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6. I exhort you, therefore, all, that ye be obedient to the word of righteousness, and that you exercise all manner of patience, as you have seen it set forth before your eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, and Zosimus, and Rufus; but in others also among you, and in Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles; being assured that all these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness; and are arrived at the place due and promised to them by the Lord, of whose sufferings they were made partakers. For they loved not this present world, but him who both died and was raised up again by God for us. Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord; being firm and immutable in the faith, lovers of the brethren, and kindly affectionate one towards another, united in the truth, carrying yourselves meekly to each other, despising no man. When it is in your power to do good, defer it not, for alms delivereth from death. Be all of you subject one to another, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that both you yourselves may receive praise by your good works, and that God be not blasphemed through you. For wo unto him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed. Wherefore teach all men sobriety, and be yourselves conversant in it.

troubled for him and for his wife; the Lord give them true repentance. Be ye also sober as to this matter, and account not such as enemies, but restore them as weak and erring members, that the whole body of you may be saved; for in so doing ye build up yourselves.

8. I trust that ye are well exercised in the holy Scriptures, and that nothing is hid from you; a thing as yet not granted to me. As it is said in these places, "be angry and not sin;" and "let not the sun go down upon your wrath." Blessed is he that is mindful of these things, which I believe you are. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ Jesus the eternal Highpriest and Son of God, build you up in faith and truth, and in all meekness, that you may be without anger, in patience, forbearance, long-suffering, and chastity, and give you a portion and inheritance amongst his saints: and to us together with you, and to all under heaven, who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in his Father. who raised him from the dead. Pray for all saints: pray also for kings, magistrates, and princes, and even for them that hate and persecute you, and for the enemies of the cross, that your fruits may be manifest in all, that you may be complete in

him.

7. I am exceedingly troubled for Valens, who 9. Ye wrote unto me, both ye and Ignatius, that was sometimes ordained a presbyter among you, if any one go into Syria, he might carry your letthat he so little understands the place wherein heters along with him: which I will do so soon as I was set. I therefore warn you, that you abstain shall have a convenient opportunity, either myself, from covetousness, and that ye be chaste and true. or by some other, whom I will send upon your Keep yourselves from every evil work. But he errand. According to your request, we have sent that in these things cannot govern himself, how you those epistles of Ignatius which he wrote to shall he preach it to another? If a man refrain us, and as many others of his as we had by us, not from covetousness, he will be defiled with which are annexed to this epistle, by which ye may idolatry, and shall be judged among the heathen. be greatly profited. For they contain in them Who is ignorant of the judgment of the Lord? faith and patience, and whatever else is necessary "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the to build you up in our Lord. Send us word what world?" as Paul teaches. But I have neither you certainly know both concerning Ignatius himfound any such thing in you, nor heard any such self and his companions. These things have I thing of you, among whom the blessed Paul labor-written unto you by Crescens, whom I have hithered, and who are in the beginning of his epistle. For of you he boasts in all those churches, which only knew God at that time, whom as yet we had not known. I am, therefore, brethren, greatly

*1 Cor. vi. 2.

to commended to you, and do still recommend.—
For he has unblamably conversed amongst us, as
also I believe amongst you.
His sister also ye
shall have recommended, when she shall come
unto you. Be ye safe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace be with you all. Amen.

THE END.

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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 manne 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.

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A

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 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.

NATURE, EDUCATION, and GRACE, combine to form and model the PERSONAL CHARACTER of every Christian. God gives to his reasonable creature such physical and intellectual constitution as he pleases; education and circumstances hide or unfold, restrain or 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 unrclenting resistance.

Yet this bold and untameable spirit was allied to a NOBLE and GENEROUS disposition. There was a magnificence in his mind. While he was scrupulously delicate, perhaps even to some excess, on subjects intrusted to his secrecy, and on affairs in progress; yet he would never lend himself, in his own concerns, or in those of other persons, to any thing that bordered on artifice and manoeuvre; for he had a native and thorough contempt of whatever was mean, little, and equivocating. That "honesty is the best policy" may be a strong,

men of a lower tone of character; but I 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.

His temptations were to the sins of the spirit, rather than to those of the flesh; and he possessed, all his life long, a superiority to the pleasures of mere sense not often seen. He was, indeed, TEMPERATE in all things-holding his bodily appetites in entire subjection.

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.

He had early religious impressions. These were first received from Janeway's "Token for Children," which his mother gave him when he was about six years of age. "I was much affected by this book," said he," and recollect that I wept, and got into a corner, where I prayed that I also might have an interest in Christ,' like one of the children there mentioned, though I did not then know 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."

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 Yet he appears to have taken no small pains be holy, and he felt that they were happy. "It to rid himself of his scruples :-"I have read," was one of the first things," said he," which said he," all the most acute and learned and struck my mind in a profligate state, that, in serious infidel writers, and have been really spite of all the folly, and hypocrisy, and fanasurprised at their poverty. The process of ticism which may be seen among religious my mind has been such on the subject of reve-professors, there was a mind after Christ, a lation, 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.

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:

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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

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