I'm not sure what your goal is here, but you may have a conceptual problem with your idea.
First of all, when you connect a cell to a circuit, the cell voltage is equal to the applied voltage by definition. There is no "difference" between the cell voltage and the applied voltage. Considering this further, the cell is a voltage source, and you are attempting to have your circuit be a voltage source. Therefore you have two voltage sources fighting each other. It means you are attempting to "change" the voltage of the cell, which as a voltage source it is strongly opposed to doing. The only limits on the system here are the internal impedances of the cell and the circuit. Since the internal impedances of voltage sources are low, it means very large currents will potentially flow. The large currents could be several amps, even tens of amps.
For this reason, charging and discharging circuits for lithium ion cells and other kinds of cell are nearly always constant current circuits, or current limited circuits.