections. Now if this be the case, in many instances, between man and man, is it an unreasonable conclusion, that all the unac- countable points', which we may observe in the providence and government of God, should be all perfection in the Divine mind? Take the growth of a seed — I cannot possibly say w hat first pro- duces progress of growth in the grain. Take vol- untary motion — I cannot possibly say where action begins and thought ends. The proportion between a fly's mind and a man's is no adequate illustra- tion of the stale of man with respect to God; be- cause there is some proportion between the minds or faculties of two finite creatures, but there can be none between finite man and the infinite God. 258 REMAINS 01 MR. CECIL. One little preacher will endeavor to prove, with a great deal of warmth, the truth of Calvinistic principles : — and another little preacher will clearly demonstrate the truth of the Arminian scheme. Good sense will go between them, and say, "There are certain tilings written on these subjects — Thus saith the Lord:" good sense will hesitate to push what is said to all its apparent conclusions, for — It is written again. Here ends all dogmatism with a wise man. A mouse that had lived all his life in a chest, says the fable, chanced one day to creep up to the edge, and, peeping out, exclaimed with wonder — "I did not think the world was so large." The first step to knowledge, is to know that we are ignorant : It is a great point to know our place: for want of this, a man in private life, instead of attending to the affairs in his "chest," is ever peeping out, and then he becomes a philosopher! he must then know every thing, and presumptuously pry into the deep anil secret councils of God —not considering that man is finite, and has no faculties to comprehend and judge of the great scheme of things. We can form no other idea of the dispensations of God, nor can have any knowledge of spiritual things, except what God has taught us in his word ; and, where he stops, we must stop. He has not told us why he permitted the angels to fall — why he created Adam — why he suffered sin to enter into the world— why Christ came in the latter ages — when he will come to judgment — what will be the doom of the Heathen nations — nor why our state throughout eternity was made to depend on such a moment as man's life: all these are secrets of his council. Where wast thou, when I laid the foun- dations of the earth? God urges it on us again and REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 259 again, that sin has entered — and that we must flee from the wrath to come. Christ, in the days of liis flesh, never gratified curiosity : he answered every inquiry according to the spirit of the in- quirer, Dot according to the letter of the inquiry: if any man came in humility for instruction, he always instructed ; but, when any came to gratify a vain curiosity, he answered, as when one said, Lord, are there few that be saved'. 1 — strive to ENTER IN AT THE STRAIT GATe! Of, aS when another inquired, Lird, and what shall this man do ? — What is that to thee ? Follow thou me. We are too ready to say in trouble, All these things are against me! but a Christian should say, " Tbis or that may seem against me ; but there is mercy for me : there is a Saviour : there is God's word : and there are his ordinances." He should be more careful to enumerate what is for him, than what is against him. ile should look over the list of his spiritual and temporal mercies, as well as that of bis sorrows; and remember, that what things are against him are so on account of his sin. Our pilgrimage is but short: — let us make use of our helps and means. God has given us a guide, and a support to lean on: when the clouds gather, we have only to look to Jesus. We are not to expect the joys of heaven while on earth: — let us be content that there is a highway for us to walk in, and a leader to conduct us in that way. It is a Christian's business, as much as possible, consistently with his duty, to lessen his cares and occupations in the world. It is very common to hear Christians complain what a hinderance busi- ness is, while they are, perhaps, at the very time 260 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. too anxious to increase it! There is some fallacy, too, in the complaint: for, where there is a prin- ciple of grace, it will prevail even in a multitude of engagements. There is much difference be- tween seeking busy situations, and being found in them. What we call " taking steps in life," are most serious occurrences; — especially if there he, in the motive, any mixture of ambition. Wherefore gad- dest thou about to change thy way ? The dispensation of grace to some, is little more than a continual combat with corruptions : so that, instead of advancing, a man seems to be but just able to preserve himself from sinking. A boat, with the tide full against it, does well if it can keep from driving back, and must have strong force indeed to get forward. We must estimate grace by the opposition which it meets with. How blessed is the Christian, in the midst of bis greatest troubles! It is true we cannot say he is perfect in holiness — that he has ne\er any doubts — that his peace of mind is never interrupted — that he never mistakes providence : but, after all, his is a blessed condition ; for he is supported under his trials, and instructed by the discipline: and, as to his fears, the evil under the apprehen- sion of which he is ready to sink, frequently does not come — or it does not continue — or it is turned into a blessing. One of the greatest impositions of Satan on the mind, is that of quieting a man in the pursuit or possession of what is lawful. So that tf it is not murder, or adultery, or theft, which he is commit- REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 261 ting, ail is well ! Because a man's bed is his own, he may idle away in it his inestimable time! Be- cause his business is lawful, a man may intoxicate his mind with the pursuit of it! The very heart and root of sin, is an indepen- dent spirit. We erect the idol self ; and not only wish others to worship, but worship it our- selves. We must take care when we draw parallel cases, not to take such as are not or cannot be made parallel. For instance — we may ask, before we act, " What would Jesus Christ do in this case ? or what would St. Paid?" but we cannot be guided by this rule in every thing, because Christ's mission was peculiar: it was an unparalleled event: it was for three years only: and, like a great fire, he was always burning — always intent on one point. St. Paid also was in peculiar cir- cumstances : he was sent on an especial errand. In every thing which is in any degree sinful, we should turn to these examples ; but, in the conduct peculiar to our station, our application of these examples must be governed by circumstances. Many inexperienced Christians are apt to look for wrong kinds of evidences, and so distress themselves about their state. The questions which we should put to ourselves, in seeking the best evidences, are — " Do I hate sin ! — Is it my grand fear? — Is it my grief, that, while 1 have a good hope of pardon, I yet should make such ill returns? Have I brokenness of spirit?" — Godli- ness is analogous to the principle of gravitation, in that it reduces every thing to its proper centre. 262 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. The difference between what is called fate, and prfpestination, is something like that of a house without a governor, and a house, with a gov- ernor. The Fatalist says, "Everything must, of necessity, he as it is — as a stone must full to the ground, fire must ascend, &c. The Predestina- rian says, that every thing is determined by a wise Governor, who inspects, orders, and superin- tends the whole machine ; so that a sparrow does not fall to the ground, or a hair of the head per- ish, without permission. We are so accustomed to see sin within and without us, that we seldom deeply feel it, or are so shocked at it, as we should be were it less fre- quent. If an inhabitant of the court were to walk through some of the filthy streets and alleys of the metropolis, how would he be disgusted and terri- fied ! while the poor wretches, who live in them, think nothing of the matter. Thus a clearer view of sin and of the holiness of Gnd, made the prophet cry out, Wo is me ! for J rim undone ; be- cause I am a man of unclean lips, and [dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips : for mine et/es have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. It is much easier to settle a point, than to act on it. I oncf said to myself, in the foolishness of my heart, "What sort of sermon must that have been which was preached by St. Peter, when three thousand souls were converted at once ?" — What sort of sermon ! — such as other sermons. There is nothing to be found in it extraordinary. The effect was not produced by St. Peter's elo- quence: but by the mighty power of Gnd, present with his word. It is in vain to attend one minis- REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 263 ter after another, and to hear sermon after ser- mon, unless we pray that the Holy Spirit accom- pany his word. Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that ivatereth ; but God that giveth the increase. That humility which courts notice, is not first- rate. It may he sincere, hut it is sullied. Do not sound a trumpet, nor say, "Come and see how huiiihle I am !" We should he careful never to discourage any one who is searching after God. If a man begins in earnest to feel after him if haply he may find him, let us he aware how we stop him, by rashly telling him he is not seeking in the right way. This would he like setting fire to the first round of the ladder, by w hich one was attempting to escape. We must wait for a fit season to communicate light. Had any one told me, when I first began to think religiously, that I was not seeking God in the right way, I might have been discouraged from seeking him at all. I was much indebted to my mother, for her truly wise and judicious con- duct toward me when 1 first turned from my van- ity and sin. We should always record our thoughts in afflic- tion — set up way-marks — set up our Bethels — erect our Ebenezers ; that we may recur to them in health ; for then we are in other circumstances, and can never recover our sick-bed views. A contemplative life has more the appearance of a life of piety than any other: but it is the di- vine plan to bring faith into activity and exer- cise. We choose that sort of walk, which we like best : if we love quiet, we are for sedentary 264 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL- piety ; but the design of God is to root us out of every tiling, and bring us into more useful stations. A wretched prisoner, chained to the floor for a length of time, would deem it a high privilege to be allowed to walk across the room. Another, confined to lie on his back till it had become sore, would think it a great favor if he might be per- mitted to turn on his s de for a few minutes. In a course of habitual pain, I am thankful for five minutes' freedom from Buffering: how forgetful have I been of fifty years of tolerable ease ! How unmindful are we of what we call common mercies ! In order to read the Bible with profit, we must begin by denying ourselves every step of the way: for, every step of the way, it will he found to op- pose our corrupt nature. Christians resemble travellers in a stage- coach. We are full of our plans and schemes, but the coach is moving rapidly forward : it passes one mile-stone, and then another; and no regard is paid to the plots and plans of the passengers. A christian has advanced but a little way in religion when he has overcome the love of the world : for he has still more powerful and impor- tunate enemies: self — evil tempers — pride — undue affections — a stubborn will — it is by the subduing of these adversaries, that we must chiefly judge of our growth in grace. A friend called on me w hen I was ill, to settle 6ome business. My head was too much confused by my indisposition to understand fully what he said; but I bad such unlimited confidence in bim, REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 21.55 that I did whatever he bid me, in the fullest assur- ance that it was right. How simply I can trust in man, and how little in God! How unreasonable is a pure act of faith in one like ourselves, if we can- not repose the same faith in God. Some negative rules, given to a Young Minister going into a situation of peculiar difficulty. As I know you have received much good ad- vice, I would suggest to you a few hints of a negative kind ; w ith a view of admonishing you to be careful, while you are doing your work, not by any mistakes of your own to hinderyour success — I. By forgetting that your success ivith others is very much connected with your personal character. Herod heard John gladly, and he did many things; because he knew the preacher to be a just and holy man. Words uttered from the heart find their way to the heart, by a holy sympathy. Character is power: — " A good man seen, though silent, counsel gires." If you would make deep impressions on others, you must use all means to have them first formed on your own mind. Avoid, at the same time, all appearances of evil — as a covetous or worldly, a vain or assuming, careless or indevout deportment. Never suffer jesting with sacred persons or things. Satan will employ such antidotes as these, to counteract the operation of that which is effective and gracious in a minister's character. II. By placing your dependence on any means, qualities, or circumstances, however excellent in themselves. The direct way to render a thing weak, is to '266 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. lean on it as strong. God is a jealous God ; and will utterly abolish, idols as a means of success. He designs to demonstrate ttiat men and crea- tures are what he makes them, and that only. This also should he your encouragement : — look- ing, in the diligent and humble use of means, to that Spirit of life and power without w hose influ- ence all your endeavors will be to no purpose, you have reason to expect help suited and ade- quate to all your difficulties. III. By unnecessarily appearing in dangerous or improper situations. It is one thing to be humble and condescend- ing : it is another to render yourself common, cheap, and contemptible. The men of the world know when a minister is out of his place — when they can oppress him by numbers or circum- stances — w hen they can make him laugh, while his office frowns. Well will it be for him, if he is only rendered absurd in his future public admo- nitions, by his former compliances ; well if, being found like St. Peter on dangerous ground, he is not seduced, virtually at least, to deny his Master. IV. By suspicious appearances in his family. As the head of your household you are respon- sible for its appearances. lis pride, sloth, and disorder will be yours. You are accountable for your wife's conduct, dress, and manners, as well as those of your childi en, w hose education must be peculiarly exemplary. Your family is to be a picture of what you wish other families to be: and, without the "most determined resolution, in reliance on God, to finish this picture cost what it will, your recommending family religion to others will but create a smile. Your unfriendly hearers will recollect enough of Scripture to tell you that you ought, like the primitive Bishop, to be one, that rulelh uell Lis oun house, having his REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 267 children in subjection rvith all gravity : for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God ? V. By meddling beyond your sphere in temporals. Your aim and conversation, like your sacred call, are to be altogether heavenly. As a man of God, you have no concern with politics and par- ties and schemes of interest, but you are to live above them. There is a sublime spirit in a de- voted minister, which, as one says of Christianity itself, pays no more regard to these things, than to the battles of rooks, the industry of ants, or the policy of bees. VI. By venturing off general and acknowledged ground in spirituals. By giving strong meat instead of milk, to those who are yet but babes — by giving heed to fables, which minister questions rather than godly edifying ; amusing the mind, but not affecting the heart: often disturbing and bewildering, seldom convinc- ing; frequently raising a smile, never drawing a tear. VII. By maintaining acknowledged truth in your own spirit. Both food and medicines are injurious, if ad- ministered scalding hot. The spirit of a teacher often effects more than his matter. Benevolence is a universal language: and it will apologize for a multitude of defects, in the man who speaks it ; while neither talents nor truth will apologize for pride, illiberality, or bitterness. Avoid, therefore irritating occasions and persons, particularly dis- putes and disputants, by which a minister often loses his temper and his character. VIII. By being too sharp-sighted, too quick-ear- ed, or loo ready-tongued. Some evils are irremediable: they are best neither seen nor heard : by seeing and hearing 268 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. things which you cannot remove, you will create implacable adversaries; who, being guilty ag- gressors, never forgive. Avoid speaking meanly or harshly of any one : not only because this is forbidden to Christians, but because it is to de- clare war as by a thousand heralds. IX. By the temptations arising from the female sex. I need not mention what havoc Satan has made in the church, by th's means, from the fall to this day. Your safety, when in danger from this quar- ter, lies in flight — to parley is 10 fall. Take the first hint from conscience, or from friends. In fine, Watch thou in all things; endure afflic- tions : do the work of an evangelist : make full proof of thy ministry : and then, whether those arouud you acknowledge your real character or not now, they shall one day know that there hath been a prophet among them .' FRAGMENT. A Dying Minister's Farewell. When a Christian minister feels the springs of life giving way : — his faculties decaying — his voice failing — his spirit sinking — though he may not have it in his power to say, as the apostle did to his friends, 1 know that ye all, among whom I have preached the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more — yet he should stand ready to part with his flock, and every sermon should be felt by him as if it were his last. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that 1 am pure Jrom the blood of all men : for I have not shun- ned to declare unto you all the counsel of god. REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 269 And what have I declared that counsel of God to be ? — All the curious distinctions of the schools? — All the peculiarities insisted on so strongly by dif- ferent sects? — No such thing ! I have followed the great apostle in testifying repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. There has been a slander brought against reli- gion — that we are not agreed, as to the truths we set before men. I say, it is false ! We are agreed. All, who know any thing of real religion, are agreed, that the substance of the matter is con- tained in repentance toward God, and faith to- ward our Lord Jesus Christ. If a man, like the prodigal, feels that he has left his father's house — turned his back on God — and is become a fool and a madman tor so doing — and that there is no hope hut in his returning again : if such a change of mind is wrought in him by the Holy Spirit, as he wrought in David, when he cried, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin: if, like Peter, he goes forth weeping bitterly — feeling that he has acted foolishly and wickedly, and that his only hope is in the mercy of God through the Saviour — then the man enters so far into the spirit of religion — repentance to- ward God. But does he rest in this ? Nay, he knows that if he could offer thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil, he could make no satisfaction for the sin of his soul. He looks to the atonement! — to Him, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Repentance toward God Will st be accompanied by faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name : which were born not of blood, 270 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. These men are enabled to say with St. Paul, " 1 count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. I have no refuge but in him — no other hope — no other plea. All my confidence before God is grounded on this — that He suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." If a minister testifies these things— if he speaks plainly and simply these grand essential truths of God's word — though he die before another Sab- bath return, he hat rest in peace — leaving the issue in God's hand. The ground of a minister's own solid satisfaction cannot be popularity : for even to Simon Ma- gus all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God .' —neither can he ground his satisfaction on the exercise of strong and enlarged talents: for even Balaam was a man of extraordinary endowments — nor can it be on his success : — for many, aaith our Lord, shall come to me, and say, Have we not done many wonder- ful works in thy name, and in thy name cast out dev- ils'? Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you! As though he had said, " I deny not the works, but ye are evil men !" But a minister's satisfaction must be grounded on the faithful discharge of his office in the de- livery of his message. A Prince sends a spe- cial messenger to his rebellious subjects, with of- fers of pardon : in examining his conduct, he will not inquire whether they received anil approved him or not : the question will he — " Did you de- liver my message? did yon deliver it as one that believed it yourself? as one in earnest ?" If a man should come and tell you, with a cheerful countenance and careless air, that your house was on fire, and that you and your children would be REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 271 burnt in the flumes if you did not make haste to escape, you would not believe him. You would say, "He does not believe it himself, or lie would not be so unfeeling as to speak of it in such a man- ner." If a minister delivers his message, then no scorn, no reproach that may be cast upon him, can take away his rest — lie has done his duty. When the king sent out his servants to invite men to his feast, they excused themselves on various preten- ces : but the servant might say, "No matter! — I have declared the message— I may rest in having tlone my part, though no success seems to attend my pressing invitations." I would lodge, therefore, my appeal in your con- sciences — J take you to record — I appeal to con- science : for there is a conscience in man ; and, in serious moments, it will speak out. It wrung from Joseph's brethren that confession, We are verily guilty concerning our brother ! Jt forced Balaam him- self to cry out, Let me die the death of the righteous ! and let my last end be like his! It tormented the traitor . hulas into that self-accusation, / have sin- ned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood! When a young person has been talked to by his parents — when they have represented to him the misery and ruin of a wicked course, and of bad habits — he might affect to brave it out at the time ; but he has gone afterward weeping through the streets — because conscience would speak. But when the Spirit of God softens a man's heart — when he is made to feel what an evil and bitter thing it is to sin against God — then a faithful minister's appeal to that man is like that of St. Paul to the Thessalonians : Ye are witnesses, and God also, howholily, and justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. As you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged 272 REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. every one of you (as a father doth his children) thai ye would ivalk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. For this cause also thank we God without ceasiyig, because, when ye re- ceived the word of God which ye heard of us, ye re- ceived it not as the word of men, but, (as it is in truth) the word of God tohich effectually worketh also in you that believe. 1 Thess. ii. 10— 13. It is most affecting to see to what miserable shifts men will have recourse, in order to evade the truth. "It is irrational," says one, " to insist so much on certain peculiarities of doctrine !" — But whose reason shall he the jurlsre ? — For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness: but, It is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understandiyig of the prudent. "It is unnecessary," says another — But has God commanded— and do we pronounce his commands unnecessary ? "It is disreputable" — Did Christ regard rep- utation ? — Nay, he made himself of no reputation. " It is a narrow way" — Ah ! there, indeed, you pronounce truly ! The way of heaven is a narrow way! But what says the judge — Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat ; because struil it the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find 'it. Oh how distressing is it to observe many, to whom we cannot hut fear, the Gospel which they hear preached from Sunday to Sunday, is hut the savor of death! If God has made a difference in any of us, let us not forget to whom we are in- debted. Brethren ! yoo are my witnesses. I take you to record, that you hive had the whole counsel of God declared unto you — that all curious and met- REMAINS OF MR. CECIL. 273 aphvsical inquiries, all critical and conjectural points have been carefully avoided for your sake. I have attempted to clear my ministry of all dispu- table subjects, in order to set before you the plain fact of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of salvation through him. But consider ! toc also must give an account ! I must give an account, whether I plainly and simply declared the truth, as one who felt its im- portance, and was in earnest. You must give an account, whether you have gone away from this place, as if you had heard nothing to the purpose, and immediately dissipated your thoughts with some trifling subject — some mere secular concern : — or — whether what you heard brought you to your knees before God, beseeching him to seal and im- press his truth upon your hearts. Oh consider the satisfaction you will find, in really embracing all the counsel of God. Consider how soon the time will come, in which it must be your only satisfaction, that you have embraced it ! Let it be your prayer, as you go hence — " O God, give me grace to repent with that repentance which is unto life ! Make me serious ! Teach me what I must do to be saved ! Help me to believe the record which thou hast given of thy Son. Give me faith to receive the atonement — to set to my seal that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ." Come to your Saviour, with humility as a sin- ner : come with gratitude and love. "Forye are not come unto the mount that might be touch- ed, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words :" when, " so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceed- 274 REMAINS OFjMR. CECIL- ingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto mount Sion ; and unto the city of the living God — the heavenly Jerusalem ; and to an innumerable company of angels ; and to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven ; and to God, the Judge of all : and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant ; and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See, then, that ye refuse not him that speaketh ! — but — receiving a kingdom which can- not be moved, let us hold fast grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear." Heb. xii. 18—28. LINES ON THE DEATH OF A CHILD AT DAY-BREAK BY REV. MR. CECIL. ' Let me go, for the day breakcth," — Genesis 32 : Cease here longer to detain me, Kindest mother, drown'd in wo, Now thy kind caresses pain me ; Morn advances — let me go. See yon orient streak appearing ! Harbinger of endless day ; Hark ! a voice the darkness cheering, Calls my new-born soul away ! Lately launch'd a trembling stranger, On this world's wide boisterous flood, Pierc'd with sorrows, toss'd with danger, Gladly I return to God. Now my cries shall cease to grieve thee, Now my trembling heart find rest; Kinder arms than thine receive me, Softer pillow than thy breast. Weep not o'er these eyes that languish, Upward turning toward their home ; Kaptur'd they'll forget all anguish, While they wait to see thee come. There, my mother, pleasures centre — —Weeping, parting, care or wo Ne'er our Father's house shall enter— — Morn advances — let me go. LINES BY MR. CECIL. As through this calm and holy dawn , Silent glides my parting breath, To an Everlasting Morning — Gently close my eyes in death. Blessings, endless, richest blessings, Pour their streams upon thy heart ! (Though no language yet possessing) Breathes my spirit ere we part. Yet to leave thee sorrowing rends me, Now again his voice I hear ; Rise ! — may every grace attend thee, Rise, and seek tu meet me there !