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 he came to enlarge on that part of his subject, but strongly to realize to himself the person in question, and he would draw a much more vivid picture of a real character 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 working and malignity of sin, as in those topics which grew out of his course of experience; nor did he enter frequently or largely into the details of the spiritual couflict. 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 dependance and submission.

He was more aware than most men of the DIFFICULTY 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 re

* Lavater somewhere mentions an admirable practice of his own, which carried our friend's principle into constant use in his ministry. He fixed on certain persons in his congregation, whom he considered as representatives of the respective classes into which his hearers might be properly divided-amounting, as I recollect, to SEVEN. In composing his discourses, he kept each of these persons steadily in his eye; and labored so to mould his subjects as to meet the case of every one-by which incomparable rule he rendered him self intelligible and interesting to all classes of his flock.

moved 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, 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 perfectly 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 generally took 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 reading, 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. Sometimes, however, I have no text prepared: and I have found this to arise generally from sloth: I go to work: this is the secret: make it a business: something will arise where least expected.

"It is important to begin preparation early. If it is driven off late, accidents may occur which may prevent due 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. I like to ask myselfWhat are you doing? What is your aim?'

"I will not foretel my own views by first going to commentators. I talk over the subject to myself: 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 matters 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 divisions, with such hints as he thought requisite. These notes, written in an open and legible manner, such as his eye could catch with ease, he put into one of the portable quarto Bibles, of which several editions were printed in the xviith 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 one another: and one of these editions Mr. Cecil was in the constant habit of using, both in public and in private, from

I have compared four of these Bibles, viz. Field's, London, 1648-Haye's, Camb. 1670, and also that of 1677-and Ruck's, Camb. without date.

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 he 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 piercings of conscience. My 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. I talked with a wise and pious man on the subject. There is nothing,' said he, '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 succeed in his general interpretations of Scripture, and would have his ministry that of a workman that needeth not to be ashamed -must be 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 retirement. Go to prayer.'—'No!' says the enthusiast, '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

ΤΟ 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 discipline of the church, to obtain any partial, local, and temporary ends.

In the more PRIVATE exercise of his pastoral office, as a counsellor and friend, he manifested great FAITHFULNESS, TENDERNESS, and wis

DOM.

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 illustrations 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 wanderer; pursuing happiness in a mistaken road-an immortal being fluttering through the present short but important scene, without one serious concern for what is to come after it is passed by. 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 you suppose that we are left to step into another state, as into a dark abyss-not knowing what awaits us there? No