AND MISSIONARY MAGAZINE. No. 3. AUGUST, 1812. BIOGRAPHY. In the death of every good man society sustains a loss. But when the minister of Jesus Christ, eminent in gifts and graces, in devotion and zeal, in activity and usefulness, is called from his labors to his rest, the privation is peculiar. The wound inflicted on the Church and on the community, is deep and painful; the friend of man, and of society, mourns; and the Christian, for the moment, trembles for the ark of his God. Such a minister was the late Dr. BUCKMINSTER, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Few, while living, have enjoyed so bright and unsullied a reputation. Few have been so tenderly and universally lamented in death, Few have left an example, the contemplation of which is so full of delight and of instruction. He was born October 14, 1751, in Rutland, Massachusetts; in which place, his father sustained the pastoral office, and continued in the assiduous discharge of its duties, to an advanced age. Being, in a remarkable degree, the delight and hope of his parents, he was early destined by them to Voc. V. New Series. VOL. V. the Christian ministry. He received his literary education at Yale College, where he was graduated in 1770. He was afterwards a tutor in that seminary for several years. Having completed a course of theological studies, he commenced a preacher of the Gospel. In the autumn of 1778, he was invited, after the usual probationary term, to take the pastoral charge of the first Church in Portsmouth. He was ordained January 1779, and continued in the office until his death. Dr. Buckminster was among the distinguished preachers of this country. Indeed, comparatively few of any country have possessed, in an equal degree, that combination of qualities, which renders a preacher eminently acceptable and useful. To a mind of much native vigor and comprehension, he had added the improvements of general science, and the ornaments of literature. With various and extensive reading, he combined an accurate observation of mankind and an intimate acquaintance with the human heart. His distinguishing intellectual feature was a brilliant imagination. This imparted a richness to his style, and a variety, animation, and interest to his public discourses. 14 It gave light and attraction to his more abstruse discussions, while it adorned and dignified his most familiar remarks. Few men have possessed, in the pulpit, a more complete command over their own faculties and resources. Few have been so successful in bringing all their mental energies, and acquisitions, to the ilJustration and enforcement of religious truth. His voice was at once strong and musical. By the variety of its intonations, it expressed, with uncommon force and effect, the various emotions of the mind. His articulation was distinct and graceful. His very countenance was eloquent. His attitude, his air, his gestures, were unaffect ed, manly, and impressive. Circumstances such as these, undoubtedly contributed their aid to Dr. Buckminster's uncommon popularity as a preacher. But in him, they were secondary qualities. They were mere appendages of his principal excellence. He was a truly evangelical preacher; an open, intrepid assertor of the cross; an able and inflexible advocate of the faith once delivered to the saints. He preached the truth as it is in Jesus, in its simplicity, its energy, its majesty, and its various, interesting connexions. This constituted the prominent excellence, the peculiar charm, of his discourses. This rendered his Iministrations so delightful to the pious, and gained him so deep an interest in their hearts. This procured him a favorable testimony in the consciences of all who believed the Scriptures to be the word of God. That such was, in fact, the general strain of his preaching, is known to all who were in the habit of hearing him They know that the doctrines on which he delighted principally to expatiate, were the same with those which are generally styled the Doctrines of the Reformation, and which were cherished and maintained by the fathers of New England. He habitually inculcated the proper divinity of Christ; the divinity and personality of the Holy Spirit; the awful apostasy and utter depravity of man; the atonement of the Redeemer as the only ground of pardon, and of hope to the sinner; the necessity of regeneration, faith, and repentance; and of a holy temper and life, as their unfailing fruits and accompaniments; and the certain, infallible perseverance of all real saints, in obedienee and holiness, to eternal salvation. These doctrines he considered as constituting the essence and glory of the Gospel; as absolutely necessary to constitute it a system of real grace; as bringing the highest glory to God; as humbling human pride to the dust, and yet furnishing the sovereign and only balm for human guilt and misery. On these great articles of faith, therefore, he was open, decided and emphatical; uniformly and unvaryingly so; except that in the latter years of his life, he appeared more than ever impressed with their importance, more anxious to declare them in the most unequivocal terms, and more grieved to perceive them treated with opposition or neglect. In a letter to a friend in the ministry, written a few months previous to his death, he expresses himself in this manner: think the Assembly's Shorter Cat echism the most wonderful compendium of revealed truth and duty, that we have in our language. I have often thought the compilers were wonderfully assisted in executing their duty; and I am ready to assent to it, not only for substance, but I know of no article that can be materially altered for the better. Though there are some, in regard to which I never expect to explain or comprehend the form or manner of their being true, yet they are manifestly contained in, and deducible from, the Holy Bible. "The system above mentioned was adopted, and universally taught, in the better days of our country, and of the state of Christianity in it. It is in heart approved by those who give evidence of their personal regeneration and reconciliation to God; though they may, from the power of prejudice or tradition, object to certain terms, and modes of expression. And it appears to me, that a system of doctrines, that would essentially contradict or mutilate that system, would hardly contain truth enough to sanctify the soul." The doctrines which were the great theme of Dr. Buckmin ster's preaching, he taught, not only from a firm conviction of their truth, but from heart-felt experience of their sanctifying and saving effects. His life exhibited various and convincing evidence that he was a REAL CHRISTIAN; a meek, humble, conscientious, upright follower of Jesus; devoted, in no common degree, to his Master's cause, and to the salvation of mankind. At what precise period, his experimental acquaintance with re ligion began, is not absolutely His youthful deport- Such is the view of things presented in a paper found among his manuscripts. This paper, which was written on an anniver sary of his solemn separation to the ministry, and to the care of his beloved church, (a day devoted by him to humiliation and prayer) commences in this selfcondemning style: "Six years has a gracious and long-suffering God preserved the life of his unworthy, unprofitable and unsuccessful servant, and continued him in such invariable health, that he has been able, every Lord's day, in some sort to discharge the duties of his sacred office. But O, in how much weakness always, and often with how much coldness and indiffer ence has he published these glad tidings which ought to warm every heart, and inspire every tongue! Blush, O my soul, and be ashamed, that thou hast felt no more of thy own worth, the worth of thy fellow-immortals, the infinite love and compassion of God, of thy dear Redeemer, and the excellency of the Gospel. Shall God call me, who have been so great and aggravated an offender, to the high and honorable office of publishing the glad tidings of salvation, and of an ambassador for him, to woo and beseech sinners to be reconciled to him; and shall I be lukewarm and indifferent? Is not this, in a sense, to betray the trust reposed in me, and as far as in me lies, to deliver up my divine Lord and Master, and his interests, into the hands of sinners?" In reference to the winter which succeeded his ordination, the paper mentioned above contains the following remarks: "It was a happy winter to me. I trust I am not mistaken when I say, God was pleased to give me more lively views of divine things than I ever had before; to shew me the excellency of religion, the preciousness of Christ; to grant me gracious nearness to him in public and secret; to shew me the worth of my own, and my dear people's souls, and enable me to speak in some measure from the heart. But O how soon did I lose this lively sense of things, and how much coldness and lukewarmness has attended me in the general course of my ministry! But while I desire to be ashamed before God, for my sins and transgressions, and all my unfaithfulness in my ministry, I must acknowledge, to the triumph of divine goodness, that God has been pleased, the last year, to show me more clearly the solemn and important relation I stand in to my people, and the account I must give to him of them another day; and I hope he has enabled me at some times, under a realizing sense of these awful truths, to feel that I watch for souls as one that must give an account. Many passages of Scripture have been opened to my mind, so that there appeared to be a reality and importance in them, which I never saw before. God has, at some times, been speaking, to me, when I have read his word; and I trust I have read it, not as the word of man, but as it is indeed, the word of God. I have had a humbling sense of the present low state of religion, and low lives of Christians; and been made to see that religion does not consist in particular sentiments, or in being of particular sects; but that it is a principle of divine life in the soul; and that Jesus Christ formed in the soul constitutes the Christian. But, O my gracious God! how much of a lively sense have I lost! Recover me again. Do not leave me. Do not forsake me. Let this year be witness to thy gracious communications, and let nothing separate between my God and me. Give me prudence and discretion in public and private; but O give me zeal in some measure proportioned to the important work in which I am engaged. O make me, in this divided and difficult day, wise as a serpent, and harmless as a dove. O let not deadness and stupidity seize my spirit. Whatever earthly good thou deniest me, deny me not spiritual blessings. Suffer me not to quench thy Spirit; and O take me away, rather than take thy Spirit from me.” The pious fervor which breathes in the above quotation, was a remarkable characteristic of Dr. Buckminster's general preaching. In the pulpit, he was himself much impressed, and anxious to impress others. He spoke from the fulness of a heart solemnized with eternal realities, warmed with the love of God, and melting with tender benevolence and compassion for the souls of his hearers. His sermons were not generally of the most systematic or argumentative character. But they were luminous and instructive. They exhibited the leading doctrines of the Bible, and the principal points of experimental and practical piety, in a natural and intelligible form. None who heard him attentively, could fail to understand what were his views of divine truth, or what was the religion which he recommended to their attention and choice. Though Dr. Buckminster steadfastly maintained the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel, considering them as the great pillars of vital and saving religion, and of all true morality, he was far from being a mere speculatist. His principal aim was at the conscience and the heart. While, on the one hand, he faithfully exposed the utter insufficiency of what is called a good life, considered as the ground of acceptance, so, on the other, he guarded his hearers against an antinomian spirit. The religion which he inculcated, was a beautiful and well-proportioned whole, and not a mere fragment. The only faith which he acknowledged as genuine, was a faith purifying the heart, regulating the temper, and governing the life. In his sermons, there was a variety, equally conducive to entertainment and edification. He did not confine himself to a few favorite topics, but expatiated in the boundless field of Scripture truths and illustrations. Ever attentive to the aspects of Providence, he seized not only the momentous events, but the smaller occurrences of the day, and converted them to some pious and practical purpose. In adapting himself to the circumstances of the afflicted, he was peculiarly happy. The bereaved and mourning among his flock, with many others in like circumstances, will long remember his heart-felt sympathy in their sorrows, and with what mingled tenderness, fervor, and solemnity, he addressed them in public and in private. He greatly excelled in the gift and spirit of prayer. His addresses to the throne of grace, wheth. |