Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/405

 Chapel, Bedford Row, in the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn, now pulled down, which continued to the middle of the present century a stronghold of the evangelical doctrines first introduced by him there. To this chapel he was appointed in March 1780 by Sir Eardley Wilmot, acting for the trustees of Rugby School, the patrons thereof, on the recommendation of Archbishop Cornwallis. He was secured from any personal risk by a bond given by Mrs. Wilberforce, the aunt of William Wilberforce, which, the speculation proving successful, she was never called upon to fulfil. Cecil continued minister of St. John's Chapel till his death. Two years after his resignation of his Lewes livings he was presented by Mr. Samuel Thornton on behalf of the trustees, in whom the presentation had been vested by his father, Mr. John Thornton of Clapham, with the united benefice of Chobham and Bisley in Surrey. Here he spent three months in the summer of each year, to the great moral and religious benefit of the people, until his health, which was enfeebled by incessant ministerial labours, after one or two serious illnesses and a paralytic seizure, entirely broke down in February 1808. Visits to Bath, Clifton, Tunbridge Wells, and other places afforded him temporary relief, but no permanent benefit resulted, and he died at Belle Vue, Hampstead, after a fit of apoplexy, 15 Aug. 1810, in the sixty-third year of his age. Cecil was married to a woman whom her admirable memoir of her husband proves to have been in every way worthy of him, and left behind him a large family of sons and daughters. Of the remarkable body of evangelical preachers who were his contemporaries in London Cecil may safely be pronounced the intellectual chief. He preached from notes, and wrote but little for the press, and his few printed sermons, though characterised by great originality of thought and vigour of style, can give no adequate idea of his pre-eminence as a preacher. He was ‘capable,’ we are told, ‘of rivetting the attention of a congregation by the originality of his conceptions, the plain, straightforward force of his language, the firm grasp of his subject, and by a happy power of illustration which gave freshness and novelty to the most familiar subjects’ (, Memoir, p. 267). ‘Nature,’ writes Canon Overton, ‘had endowed him with an elegant mind, and he had improved his natural gifts by steady application. … There is a stately dignity both in his character and in his style of writing which is very impressive’ (The English Church in the Eighteenth Century, ii. 207). His ‘Original Thoughts on Holy Scripture,’ a posthumous publication of notes of his extempore sermons taken down by some of his hearers, fully deserve the title given to them. The truest estimate of the originality of Cecil's mind is gained from his ‘Remains,’ which might more properly be called his ‘Table Talk,’ being a collection of reminiscences of his conversation made by his friend and the editor of his writings, the Rev. Josiah Pratt. Of these Canon Overton justly remarks they ‘show traces of a scholarly habit of mind, a sense of humour, a grasp of leading principles, a liberality of thought, and capacity of appreciating good wherever it might be found, which render them, short though they are, a valuable contribution to evangelical literature’ (ib.) The same may be said of his contributions to the discussions of the ‘Eclectic Society,’ which met in the vestry room of St. John's Chapel, the notes of which were published in 1856 by Archdeacon Pratt, under the title of ‘Eclectic Notes.’ In his breadth of view and freedom from prejudice he shows himself in advance of his age. His ministry, we are told, was everywhere popular, and in the best sense successful. Both at St. John's and at Chobham he had to encounter a large amount of prejudice. He lived down this opposition, and in both spheres of duty he speedily gathered large and deeply attached congregations. His person and bearing were dignified, and his sermons were delivered with a conscious authority which silenced opposition. His decision of character and self-mastery is shown by his cutting the strings of his violin when at Oxford, and never replacing them, lest it should divert him from his studies, and by his resolve never again to visit an exhibition of paintings on discovering that his attention had been unduly diverted from a sick person he was visiting by a picture hanging in the room. The works of Cecil were collected and published after his death by the Rev. Josiah Pratt, and have gone through several editions. They include ‘Memoirs of the Hon. and Rev. W. B. Cadogan,’ ‘Memoir of John Bacon, the Sculptor,’ and of the ‘Rev. John Newton,’ a collection of ‘Miscellanies,’ comprising ‘A Friendly Visit to a House of Mourning,’ one of the best known of Cecil's works, ‘Short Hints to a Soldier,’ ‘A Word on the Peace,’ written in 1801, and other minor pieces. These are followed by the only sermons, six in number, prepared by the author for publication, thirty-three sermons taken in shorthand, and, by far the most remarkable of the whole collection, the ‘Remains’ already mentioned. To these may be added the ‘Original Thoughts on Holy Scripture,’ published in 1848, also from shorthand notes, under the editorship of his daughter.