TUTOR AT NEW HAVEN.

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of this enthusiast, that he persuaded three of the fellows of Trinity College to embark their fortunes with him, and to give up all their prospects of preferment at home for the small salary of £40 on this side of the Atlantic. He intended to establish a college in what were called the Summer Isles,* Bermuda being the island chosen for its location.

The project of a college in Bermuda failed, but Bishop Berkeley, as is well known, came to Newport in Rhode Island, where he purchased a country seat and cultivated a farm, waiting for the fulfilment of his contracts about the college. These failing, he returned, with deep disappointment to England, and sent from thence a deed of his valuable farm in Rhode Island to Yale College, the rents of which were appropriated to the support and instruction of the three best scholars in Greek and Latin, selected from each class as it graduated, who must, as a condition of the bounty, reside at the College at least nine months. of the three successive years.

At the close of the three years of study, Mr. Buckminster was appointed tutor, and held the office four years. Dr. Dwight was fellow-tutor with him for nearly the whole of the period. The same contemporary referred to above says, 'He was much esteemed by his brothers in office, and was universally beloved and respected by the young gentlemen who had the happiness to be under his instruction.' The year before his connection with the College, as tutor, ceased, in consequence of the agitated state of the country and the dangers to which the seaports were

So called in the Life of Berkeley.

subjected, the institution was disbanded, and the students scattered in various places, each class under the direction of its respective tutor.

I regret that so few anecdotes of this interesting period of his life remain in my memory. He was not in the habit of talking much of his early life, and I had not reached that period when we begin to look back, and when, the present not sufficing for the wants of the soul, we wish to learn from the experiences and the trials of those who have gone before us.

Thus eleven years of a life not very long in its whole duration were spent in New Haven. An attachment to Alma Mater, to the town of New Haven, and to Connecticut itself, was formed, that lasted through life. He was often heard to say,-'My place was there. I always wished that State to be my home, but Providence has directed my line of duty far away from the place of my first affections.' The limited salary of a clergyman, and the large family, more than usually thrown upon the father's care, rarely allowed him the recreation of a journey. Four years before his death, when the failing health of one of his children seemed to impose it as a duty, a journey to New Haven was a bright interval between the cares of life, a season of uninterrupted cheerfulness. The companion of that journey had till then never known of what cheerfulness, even gayety, her father's spirits were susceptible, as when expanding at the meeting of old friends, renewing youthful reminiscences with classmates, recalling half-forgotten college anecdotes, and reviving all those care-free associations that make of college days an oasis left in the far-off pathway of life.

Mr. Buckminster's whole residence at New Haven was during the Presidency of Dr. Daggett. The country was agitated by the intense excitement of the war, of the revolution, and the College partook of the distress that marked the beginning and progress of that fearful conflict; circumstancess ill adapted to the quiet of literary pursuits. Yet there was no period in the history of the College more fruitful in eminent men in every department of knowledge, and the classes of 1777 and 1778 were much larger than those of the previous years, and contained a large proportion of men distinguished in the councils of the nation and famous in the annals of science.

During the time of his residence at New Haven, he passed through a season of deep mental distress, under conviction of his great sinfulness, and sank almost entirely into a state of despair. In a person of such deep and tender sensibility, his suffering must have been much exaggerated by his tendency to nervous depression; and it must always be difficult to discriminate how much of this distress arises from the real state of the heart, and how much from the imagination and a morbid self-condemnation. The mysteries of the soul must be left to be judged by the great Source of all spiritual illumination. In the words of a contemporary, 'As he obtained a glorious hope, and passed from death to life, he determined to consecrate his time, his talents, and his acquirements to the interest and cause of the Redeemer. He read the whole of Turretinus in the original, with great satisfaction'; and it was then that he drew up the confession of faith and form of self-dedication that follows, and decided to devote the whole strength of

his mind to preparing himself for that profession which became the dearest object and the ultimate cause of the most intense devotion of his life.

I seem almost to wrong my father in saying that the ministry was his profession. It was his life. The cause of his Master was his own cause. He considered the office of a minister, a preacher of the word of life, the most honorable in the world; and that the learning, the talents, the acquirements of the most gifted minds were all too little to be devoted to its interests. To spend and be spent in the cause of religion were words often in his mouth, and the most devoted purpose of his life. His religious convictions and his religious studies resulted in the following form of faith, as the reader will perceive, wholly Calvinistic. At the time when he settled at Portsmouth, it was not asked if a minister were orthodox, but only if he were sincere and devout. There is some reason to believe, that, at the time he settled, or soon afterward, his views were somewhat modified; but like his honored predecessor whom he immediately succeeded, his heart was of no sect.'

'I believe that there is a God, subsisting in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, possessing all perfection; infinitely holy, just, wise, and powerful; true, gracious, and compassionate; in whom alone every thing that is amiable and lovely centres, and from whom the happiness of reasonable creatures must proceed. That this God made all worlds, and rules and governs them by his power and providence, so that the smallest event does not happen but by his permission. That he brought man into being, formed after his image, and capable of knowing and loving and enjoying God, and of rendering him that honor and

FORM OF RELIGIOUS FAITH.

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glory which was his due. That God entered into covenant with this first man, and, in him, with his posterity: the conditions of this covenant were, that, if he continued in his allegiance, and abstained from the fruit of a particular tree, (which was denied him as a test of his obedience,) he and his posterity should be confirmed in life; but that the day he ate thereof he should surely die, he, and his posterity in him.

'But man broke this covenant, and exposed himself and his posterity to the threatened punishment, lost the original rectitude of his nature, and became the instrument of communicating a corrupt nature to his descendants. In this state God might have left him to suffer the wages of his folly. But God, who exalted himself to show mercy, having from all eternity chosen some of this fallen race to salvation, through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth, did disclose a way in which his broken law might be repaired, his justice satisfied, and the offenders saved; (but, as a God was offended, so a God must suffer.) The second person in the sacred Three, the eternal Son of God, voluntarily offered to stand in man's stead, and suffer the punishment which he had merited. He is accepted by the Father, and, upon condition that he satisfied the demands of justice, it was promised that he should bring those to the enjoyment of God who were from all eternity chosen by him.

I believe that this Divine person, when the time appointed came, descended to this world, took human nature, and was born of the Virgin Mary, without sin. That he perfectly obeyed the law of God, and, suffering the penalty of man's sin, was crucified by the Jews; that he died, was buried, and on the third day rose again, and ascended into heaven; received the approbation of his Father, and is seated at his right hand.

'I believe that this same Jesus shall come again to judge the world, attended with his holy angels, and that all those