and fatigue he disregarded. I have often regretted his lying in bed, long wakeful; and, on inquiring wherefore, he has replied, "I have been making a sermon." He was urged to unbend his mind from study; but his habit was fixed, and he found it difficult to withdraw his mind from close thinking. He never seemed weary of his studies: they were not only his business, but his enjoyment and recreation-and he used to call it his REST: he felt all demands that infringed on these, his Labour, and the return to his study, his REST. Few more

carefully aimed to redeem time, and to spend it ONLY in what was worthy of a man and a Christian Minister-Often repeating,

"For at my back I always hear

Time's winged chariot hurrying near;

And onwards, ALL BEFORE, I see

Deserts of vast eternity!"

It cannot be doubted but that Mr. Cecil's arduous habits shortened his days: this must ever be deplored; but a consoling reflection remains, in the contemplation of his great usefulness during his life. His ministry was successful, wherever he was called to reside: some in every place stand as his witnesses, and will rise up and call him blessed,

But, while his success was so uniform, and he met with general acceptation wherever he went, this popularity was accompanied with a large portion of humility: no one, who knew him intimately, can question this for a moment. No man living could be further removed from ostentation: he was, with others, alive to encouragement, but unmoved by flattery. I have often been quite astonished at hearing him speak of his attainments and of his labours, in terms which no one could grant as applicable to him. I have reflected, 66 Surely Mr. C. must know his own comparative attaintments!" but I have still perceived that his 5*

VOL. I.

acumen of mind led him to extend his view far beyond what he had attained, while he really HAD attained such a portion of habitual humility, that he very sincerely esteemed others better than himself: yet, in fact, most of the various points of excellence in other characters were evidently united in his own.

Nothing is more common to observation, than persons mistaking qualities of mind, which, in appearance, resemble each other. Dignified sentiment and conduct are termed pride; firmnessobstinacy; energy-severity; originality-eccentricity; and consummate pride is often mistaken for humility. Mr. C. certainly possessed a dignity of mind and conduct-firmness-energy-and originality but was as far removed from pride, obstinacy, severity, and eccentricity as most who still bear about a depraved nature and its consequent imperfections.

It is needless for me to state what acceptance Mr. C. received at St. John's. His affectionate attachment to that that place and people, and the pleasure with which he laboured among them, will best appear by his own expression of it. "I may say, Up to my youth have I been nursed in tears: for, wherever I have been, I have experienced some degree of unkind treatment and ingratitude, except at St. John's. It is no wonder, therefore, that my ministry there is my delight." He felt AT HOME no where but at St. John's. How, and in what spirit he laboured in this fruitful field, it is not necessary for ME to say. This will be taken up by another pen. His works, however, not only follow him, but will remain with us, so long as memory remains: and, should forgetful nature become unmindful, we may recall the remembrance of him who had the rule over us; and, again, in the spirit and words of the Apostle, hear him appealing

.

to our consciences :- "For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: But, as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither, at any time, used we flattering words, AS YE KNOW; nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness. Nor of MEN sought we glory; neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the Apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: so, being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travel: for, labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God. YE ARE WITNESSES, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe': as ye know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory."

I will only add, before I close this subject, an instance of his continued and anxious solicitude for the place which his soul loved-the welfare and prosperity of his congregation lay near his heart: even when his increasing disease allowed him little hope of resuming his delightful employ of ministering among them again, he desired me, while at Clifton, in the winter of 1808, to put down from his lips the following memorandum :-"I have sunk considerably more than 20007. during the time I have laboured at St. John's Chapel, in its repair and improvements and I am now anxious, that, whoever takes the future management of it, should conduct it in the same order; and that no new customs should be in

troduced-that all neglects and abuses may be watched over and restrained-and that the same grave and holy uniformity be preserved."

It is to be lamented, 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 pain, yet his MIND retained its 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 frequently de

ranges.

*

*The view of Mr. Cecil's final disease, and the effects of it on his mind, are so justly stated by the Rev. Daniel Wilson, in the second of the two Sermons which he preached at St. John's on occasion of Mr. Cecil's death, that, with his permission, I here insert it :

"During the whole period of his last illness, a space of nearly three years, the state of his mind fluctuated with his malady. Every one, who has had opportunities of observing the operation of palsy, knows, that, without destroying, or, properly speaking, perverting, the reasoning powers, it agitates and enervates them. Every object is presented through a discoloured 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 shattered. An excessive care and irritation and despondency are produced, under the impression of which the sufferer acts every moment, without being 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 superior moment; and any attempts to rectify his misapprehensions quicken the irritation, and increase the effects of the disorder.

"Under this peculiar visitation it pleased God that our late venerable father should labour. The energy, and decision, and grandeur of his natural powers, therefore, gradually gave way, and a morbid feebleness succeeded. Yet even in this afflicting state, with his body on one side almost lifeless, his organs of speech impaired, and his judgment weakened, the spiritual dispositions of his heart displayed themselves in a very remarkable manner. He appeared great in the ruins of nature; and his eminently religious character manifested itself, to the honour of divine grace, in a manner which surprised all

Nevertheless, 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 atten

who were acquainted with the ordinary effects 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 habits had been ambitious, or sensual, or covetous, or worldly, these tendencies, if any, would have displayed themselves; but 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 remarkable constancy under all the variations of his 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 him, in which the evidences 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 emptiness 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 eternal state.

"His humility, also, evidently ripened as he approached his end. He was willing to receive advice from every quarter. He listened with anxiety 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 fervour, in speaking of the Saviour, were also very remarkable. As he drew nearer to death, his one topic wasJesus Christ. All his anxiety and care 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 distinct and simple, if possible, than at any period of his life. He spake of Him to his family, with the feeling, and 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