OF THE REV. RICHARD CECIL, M. A. LATE RECTOR OF BISLEY, AND VICAR OF CHOBHAM, SURREY; AND TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A VIEW OF HIS CHARACTER. BY JOSIAH PRATT, B. D. F. A. S. NEW YORK: THOMAS GEORGE, JR., 4 SPRUCE STREET. INTRODUCTION. "He that has the happy talent of parlor-preaching," 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 wisdom and originality of his remarks, that I considered 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 were chiefly made by him, from time to time, in answer to my particular inquiries into his judgment and habits on certain points of doctrine or practice. I have labored, in recording those sentiments which I have gathered from him in conversation, to preserve as much as possible his very expressions; and they who were familiar with his manner will be able to judge, in general, how far I have succeeded but I would explicitly disavow an exact verbal responsibility. For the sentiments I make myself answerable. In some instances, I have brought together observations made at different times; the reader is not, therefore, to understand that the thoughts here collected on any subject always followed in immediate connexion. * An Humble Attempt towards the Revival of Religion, Part I, Sect. 4. VIEW OF THE CHARACTER OF THE REV. RICHARD CECIL. IN depicting the PERSONAL and MINISTERIAL or the prevailing motive for uprightness, with character of my departed friend, while I shall men of a lower tone of character; but I communicate occasionally the impressions made by him on my own mind, most of which were recorded at the time they were made, I shall endeavor to render him, as much as possible, the portrayer of his own character, by detailing those descriptions of his views and feelings which I gathered from him. question if it at all entered into calculation with my great friend. His mind was too noble to have recourse to other means, or to aim at other ends, than those which he avowed; and too intrepid not to avow those which he did entertain, so far as might be required or expedient. NATURE, EDUCATION, and GRACE, combine to His temptations were to the sins of the form and model the PERSONAL CHARAC-spirit, rather than to those of the flesh; and TER of every Christian. God gives to his he possessed, all his life long, a superiority to reasonable creature such physical and intel- the pleasures of mere sense not often seen. lectual constitution as he pleases; education He was, indeed, TEMPERATE in all things-holdand circumstances hide or unfold, restrain or ing his bodily appetites in entire subjection. mature this constitution; and grace, while it regulates and sanctifies the powers of the man, varies its own appearances according to the varieties of those powers. And it is by the endless modifications and counteractions of these principles, that the personal character of a Christian is formed. It might have been expected, from Mr. Cecil's earliest displays of character, that he was formed to be an instrument of extensive evil or of eminent good. There was a DECISION-a DARING-an UNTAMEABLENESS in the structure of his mind, even when a boy, combined with a tone of authority and command, and a talent in the exercise of these qualities, to which the minds of his associates yielded an implicit subjection. Fear of consequences never entered into his view. Opposition, especially if accompanied by any thing like severity or oppression, awakened unrelenting resistance. SYMPATHY WITH SUFFERING was an eminent characteristic of Mr. Cecil's mind-a sympathy which sprung less from that softness and sensibility which are the ornament of the female, than from the generosity of his disposition. He would have had all men happy. It gratified his generous nature to ease the burdens of suffering man. If any were afflicted by the visitations of God, he taught them to bow with submission, while he pitied and relieved; if the affliction were the natural and evident fruit of crimes, he admonished while he sympathized; if the sufferings of man or brute arose from the voluntary inflictions of others, he was indignant against the oppressor. Such was the intrepid and noble, yet humane mind, which was trained by Divine Grace, under a long course of moral discipline, for eminent usefulness in the church of God. Mr. Cecil's intellectual endowments will be spoken of hereafter. At present, I shall trace the rise and the advances of his Christian character. Yet this bold and untameable spirit was allied to a NOBLE and GENEROUs disposition. There was a magnificence in his mind. While He had early religious impressions. These he was scrupulously delicate, perhaps even to were first received from Janeway's "Token some excess, on subjects intrusted to his for Children," which his mother gave him "I was secrecy, and on affairs in progress; yet he when he was about six years of age. would never lend himself, in his own concerns, much affected by this book," said he, " and or in those of other persons, to any thing that recollect that I wept, and got into a corner, bordered on artifice and manoeuvre; for he where I prayed that I also might have an had a native and thorough contempt of what-interest in Christ,' like one of the children ever was mean, little, and equivocating. That there mentioned, though I did not then know honesty is the best policy" may be a strong, what the expression meant." Those impressions of his childhood wore away. He fell into the follies and vices of youth; and by degrees began to listen to infidel principles, till he avowed himself openly an unbeliever. He has alluded frequently in his writings to this criminal part of his history; but I shall add some paragraphs on this point partly in his own words. He was suffered to proceed to awful lengths in infidelity. The natural daring of his mind allowed him to do nothing by halves. Into whatever society he enlisted himself, he was its leader. He became even an apostle of infidelity-anxious to banish the scruples of more cautious minds, and to carry them all lengths with his own. And he was too successful. In after-life he has met more than one of these converts, who have laughed at all his affectionate and earnest attempts to pull down the fabric erected too much by his own hands. Yet he was never wholly sincere in his infidelity. He has left a most impressive and encouraging testimony to the power of parental influence in preserving his mind, under the grace of God, from entirely believing his own lie.* He gave me a farther instance of the power of conscience in this respect: "When I was sunk in the depths of infidelity, I was afraid to read any author who treated Christianity in a dispassionate, wise, and searching manner. He made me uneasy. Conscience would gather strength. I found it more difficult to stifle her remonstrances. He would recall early instructions and impressions, while my happiness could only consist with their obliteration." Yet he appears to have taken no small pains to rid himself of his scruples :-"I have read," said he, "all the most acute and learned and serious infidel writers, and have been really surprised at their poverty. The process of my mind has been such on the subject of revelation, that I have often thought Satan has done more for me than for the best of them; for I have had, and could have produced, arguments, that appeared to me far more weighty than any I ever found in them against Revelation." He did not proceed in this career of sin without occasional checks of conscience. Take the following instance: "My father had a religious servant. I frequently cursed and reviled him. He would only smile on me. That went to my heart. I felt that he looked on me as a deluded creature. I felt that he thought he had something which I knew not how to value, and that he was therefore greatly my superior. I felt there was a real dignity in his conduct. It made me appear little even in my own eyes. If he had condescended to argue with me, I could have cut some figure; at least by comparison, wretched as it would have been. He drew me once to hear Mr. Whitefield. I was 17 or 18 years old. It had no sort of religious See Remains: on the Influence of the Parental Character. effect on me, nor had the preaching of any man in my unconverted state. My religion began in contemplation. Yet I conceived a high reverence for Mr. Whitefield. I no longer thought of him as the "Dr. Squintum" we were accustomed to buffoon at school. I saw a commanding and irresistible effect, and he made me feel my own insignificance." For this daring offender, however, God had mercy in reserve! He was the child of many tears, instructions, admonitions, and prayers; and, though now a prodigal, he was to be recovered from his wickedness! While under the control of bad principles, he gave in to every species of licentiousnesssaving that, even then, the native nobleness of his mind made him despise whatever he thought mean and dishonorable. Into this state of slavery he was brought by his sin; but here the mercy of God taught him some most important lessons, which influenced his views and governed his ministry through afterlife, and the same mercy then rescued him from the slavery to which he had submitted. The penetration and grandeur of his mind, with his natural superiority to sensual pleasures, made him feel the littleness of every object which engages the ambition and the desires of the carnal man; insomuch that God had given him, in this unusual way of bringing him to himself, a thorough disgust of the world, before he had gained any hold of higher objects and better pleasures. It was thus that God prepared him for further communications of mercy. And here he felt the advantage of having been connected with sincere Christians. He knew them to be holy, and he felt that they were happy. "It was one of the first things," said he, 66 which struck my mind in a profligate state, that, in spite of all the folly, and hypocrisy, and fanaticism which may be seen among religious professors, there was a mind after Christ, a holiness, a heavenliness among real Christians." He added on another occasion, “My first convictions on the subject of religion were confirmed from observing that really religious persons had some solid happiness among them, which I had felt that the vanities of the world could not give. I shall never forget standing by the bed of my sick mother. Are not you afraid to die?' I asked her: No.' No! Why does the uncertainty of another state give you no concern? Because God has said to me, Fear not, when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.' The remembrance of this scene has oftentimes since drawn an ardent prayer from me, that I might die the death of the righteous.' His mind opened very gradually to the truths of the Gospel; and the process through which he was led is a striking evidence of the imminence of his past danger. "My feelings," he said, "when I was first beginning to recover from my infidelity, prove that I had been suffered to go great lengths; and, to a very awful degree, to believe my own lie. My mind revolted from Christianity. God did not bring me to himself by any of the peculiar motives abiding and growing conviction of his infinite of the Gospel. When I was about twenty distance from the standard of perfection, and years old, I became utterly sick of the vanity, the little comparative use which he had made and disgusted with the folly, of the world. I of his many means and helps in approaching had no thought of Jesus Christ, or of redemp- that standard-a humility that expressed itself, tion. The very notion of Jesus Christ or of therefore, in a teachableness of mind,* a ready redemption repelled me. I could not endure acknowledgment of excellence in others, and a system so degrading. I thought there might a candor in judging of other persons which possibly be a Supreme Being; and if there are seldom equalled, and which were rare enwere such a Being, he might hear me when I dowments in a mind that could not but feel its prayed. To worship the Supreme Being own powers, and its superiority to that of seemed somewhat dignified. There was some-most other men. But God has a thousand thing grand and elevating in the idea. But unseen methods of forming and cherishing the whole scheme and plan of redemption ap- those graces in his servants, which seem peared mean, and degrading, and dishonorable most opposed to their constitution, and least to man. The New Testament, in its senti- to be expected in their circumstances. ments and institutions, repelled me; and seemed impossible to be believed, as a religion suitable to man." Mr. Cecil gave me one day the following remarkable illustration of this subject in his own case:-" It is a nice question in casuisThe grace of God triumphed, however, over try:-How far a man may feel complacency in all opposition. The religion which began in the exercise of talent. A hawk exults on his this disgust with the world and disaffection to wing; he skims and sails, delighting in the the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, made consciousness of his powers. I know nothing rapid advances in his mind. The seed sown of this feeling. DISSATISFACTION accompanies in tears by his inestimable mother, though me, in the study and in the pulpit. I never long buried, now burst into life, and shot forth made a sermon with which I felt satisfied; I with vigor; and he became a preacher of that never preached a sermon, with which I felt truth, which once he labored to destroy. Yet satisfied. I have always present to my mind grace did not annihilate the natural character such a conception of what MIGHT be done, and and qualities of the mind; though it regulated I sometimes hear the thing so done, that what and directed them. The Christian's feelings I do falls very far beneath what it seems to me and experience were modified by the constitu- it should be. Some sermons which I have tion of the man. After a long course of spi-heard have made me sick of my own for a ritual watchfulness and warfare, he spoke thus of himself: month afterwards. Many ministers have no conception of any thing beyond their own "There is what Bacon calls a DRY LIGHT, in world: they compare themselves only with which subjects are viewed, without any predi- themselves; and perhaps they must do so: if lection, or passion, or emotion, but simply as I could give them my views of their ministry, they exist. This is very much my character without changing the men, they would be as a Christian. I have great constitutional ruined; while now, they are eminent instruresistance. Tell me such a thing is my DUTY-ments in God's hands. But some men see I know it is, but there I stop. Talk to me of too much beyond themselves for their own HELL my heart would rise with a sort of comfort. Perhaps complacency in the exerdaring stubbornness. There is a constitutional | cise of talent, be it what it may, is hardly to desperation about me, which was the most be separated, in such a wretched heart as conspicuous feature in my character when man's, from pride. It seems to me that this young, and which has risen up against the gra- dissatisfaction with myself, is the messenger cious measures which God has all my life taken sent to buffet me and keep me down. In other to subdue and break it. I feel I can do little in men, the separation between complacency and religion without ENCOURAGEMENT. I am per-pride may be possible; but I scarcely think it suaded and satisfied, tied and bound, by its is so in me." f truth and importance and value; but I view the subject in a DRY LIGHT. A strong sense of "A friend, who knew him for thirty or forty DIVINE FRIENDSHIP goes a vast way with me. years, has informed me," says Mr. Wilson, in the serWhen I fall, God will raise me. When I mons preached on occasion of Mr. Cecil's death, "that he was more ready to hear of his faults from want, God will provide. When I am in per-persons whom he esteemed, than most men. When plexity, God will deliver. He cares for me- any failings were pointed out to him, he usually pities me-bears with me-guides me-loves thanked the reprover, and anxiously inquired for furme!" ther admonitions. I have observed myself, that, when he gave advice, which he did with acuteness and decision, he was quite superior to that little vanity which is offended if the counsel be not followed." what of a similar nature to this of Mr. C. on himself. † Mr. Churton has a remark on Dr. Johnson, someHe thinks that "Johnson's morbid melancholy and constitutional infirmities were intended by Providence, like St. Paul's thorn in the flesh, to check intellectual conceit and arrogance; which the consciousness of his extraordinary talents, awake as he was to the voice of praise, might otherwise have generated in a very cul But the energy of Divine Grace was most conspicuous in the control and mastery of this resisting and high spirit of which our friend complained. Nay, if there were any one Christian virtue in which he was more advanced than any other, it appears to me to have been HUMILITY-not that humility which debases itself that it may be exalted, and which is offended if its professions be believed; but the humility which arose from an |