Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE.

FEBRUARY, 1812.

ΜΕΜΟΙ R

OF

THE LATE REV. RICHARD CECIL, M. A.
MINISTER OF ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL, LONDON.
[Concluded from page 5.]

WE left Mr. Cecil under a slight paralytic affection, in the year 1807. From this he recovered sufficiently to preach; but in Feb. following, another stroke totally disabled him for public service. Electricity was prescribed; which, proving ineffectual, he was ordered to Bath. The waters here were tried for several months; but these also proving ineffectual, he was again advised to change of air; when Providence raised him up an unexpected friend whom he had never seen;- Isaac Cooke, Esq. of Clifton, who offered him a house ready furnished, and every accommodation and supply his state of affliction could require. Here he resided four months; and for some time seemed considerably better; but again relapsing, he was desirous to return to town; and the same kind friend provided an easy carriage for his removal.

In the spring of 1809 he arrived at his own house in Little James Street, Bedford Row, in a state of extreme debility. The weather becoming warm, the closeness of the town, together with its noise and bustle, became intolerable in Mr. Cecil's state of nervous irritability; and he again sighed for the country, when another friend, Mr. Offley, procured him a comfortable retreat at Tunbridge Wells, where he remained for the season; but derived no benefit either from the air of waters.

In Oct. 1809, he came back to town for the winter; but on the return of spring found it again necessary to leave it, and took up his last earthly residence at Hampstead,-from whence he was finally removed by a fit of apoplexy, Aug. 15, 1810. Thus died a man dearly beloved, not only by his family, but by all who knew him; and a minister highly esteemed and respected, not only by his own congregation, but by the church of God at large, both in and out of the Establishment. To his own peculiar congregation at St. John's, he might truly say, as St. Paul said to the Galatians, 'I bear you record, that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.'

It is much to be lamented (says Mrs. C.) that, in Mr. Cecil's last illness, we were deprived of that rich vein of reflections with which we were privileged during his confinement in the year 1798, and which the nature of his fatal disease now impeded. In 1798, though he was torn with disease, yet his mind retained full vigour: but in his last illness his mind became emaciated as well as his body; and it need not be remarked, that a paralysis often makes as fatal an attack on the mind as on the body: in all cases it weakens, and in some deranges.

'Nevertheless,' continues his fair biographer, through all obstacles his mind, like the compass, tended ever and only to his one grand object, his interest in his Saviour, and the infinite concerns of eternity. From this his attention could not be diverted by any subject of a tempora! nature, save one only, and that with subordination and submission. Sometimes, when speaking of his continual need of unabating administration, and the consequent demands upon my health and spirits, he would say, looking at me with tender affection, "I earnestly wish that I could reward your labours, by leaving you an independency:"-but would add, with a firm faith on divine Providence, "I doubt not but that you and your children will be provided for after my decease. I can only look to that God who has so graciously taken care of and provided for me, who entered upon the world without any possessions.'

[ocr errors]

"His evangelical views became more and more vivid latterly. He read such authors only as treated these views most simply. Archbishop Leighton's Sermons afforded him a continual source of satisfaction. He read them perpetually; and particularly his Sermon on 1 Cor. v. 30;-that on Cant. i. 3;and two on Rom. viii. 33, 34. He earnestly wished that all his own writings had been of this description.

'One evening, after reading the Bible for some hours, he said to me, I derive my whole consolation from meditating on the Godhead and character of Jesus, in whom I place all my hope! Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour,' to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.'

"His habit of reading remained with him to his last hours. He was wholly engaged in reading the choicest parts of such authors as Leighton, Trail, Boston, and Gurnall. This last he was reading at the moment when the apoplectic seizure took place. 'Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. He read Gurnall's Christian Armour, without intermission, during the last four days of his life; and expressed his having been much helped and benefited by that writer.

Notwithstanding the deep inroad which disease had made on bis intellectual powers, whereby his enjoyment was eclipsed

and his comfort overshadowed; yet I had the satisfaction of oberving (as had some of those friends who had access to him) that, through all impediments, his real ripening for glory was manifest, as he travelled nearer and nearer to the grave, in his child-like simplicity, his humility, self-abasement, and increasing estimation, of his adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Though, as I have before remarked, his mind was often bound down by the fatal paralysis which put an end to his labours, yet he retained to the last something of his ministerial spirit; and, in a lucid moment, often spoke of preaching again, saying, 'Should it please God ever to raise ine up to preach again, Christ would be my only subject! On this Rock of Ages he had, by divine help, built for eternity-a building which the winds of adversity could not shake. His place of defence and his treasure was on high; and where his treasure was, there was his heart also; and, though called to wade through a dark dispensation, yet his long and gracious habit (which never left him) of turning to his heavenly Father remained as the evening, twilight, till he was admitted to a mansion where there is night no more.

In conversation with a friend and minister, he said, "In your preaching, hold up Christ. This should be your great object and aim in your sermon. Some have objected, that I have preached too much on Faith; but, were I to preach again, they would hear much more of it.'

But he had finished his public course; and was no more able to resume his ministry. He had another, and a very different lesson to learn in the school of Christ. After having exhibited the Saviour with fervour and faithfulness in public, he was taken aside into a sick chamber, there to be more emphatically taught, what he had declared to others, that none but Christ could meet the wants of a dying sinner*. From this chamber and this dispensation, he did indeed preach again, and aloud to the heart, on that important warning of our Lord, Be ye also ready. Nor did his faith fail him here, but remained firm, while every thing else was shaken: nor did I once, at any time, hear him declare his faith with more stedfastness than in the days of his afflic tion. It was a ground of much comfort to me to observe, that, at no period during this visitation, even when disease made the deepest inroad on his health and faculties, and Satan's temptations harrassed his enfeebled mind, did this object vary, but remained one and the same with that in the

A short time before his decease,' says Mr. D. Wilson, in his Funeral Sermon, for Mr. C. 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 his whole heart, saith Richard Cecil.' The name was signed by himself, with his left hand, in a manner hardly legible, through infirmity.'

[ocr errors]

days of his health, Christ crucified for the chief of sinners! the only point worthy the contemplation of a mortal hastening into the eternal world!'

The total loss of the use of his right hand, prevented his putting on paper many things interesting and highly instructive: this he often lamented; while the agitation of his nerves rendered it impracticable to be done by others. I have, with mournful pleasure, discovered passages in his Bible, evidently marked since his diseased state, to which he has, with a trembling left hand, put his initials, R. C. Amen!' testifying his hope and confidence in the all-sufficiency and atoning merit of his Saviour *.*

[ocr errors]

In delineating the virtues of Mr. Cecil's character, in which there was little room for flattery or exaggeration, his amiable biographer observes, I cannot but remark that Mr. C. possessed opposite points of excellence beyond most men. While he was generous and liberal to others, I have known him much wanting to himself. He has often, after walking in great pain and fatigue, come into his house faint and exhausted, rather than allow himself the accommodation of a coach; and when I have remonstrated with him upon it, he would reply, You know I have great demands, and enough to do to meet them." Not that he did not see the mistake when too late to remedy it; and, had it been for myself or a child, he would have lost sight of the expence, and regarded only our relief: nay, perhaps the very next hour, his compassion to others would lead him to give to a poor distressed object at his door. Here was high principle, humanity, and self-denial. He was neither extravagant nor penurious; but endeavoured wisely to steer between both these extremes. He was abstemious to an unusual extent.'

Mrs. C. here anticipates an objection to the character of her deceased friend, as not having been sufficiently provident for his family; but this and every other objection to his general conduct, she maintained, could originate only in defective information, or the want of candour. In the latter case she addresses the objector thus: Restrain reflection. Go thou, and do like him. Go, like him, and mourn over defects in secret-go, like him, and pray against them in the closet;go, like him, and correct, and bring them into subjection;go, like him, and keep under thy body, thy thoughts, and thy tongue.'

Speaking of Mr. C.'s independent spirit, and of his refusal, in many cases, to receive favours, she remarks, 'It is to be considered that, not only when a single man, but at all times, his whole soul was under the influence of a sacred dedication to the grand object which he had in view. He was naturally

* 1 Cor. xvi. 22. Rev. v. 12.

[ocr errors]

intrepid, and did not appear to possess with men in common the fears and anxieties attending poverty. There was nothing which he would not have made a willing sacrifice to his grand object, the Church; with a firm determination to avoid all impediments in the way of his reproving and exhorting with all authority, in the midst of a corrupt generation, striving to become a light, and not a stumbling block among them. He was, therefore, while gratefully alive to favour and friendship, not to be fettered by any,-not to be shackled by obligations to the creature, so as to endanger his faithfulness; but with a dignified and Christianized independence he pursued his course, unconcerned as to what might befal him in the way. Thus he reccommended himself to every man's conscience; and proved the reality of his faith, and the integrity of his heart.

His refusals, however, were not indiscriminate. When his necessities required it, and he saw no objection arising from the situation or disposition of his benefactor, he submitted to lie under obligations. 'Duty varies with circumstances,' says Mr. C. justly. Whatever Mr.C. perceived to be a duty, he never asked a question upon. When it pleased God rapidly to encrease his family, and thereby his expences, he readily and thankfully received whatever Providence was pleased to send ; and considered it as granted for the express purpose of supplying his need; that being evident, he refused no assistance where he did not see some clear and delicate reason why it was improper, all things considered, to do otherwise. Herein appeared not only his integrity and faith, but his submission to the will of that God whom he served in his spirit, thus made known to him. He used cheerfully to say, on a child being added to his family, 'I now expect an addition to my income, though I know not from what quarter.' In the year 1781 he married one of his parishioners from Lewes, by whom he had 11 children,-six of whom are living.

'Mr. Cecil's natural perceptions, we are informed, were quick, and his feelings exquisite. He was most sensibly alive to kindness or unkindness. I have often, long afterwards, discovered with astonishment, his having keenly felt the one or the other, when at the moment I had no perception of it. As his cast and character led him to think rather than speak, under such impressions: indeed, his feelings were too acute for his comfort; and his views of rectitude were so high, that they opened perpetual avenues to pain: but this tended to keep his mind more steadfastly fixed on that world, where disorder or deformity have no place. He often quoted the words of Hooker on his death - bed, who exulted in the prospect of entering a world of order.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

I cannot omit observing, continues Mrs. C. that humanity was a very striking feature in Mr. C's. character,.insomuch as

« AnteriorContinua »