Benjamin Francis 1734-1799 Pastor, church planter, poet, man of God

Imagine you are a young theological student, not yet twenty, but with a call to the ministry and a great desire to study God's Word. The college is in a big and unfamiliar city to which you have travelled by water, commended to the tutors by your home church. No doubt with the expected apprehension, there would be great excitement as you began your studies. However, there is one snag. All the lectures are in a language that you are really not very familiar with. You do not know enough English, even to say grace at the meal table.

This was the situation that confronted the subject of our paper, Benjamin Francis, who grew up in a Wales that was then almost entirely Welsh speaking but who came to the academy in Bristol in 1753 intent on preparing himself for future ministry, chiefly by hearing lectures in English.

The Head of the institution at the time, Bernard Foskett (1685-1758), was not unfamiliar with this sort of situation. In the period 1720-1758, when he headed the work, half the Bristol students were Welshmen. In most cases Welsh would have been their first language and sometimes, initially, almost their only language. In Francis's case, Foskett was doubtful whether he was going to benefit from the course. Thankfully, from 1733, Foskett was assisted in his work by the man who would eventually succeed him, a Welshman called Hugh Evans (1712-1781). Evans pleaded Francis's case and soon the latter found himself not only able to express himself in English but able to do so with such great fluency that in a few years time the great John Gill (1697-1771) was recommending him as his successor.

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The eighteenth century was a period when God greatly blessed these islands with revival and when there were some great Christian leaders in the land, men such as Whitefield and the Wesleys; John Cennick and John Newton; Isaac Watts, Philip Doddridge, Matthew Henry.

In Wales, there were Daniel Rowland, Howell Harris and William Williams and in Scotland, Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, not forgtting New England, where Jonathan Edwards was a great force for good, having an impact both there in the new world and, through his writings, back here in the old one.

Among the Particular Baptists in England, there were stalwarts such as John Gill and Benjamin Beddome and later, Andrew Fuller, John Sutcliff and William Carey. I want to focus in this paper on one of those stalwarts, a lesser known one perhaps, but one well worthy of our attention. Benjamin Francis was born in 1734 and died in 1799. He was a long serving pastor, a church planter, a hymn writer, a poet and a man of God.

Earliest days

Benjamin was born in midsummer 1734 in a place called Pen-y-gelli, near Newcastle Emlyn, (where Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones 1899-1980 is buried). Francis was the second son and youngest child of Enoch and Mary Francis. Enoch Francis (1689-1740), from a family of ministers, was a minister of the gospel and a very well known and godly man. By the time Benjamin was six, both parents had died so he was brought up in Swansea, where he and his older brother Jonathan Francis (1722-1801) were baptised in 1749 by Griffith Davies. At the time Benjamin was only 15.

We are told that even in childhood he had began to be deeply impressed with a conviction of the great worth of his soul and the need to turn to Christ. When he was only seven years old, they say, he felt a continual reverence for God's great majesty, had a dread of associating with wicked companions and was full of contempt if he heard any profane or impure conversation. If he should hear such a thing, he would call it out. He had, at this early period, such a flow of affection sometimes in prayer, which he had begun to engage in from a young age, that, it is said, "his whole heart was overwhelmed with rapture."

By the time he was 19, he, like his father and brother, had begun to preach the Word, which he would go on to do for the rest of his life. His brother Jonathan had planned to study in Bristol but that did not happen, although it did for Benjamin. From 1747 Jonathan was already ministering at Penyfai, near Bridgend.

Bristol

Benjamin moved first from Swansea to Pontypool, presumably intending to study at the Trosnant Academy, and then to Bristol, thanks to the efforts of his minister, Griffith Davies. He arrived in Bristol in 1753, commended 'by letter from Swansey'. There he studied for the next three years or so.

As was stated, he had spoken only Welsh to this point and acquiring the English tongue did not come easy. There were plenty of Welshmen in Bristol, however. Fellow students include James Edwards of Llanwenarth, near Abergavenny; Thomas Lewis (1730-1774) of Penygarn, Pontypool, where his uncle ministered and Rees Jones (b c 1710) of Aberduar, Carmarthenshire. These three, like Francis, were supported by the trust set up by Robert Bodenham (d 1726) in 1716. Edwards, whose brother Morgan Edwards (1722-1792) went to Rhode Island, came to Bristol at the same time as Francis, while Lewis and Jones came the following year. Lewis went on to Tiverton, then Exeter; Jones, already 43 when he began, had probably ministered at home and in Bassaleg near Newport beforehand. There was also Morgan Jones (d c 1797) son of Griffith Jones of Penyfai, Hengoed and later America who came in 1755 and Charles Harris (c 1720-1779) Penygarn who arrived as Francis left. Jones became assistant in Pershore in 1756 and served in Hemel Hempstead, 1761-1778, later keeping an academy. Harris, previously at the Trosnant academy, was drawn to Arminianism and in 1757 followed a man of that persuasion in Bridgwater, Somerset.

There were also James Poulson (b c 1731) who started the year before Francis from Tewkesbury. They excommunicated him in 1757 "for lying and acts of great injustice" but, thankfully, he was restored in October 1769 and dismissed to the London church of Andrew Gifford (1700-1784). There were also two Devonians, Samuel Burford (c 1725-1768) of Upottery, near Honiton and James Larwill (c 1722-1786) of Bampton, near Tiverton. Burford was there about 1753-1755. Another Bodenham man, he went to Lyme Regis in 1749, then Little Prescott Street, Goodman Fields, London, also pastoring a Seventh Day Baptist Congregation. Larwill had two brothers in the ministry, He started around 1755 and, in 1759, went to Limehouse, London; Wantage in 1767 and was in Lyme Regis, 1780-1784.

Horsley

Formally called by the church in Swansea in 1755, at the end of his studies in Bristol, Francis preached for a while in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, but was then called to Horsley, still in Gloucestershire but further north near Nailsworth, in 1757. There he remained through a happy and very successful ministry of 42 years, until his death.

At his ordination on October 12, 1758, Hugh Evans preached to the church, from 1 Thessalonians 2:19 and John Tommas (1723-1800), also of Bristol, gave the charge, from Colossians 4:17. Also present were fellow Welshman Thomas Davis of Fairford (c 1724-1784) and previous pastor Samuel Bowen (c 1727-1764), who had gone on to Wantage.

At the time when Francis arrived, the church had only 66 members, and such was their poverty, that they could only pay him £20 per annum (under £4000 in today's terms). Though the stipend was smaller than at Chipping Sodbury, he felt God's call to Horsley and it was there that he went to pastor a poor congregation in a remote place. However discouraging the prospect as to externals, young Francis prepared himself for action and, putting his trust in the Lord, laboured indefatigably in his Master's work. By God's blessing, he saw 13 people added to the church in his first year and numbers continued to grow so that by 1760 it was necessary to enlarge the place of worship - not the last time that this would happen. The Horsley congregation continued to grow and in 1764 they added a vestry to the meeting house.

Invitations to London

In this early period, and again at later points, there were pressing invitations to settle in London, first from the church in Devonshire Square, then from the church in Carter Lane, Southwark, both before and after the death of their pastor John Gill. Many respected ministers united in urging Francis to comply with the request from Gill's church. However, his attachment to the friends at Horsley was so great that the please from London left him unmoved. The Horsley folk were full of affection for him and were so glad that he stayed. His continued success and the many open doors of usefulness that existed in Gloucestershire further combined to strengthen his resolve to stay.

Within two years, there was a further addition of 31 members, and 40 more in the next two years.

Minchin Hampton

Meanwhile, in 1765, Francis had a building erected in Minchin Hampton, about three miles from Horsley, where some of his members lived, and where there was a genuine need for a work. He kept up a lecture there once a fortnight for the next 35 years. He persisted unwearily for the good of the people of the place, despite an apparent lack of success. Indeed, it appears to have been one of his most unsuccessful endeavours in terms of numbers.

It was a notorious place. When George Whitefield (1714-1770) preached there, they had been violent towards him and nothing had much changed when Francis began preaching there 21 years later. In Whitefield's time they had attacked his fellow preacher, Thomas Adams (d 1770)m a gentleman, dragging him through the town and throwing him into the brook.

Francis persisted there with next to no success. However, subsequent to his death, things changed and a church was finally formed.

Besides the church in Minchinhampton, where he preached over 800 times, he also planted churches in the Gloucestershire villages of Avening, Nympsfield and Uley, although these latter ones did not long survive.

Horsley growth

Meanwhile, at Horsley, and in the immediate neighbourhood, there was success. Between 1771 and 1773 God added to the church 54 more members so that in 1774, the meeting-house required a second enlargement, which was accomplished at the expense of £500 (c £80,000 today).

During his ministry, it seems he baptised 450 people altogether. Some 42 of these came under church discipline and were removed but by the time of his death church membership stood at 262.

And so in what had at first seemed an unpromising situation, Francis was able, by God's blessing, to gather a very large congregation. It is said that people flocked in from more than 15 different parishes. As one writer describes it, on the Lord's Day one would see, "on the rising ground above the meeting-house, one group after another ... emerging from the woods; some of them having come from the distance of 10 miles, and upwards".

Endeavours elsewhere

One of the features of Francis's long ministry was his heroic endeavours away from Horsley. His efforts were quite remarkable. He was often the first one to introduce evangelical religion to the many spiritually benighted towns and villages of Gloucestershire and beyond. For many years he made excursions every month into the neglected parts of Gloucestershire and neighbouring Worcestershire and Wiltshire. He not only visited believers and strengthened their hands but sought to sow the gospel seed in pastures new.

In the course of his journeys through Worcestershire, which he regularly made from about 1772 until 1784, it appears that he preached in many places, including Pershore, 137 times and Upton-upon-Severn, 180 times. His son-in-law provides many specific numbers of that sort, including, in Gloucestershire - Cheltenham, 130 sermons; Tewkesbury, 136; Uley, five miles from Horsley, 350 and Meysey Hampton, near Cirencester, 803 sermons.

His pattern was to set out from home on a Monday morning and return on a Friday evening, after having taken a circuit of 90 miles or more, preaching somewhere every evening.

At Malmesbury, Wiltshire, he also established a monthly lecture, where, from 1771-1799, he preached 282 sermons. He also preached, in Wiltshire, in Christian Malford, near Chippenham, 84 times; Devizes, 56 times and 90 times each in Melksham, Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon.

On his visits to Bristol, he preached 101 times at Broadmead and 28 times at the Pithay. He preached too in Portsmouth 22 times and an equal number at Plymouth and Plymouth Dock. He preached in Frome, Somersetshire, 90 times.

He went down to Cornwall at least twenty times and saw many converted there. He was often involved in baptising converts. On one occasion when he was baptising people at Penzance on his first journey into Cornwall, he was interrupted by some scoundrels, to whom he addressed himself so affectionately and impressively that they were struck with deep conviction of sin, and on his next visit he had the pleasure of baptising them in the name of the Lord Jesus, on a profession of their faith in him.

He frequently visited Wales, and was often at annual associations, preaching at least 14 times. Altogether he preached in Wales, both in Welsh and English, about 150 sermons. In 1791, he visited Ireland, and preached, chiefly in Dublin, 30 times. Whenever he visited London, there were plenty of opportunities to preach. He preached too in various other places.

Whenever he preached, it is said, he was evidently concerned to declare the whole counsel of God and to be pure from the blood of all men. At home, or away, he was careful not to handle God's Word deceitfully but sought always to display the truth, commending himself to everyone's conscience in God's sight. No matter where he preached he always preached the same gospel, never seeking to disguise his sentiments or to soft pedal certain fashionable sins in order to win favour.

In Horsley, church discipline was exercised firmly but tenderly. His compassion for sinners could sometimes provoke him to tears, when he was preaching. The proof that this was not for mere show was in the way at times he helped those in need from his own pocket. He was also able at times to prompt his wealthier acquaintance to do something for his poor neighbours, especially believers. More than £300 (something like £35,000 in today's terms) was passed on by him to the poor in his congregation in this way.

Method of self-examination

It appears that Francis adopted a method, which he probably took from the New England Puritan Cotton Mather (1663-1728), of proposing questions to himself every morning of the week, to assist him in the best method of doing good in all his connections. These were the questions

Lord's Day morning. What can I do more for God, in the promotion of religion, in the church over which I am pastor?

Monday. What can I do for my family, as a husband, a father, or a master?

Tuesday. What good can I do for my relations abroad?

Wednesday. What good can I do in the societies of which I am a member?

Thursday. What good shall I do for the churches of Christ at large?

Friday. What special subjects of affliction, and objects of pity, may I take under my particular care? and what shall I do for them?

Saturday. What more have I to do for the interest of God in my own heart and life?

Family life

Francis was twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1757 around the time of his call to Horsley, was born with the surname Harris, and like him was a native of Wales. By her he had several children but all of them were soon taken by death, except the second, a daughter named Mary, who lived to be 31. She died nearly ten years before her father, leaving a motherless family of five children behind. His first-born, named Enoch, died when just 18 months old.

This was a painful stroke but in 1765, he met with a series of bereavements unusual even for those times and rarely the lot of anyone. Under these trials he would have sunk, no doubt, had he not known what it is to be in the hands of the one whose strength is made perfect in weakness and had he not realised that underneath are the everlasting arms. The wife of his youth was removed first, on April 26; then on June 18, his son Benjamin, 4; next his youngest daughter, Sarah, died, July 4, and his daughter Elizabeth, 3, July 10. These distressing events made him leave his former home for a period, such a reminder was it of sadness. He published a plaintive elegy at this time that movingly describes the anguish of his wounded spirit and the relief he found in God's compassion and the prospect of future bliss.

On July 27, 1766, he married again, this time to a Miss Wallis, who would outlive him. By her he had another ten children, but only three survived him. The first, by this second marriage, was again called Enoch but the child did not live long enough to emulate his grandfather. Born profoundly deaf and so unable to speak, he was very much loved by his parents but died when he was only 15. Prior to that he had shown himself to be very intelligent and able to gather knowledge despite his handicap. He also professed faith, rigidly shunning the company of bad companions and delighting to be in church. During his final short illness, he seems to have been strangely aware of his approaching death.

A daughter, Esther, and two sons, died young. An account of a second Esther appeared in the Baptist Register (Vol I p 159). She died August 25, 1790, aged 11. She gave good evidence of being saved. It was similar with the death of her older sister, who died in the same year, at the age of 16, after a lingering illness, marked by unusual marks of grace. A son, named Benjamin, was spared for 27 years. He went to America, where his temporal prospects looked good. He was on the point of marrying when, in 1795, he was cut off in his prime by yellow fever. This was in Petersburgh, Norfolk, South Carolina. What a terrible blow. A touching letter from Francis to his son's intended has been preserved and is worth quoting. In the letter he says

Though overwhelmed with grief at the loss of a dear and affectionate son, whom 1 tenderly loved, yet I dare not repine at the disposal of unerring Providence, but am enabled to say, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Christ is altogether worthy of your entire confidence, chief esteem and everlasting adoration. May this bitter cup be abundantly mixed with divine consolations; and while you lament the loss of the uncertain stream of temporal felicity, may you drink eternal happiness at the fountain head."

Elegies and other poetical works

Francis composed and printed several elegies. These include elegies for well known figures such as Whitefield and the Baptists John Gill, Caleb Evans (1737-1791), son of Hugh, and Samuel Pearce (1766-1799). The one for Pearce, remarkably, was composed on his own death bed. Others were for lesser known figures including Robert Day (1721-1791), Williams of Cardigan (1732-1799), &c. Some of the elegies were in Welsh. He wrote many other poems too. The most famous The Conflagration, a Poem in Four Parts was published in 1770. He also wrote in 1790 The Association, celebrating the association meetings that were so much part of Baptist life at this time. Another interesting work was A Poetical Address to the Stockbridge Indians among whom Jonathan Edwards worked.

In his later years, he would often weep when remembering friends such as Joshua Thomas (1719-1787) of Leominster, for whom he also wrote an elegy and with whom he corresponded for many years, sending questions to each other, and Daniel Turner (1710-1798) of Abingdon and others. Looking up to heaven, Francis would refer to it as the residence of his most numerous friends, containing far more of them than death had left him to enjoy on earth.

Hymns

Francis also wrote hymns, five of which appeared in Rippon's Selection of 1787. These include

Before Thy throne, eternal King - for meetings of ministers or church conferences

Glory to the eternal King - on the majesty of God

In sweet [or loud] exalted strains for the opening of a place of worship

This last one was first sung at the opening of the meeting house at Horsley, September 18, 1774 and at the opening of a new meeting house at Downend, near Bristol, in 1786. It was later altered to begin Come, King of glory, come. Spurgeon then altered it again to begin Great King of Zion, now.

There was also Praise the Saviour, all ye nations for taking up the offering. With my substance I will honour is a cento from this hymn. On death he wrote Ye objects of sense and enjoyments of time. It originally had 16 stanzas.

He was in particular a writer of Welsh hymns. In 1774 he published Alleluia, neu Hymnau perthynol i Addoliad Cyhoeddus (Hallelujah or Hymns pertaining to Public Worship). To this he contributed 103 hymns. A second volume appeared in 1786, to which he contributed 91 hymns, being a total of 194 in all. Of these many appear still to be in use.

As a hymn writer, he is criticised for over use of alliteration and internal rhyme.

Preaching

John Ryland (1753-1825) reckoned that Francis and the silver tongued Samuel Pearce were the best preachers he knew. He once wrote, beginning with Pearce, that

Much as that seraphic young man was esteemed by many, I know not that anyone thought more highly of him than myself. I was used to think that Benjamin Francis, as an aged man, and Samuel Pearce, as a young man, were the two most popular preachers I had personally known, who, without rising to sublime eloquence, owed no part of their popularity to eccentricity. A peculiar fluency of delivery, and a most serious and affectionate address, would have made them acceptable to all classes of hearers, in any part of the kingdom.

For some reason, none of Francis's sermons were preserved. We can get an idea of his preaching perhaps, Michael Haykin suggests, through his association letters. He was author of the letters for the Western Association five times - 1765, 1772, 1778, 1782 and 1796. Haykin says that in these letters Francis touches on a number of themes including the challenges of poverty and affluence, the danger of dead orthodoxy and the nature of genuine faith. He presses home the need for a Christianity in which the heart is vitally engaged and treats of the various disciplines of the Christian life. He seeks to nurture a concern for unity in the churches. However, says Haykin,

... there is one theme that comes up again and again: the beauty of Christ and the passion that should be ours in serving him. In the final analysis, it was this passion for Christ and his glory that underlay all the evangelistic and pastoral labours of Benjamin Francis ...

The circular letter of 1772, for example, addresses those ‘who are sickly and feeble in the spiritual life’ and who have become ‘almost strangers to closet devotion, deep contrition for sin, earnest wrestling with the Lord in prayer, heavenly affections, and sensible communion with God’.

He encourages them to ask themselves these sobering questions: ‘Will you call this the religion of Jesus? Is this the fruit of his love and crucifixion?’ Without a ‘living faith in Jesus Christ’, Francis reminds his readers, ‘our orthodox notions’, church attendance and outward morality will ultimately avail for nothing.

And so he urges the need for ‘a spiritual sight of the awful perfections of God, of the adorable glories of Christ, and of the ineffable excellency of divine and eternal things’.

They also need to beware of resting their salvation on their performance as Christians and their faithful attendance on ordinances. ‘Constantly rest in Christ alone’, says Francis.

He encourages his readers to ‘look for every blessing … in and through [Christ,] the infinitely prevalent Mediator’. Building on this, he urges his readers to ‘live daily on Christ as your spiritual food, and seek hourly communion with him as the beloved of your souls’.

In 1778 he is mainly concerned with the nature of genuine faith and has a similar emphasis. In a section that deals with the difference between assurance and faith, he exhorts

Place then your entire confidence in Christ for the whole of salvation: let the declarations and promises of the gospel be your only warrant for believing in him: and consider your purest principles, happiest frames, and holiest duties, not as the foundation, but the superstructure of faith.

Let not your sweetest experiences, which are at best but shallow cisterns, but Christ alone, be the source of your comfort, and constantly live upon that inexhaustible fountain.

Christ alone is the source of salvation and he alone gives the strength to live the Christian life. The final sentence alludes to Jeremiah 2:13. There, the Lord rebukes his people for forsaking him, ‘the fountain of living waters’, and living instead on the water drawn from ‘broken cisterns’ of their own devising.

Inspired, no doubt, by such New Testament passages as John 4:10-13 and 7:37, where Christ states that he is the source of ‘living water’ that quenches spiritual thirst, Francis identifies the ‘fountain’ of Jeremiah 2 as Christ.

Latter years

God made his final years God honouring and useful to a high degree. Large numbers continued to join the church. He had the pleasure of baptising, along with others, his own daughters. The congregation so multiplied that near the end of his life a third enlargement of the place of worship was necessary. In the end he did not live to see the day appointed for its opening. The day Dr John Ryland was due to preach for the opening, he was called away to preach at the funeral of Samuel Pearce, at Birmingham. By the time he was able to come back to Horsely, Francis was dead and so he preached the good man's funeral sermon.

Last illness

In Francis's time, Christians often liked to make a great deal of the way their heroes died. Francis's biographers did not find his mindset during his last illness particularly remarkable. However, he seems to have had an even spirit and some strong consolations. One morning, it is said, his Welsh Bible was put into his hand and he read Psalm 23. When he came to the last verse Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, he was full of thanksgiving for God's grace towards him. Fondly embracing his Bible, he laid it by his side, as if he did not want to let it out of his sight as he contemplated facing the final enemy, death, and his passage to another world.

On the evening of the Lord's Day, December 1, 1799, growing worse and aware that this might be his last Lord's Day on earth, he expressed his wish to see his church officers one last time. When they arrived, he felt such strong emotions that he could not speak for a while. Recovering himself a little, he urged them to watch over the welfare of the church with the tenderest sympathy and to promote its welfare as best they could. He warned against worldliness and urged them not to lose their zeal but to lay themselves out for the benefit of the whole community, making love to Zion their chief aim. He spoke many other words of an evangelical flavour, including these words

O! cling to the cross, to the cross, to the cross! Here learn all you want to know; hence derive all you wish to possess; and by this, accomplish all you can desire to perform.

He then took each man by the hand, summing up his prayer in Paul's words from Acts 10:32, And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

By December 12 he did not have long. He held out a hand to each of his family and said

Come, as we must part, we had better now take our mutual farewell, and then you shall withdraw, that I may languish softly into life.

At this time, he would frequently repeat these lines, "Sweet truth to me, I shall arise, And with these eyes my Saviour see."

Death finally came on Saturday, December 14. At about 2 pm he quietly spoke of his inward peace. A relative whispered in his ear Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. He replied, "No, no," adding, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Despite lingering pain, he seemed to die happily, retaining the smile that through his life had made his face shine. At 8.15 pm he finally fell asleep in Jesus.

On Friday, December 20, 1799. his remains were interred in the meeting burying ground in a place he had chosen beforehand. He was 66. Ryland preached at the graveside and on the following Lord's day preached a funeral discourse from 1 Thessalonians 4:17, 18, So shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. The sermon was printed and includes these words

The church of Christ, which worships statedly in this place, has been blessed, for above forty years, with one of the best pastors that could preside over a Christian society. Alas! that very day two months, that I, and many now present, attended your venerable pastor to his grave, I was preaching the funeral sermon for brother Pearce, of Birmingham, cut off in the midst of his years at 33. Now they are both gone! We have lost the most active, diligent, humble, spiritual, zealous, successful ministers, within about eight weeks of each other. You cannot but mourn, and all our churches mourn with you. This neighbourhood, especially, for a wide extent, has suffered a great loss. No more shall that man of God, whose soul glowed with such tender concern for the salvation of souls, take his circuit round the country, to publish the glad tidings to perishing sinners. I hope God has not said of all who stopped their ears to his charming voice, 'They are joined to idols, let them alone. He that continued impenitent under the awakening ministry of my servant FRANCIS, let him be given up to hardness of heart for ever!

The Life of David Brainerd

David Brainerd was an 18th Century American missionary of Reformed beliefs. When we say American it is important to remember that he lived before the Declaration of Independence and so, like his contemporaries, thought of himself chiefly as English. The struggle between the colonial powers of England, France and Spain raged throughout his lifetime. In his short life he must have traversed over 12,000 miles on horseback but it was all in that vast north eastern sector of what we now know as the USA. As a young man he was expelled from Yale College for making disrespectful remarks about a tutor but became a missionary to Native Americans (Red Indians we used to say) and was a man of great earnestness and prayer. He died from tuberculosis before he had reached the age of 30. His name was immortalised by the pen of the great Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), in whose home he died. This year sees the 300th anniversary of his birth.

When we think of Brainerd we are thinking of at least two things, On the one hand, there is the life of David Brainerd 1718-1747. On the other, there is Jonathan Edwards' Life of the Late Rev David Brainerd (1749 to the present). That is to say, there is the actual life of Brainerd but there is also Edwards' An Account of the Life of the Late Rev David Brainerd published in 1749 and subsequent versions of the story that have continued to have an impact down to the present day.

Before I say something about the life of David Brainerd 1718-1747 then let me begin by saying something about the impact of his life, drawing here chiefly on the work of John A Grigg on this. He quotes Andrew F Walls (“The Evangelical Revival, the Missionary Movement, and Africa,” Evangelicalism: Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles, and Beyond, 1700–1990, eds Noll, Bebbington and Rawlyk, 1994), who says, “David Brainerd became the principal model of early British missionary spirituality.” Grigg demonstrates this.

William Carey and the BMS

When the Baptist Missionary Society was founded in 1792 a major catalyst for its founding was a book by William Carey (1761–1834). Carey had come to a Baptist church in Leicester in 1789 and that had brought him into closer contact with a circle of Calvinistic Baptist ministers who encouraged him to write about the need for concerted missionary effort. This led to the publishing of An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens.

The book was inspired by a number of missionaries, including Brainerd. An objection to mission dealt with in the book is the “uncivilised, and barbarous way of living” of the target audience. Such a consideration, Carey declared, “was no objection to an Elliot [sic] or a Brainerd.” (John Eliot 1604-1690 a pioneer missionary to native Americans). In fact, he argued, the “uncivilized state of the heathen” should “furnish an argument for” sending missionaries. Indeed, he noted, “such effects [civilisation] did in a measure follow the afore-mentioned efforts of Elliot [sic], Brainerd, and others amongst the American Indians.”

Carey also invoked Eliot and Brainerd to counter another objection: fear of death at the hands of those to whom one was preaching. He suggests that most acts of brutality reported against Europeans may have originated in “some real or supposed affront [to local peoples], and were therefore, more properly, acts of self-defence, than proofs of ferocious dispositions.” To support his argument, he notes that “Elliot [sic], Brainerd, and the Moravian missionaries, have been very seldom molested” and insists that most native peoples had “principally expressed their hatred of Christianity on account of the vices of nominal Christians.”

In concluding his Enquiry, Carey reminds readers that they are “exhorted to lay up treasure in heaven,” and a great reward must await Paul, Eliot, Brainerd and others who “have given themselves wholly to the work of the Lord.”

For Carey, Brainerd exemplified the missionary life. Increasingly, British missionaries attempted to model not only their life, but their work, on him. Portions of a diary Carey kept, when he arrived in India, apparently in conscious emulation of Brainerd, have survived, and his respect for Brainered comes out there. On one occasion, he acknowledged being “much humbled by Brainerd- O what a disparity betwixt me and him; he always constant, I unconstant as the wind.” A little humorously, he complains on one occasion that he could not pray in the woods like Brainerd “for fear of tygers”!

David Bogue and the LMS

In 1795, the London Missionary Society was founded. Its roots are complex and disparate, but at least two of those who contributed to its foundation urged people to look to Brainerd’s example.

In his 1794 Letters on Missions Melville Horne (1761-1841) declared that the “labours of a Brainerd and an Elliot [sic] deserve to be had in everlasting remembrance.”

David Bogue, addressing the LMS founding meeting, also invoked the spirit of Brainerd. Refuting the claim that it was not yet time for the conversion of the heathen, he pointed to what had “already been effected by the preaching of the gospel among the heathen” by men such as “Brainard [sic], [Azariah] Horton [1716-1777] and others.” He went on to remind his audience that the Indians were “converted by the power of the gospel: and the same glorious truths confirmed by the holy lives of our missionaries, and accompanied by the energy of the Spirit, will, I trust, still produce the same effects.”

With Andrew Fuller and others, Bogue sponsored the quarterly Evangelical Magazine from 1793. Part of every issue was set aside to document the “progress of the Gospel throughout the kingdom” and the magazine soon became a voice for mission promoters. Bogue published a preliminary appeal for missions in September 1794 issue, and there were frequent reports on the LMS. The fourth volume, in 1796, featured an excerpted version of Brainerd's life, totalling about 25 pages across three issues. The editors noted that “few lives are more interesting than that of Mr. Brainerd.” They hoped readers would “perceive how easily God can provide instruments for his work” and that his success, “in circumstances most discouraging,” would provide “the clearest demonstration that those difficulties which, to us, appear insuperable, instantly vanish at the presence of the Almighty.” The Anglican periodical Missionary Register did something similar in 1816.

When missionary training institutions began to spring up they most frequently turned for instructional inspiration to the writings of the Moravians and the Life of Brainerd. David Bogue’s academy at Gosport, which turned out 40% of all LMS missionaries in the period, included lectures that were mainly based on Bogue's reflections on the lives of past missionaries such as Brainerd. O only five books in the Gosport Library one was the life of Brainerd. The CMS library was similar.

Student-led mission societies at Scottish universities encouraged their members to read the Life of Brainerd (along with those of other missionaries) and even to present papers on their readings.

He was frequently cited and referred to by the mission boards. CMS candidates expected to be asked if they had read Brainerd’s Life, and, by the 1820s, the LMS Committee of Examination required candidates to read it along with several other biographies. William Crow was judged to be a good candidate after his initial examination and was subsequently given a copy of the Life and a month to read it and write an essay on his perspective on the “character, difficulties, and privations of a Christian Missionary.” There are also frequent references to Brainerd in the writings of missionaries and mission candidates. Often, these men were challenged by Brainerd’s example of the ideal Christian.

Samuel Pearce

When Samuel Pearce (1766-1799) another godly man who died young, read part of the biography in 1793 he wrote that “the exalted devotion of that dear man almost made me question mine. Yet” because “at some seasons he speaks of sinking as well as rising” he felt that while lacking Brainerd's “singular piety” he too knew the same “feelings, prayers, desires, comforts, hopes, and sorrows” and that could at least be followed. Carey's son Samuel Pearce Carey, dubbed Pearce “The Baptist Brainerd” when he wrote his biography. The official memoir was put together by Andrew Fuller. He too saw Pearce as another Brainerd and, according to Michael Haykin, “clearly modelled” it on Edwards' life of Brainerd. He wrote, like Edwards, “out of the conviction that telling the stories of the lives of remarkable Christians is a means of grace for the church.”

Aspiring missionaries either wanted to or quickly learned that they were expected to incorporate lessons from Brainerd in their applications. William Miller, in his written application to the LMS, declared that he desired the “ardent love and compassion which [Brainerd] manifested toward those who were ignorant and far from God,” as well as Brainerd’s “exquisite tenderness of conscience and deep abhorrence of sin.” Similarly, BMS missionary John Chamberlain declared, “I long to be like [Brainerd]. Surely, if ever I arrive at the heavenly world, I shall be eagerly desirous of seeing him.”

There is much more in this vain and we will give one or two more examples later.

*

Brainerd grew up in his parents' English Puritan Congregationalist tradition and after conversion in his early twenties served the Lord in connection with chiefly Presbyterian churches and societies. He went through a prolonged period of conviction before his eventual conversion and was greatly affected by the period of revival known as the Great Awakening (1739-1745) the revival associated with the names of Edwards, Whitefield (1714-1770) and others. This revival of Puritanism, though bitterly opposed, had a real impact on a populace that had previously been increasingly devoted to nominalism in the churches and scepticism in the colleges.

Brainerd once described a true Christian in these terms (Yale Edwards Vol 7, p 483)

1. He has a true knowledge of the glory and excellency of God, that he is most worthy to be loved and praised for his own divine perfections (Ps 145:3)

2. God is his portion (Ps 73:25) and God's glory his great concern (Mat 6:22)

3. Holiness is his delight; nothing he so much longs for as to be holy, as God is holy (Php 3:9-12)

4. Sin is his greatest enemy. This he hates for its own nature, for what it is in itself, being contrary to a holy God. And consequently he hates all sin (Rom 7:24; 1 Jn 3:9)

5. The laws of God also are his delight (Ps 119:97; Rom 7:22). These he observes, not out of constraint, from a servile fear of hell; but they are his choice (Ps 119:30). The strict observance of them is not his bondage, but his greatest liberty (Ps 119:45)

One would also like to think that the significant missionary zeal seen in his life was a product of Reformed convictions. It is important to recognise the role of post-millennialism in his thinking too. His missionary zeal can be traced in part to his belief that by means of missionary work the millennial kingdom is brought in. He once wrote (May 20 1742)

'My soul was concerned not so much for souls as such, but rather for Christ's Kingdom, that it might appear in the world, that God might be known to be God in the whole earth.'

Over the years, since the arrival of white men on the American continent, those not absorbed into the dominant population steadily moved westward from New England into the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and beyond. Animistic in religion their contact with uncaring Europeans tended to encourage only laziness, drunkenness and constant debt. Attempts had been made to evangelise them but by 1675 it was suggested that there were only some 4,000 'Praying Indians'.

Brainerd worked among Native Americans from many tribes in several different places. He first preached to Indians near New York in August, 1742. On April 1, 1743, under the auspices of the Society in Scotland for Promoting Christian Knowledge (founded 1701), he began a ministry at Kaunaumeek, between Stockbridge, Massachusetts and Albany, New York (now Brainard, NY, 18 mls SE of Albany – named for a Brainerd descendant). Just over a year later he arrived at the Forks of the Delaware, E Pennsylvania (near the present city of Easton) where he did further work. In June, 1745 he began work in Crossweeksung (now Crosswicks, near the present town of Freehold, 9 miles SE of Trenton, NJ). Just under a year later, in 1746, with a company of Native Americans, he moved 15 miles north west to Cranberry, near Newark, New Jersey, where he engaged in his final months of labour. It was in these latter places that he knew most success.

Brainerd is remembered as a man of great earnestness and prayer. His private diaries are chiefly prayer journals. They say little about his daily routine but much about his relationship with God. On page after page, as one writer notes, one reads such sentences as

1742 Wednesday, April 21 ... and God again enabled me to wrestle for numbers of souls, and had much fervency in the sweet duty of intercession …

Lord's Day, April 25 This morning I spent about two hours in secret duties and was enabled more than ordinarily to agonise for immortal souls. Though it was early in the morning and the sun scarcely shined at all, yet my body was quite wet with sweat …

Saturday, December 15 Spent much time in prayer in the woods and seemed raised above the things of this world …

1743 Monday, March 14 ... in the morning was almost continually engaged in ejaculatory prayer …

Thursday, August 4 Was enabled to pray much, through the whole day ...

Thursday, November 3 Spent this day in secret fasting and prayer, from morning till night …

He once wrote in his journal (August 4 1744)

Was enabled to pray much the whole day. It is good, I find, to persevere in attempts to pray, if I cannot pray with perseverance, ie continue long in my addresses to the divine Being. I have generally found, that the more I do in secret prayer, the more I have delighted to do, and have enjoyed more of a spirit of prayer; and frequently have found the contrary, when with journeying or otherwise I have been much deprived of retirement.

Only a man very familiar with the work of prayer can write with that sort of insight.

Something similar could be done with regard to his zeal.

1742 April 26 Oh, that I could spend every moment of my life to God's glory!

August 30 My soul longs with a vehement desire to live to God.

1744 April 30 Oh that time should pass with so little done for God!

1745 November 22 I have received my all from God. Oh that I could return my all to God.

1746 May 22 I longed to be as a flame of fire, continually glowing in the divine service, preaching and building up Christ’s kingdom, to my latest, my dying moment.

Though afflicted throughout his final years it was not until 1747 that he abandoned his work among the Native Americans, eventually coming to Edwards' home in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he spent his final weeks before dying of tuberculosis on October 9, 1747, aged just 29.

It is chiefly Edwards who ensured his name was preserved for posterity. Edwards preached at the funeral and, with the permission of Brainerd's brother John Brainerd (1720-1781), also a missionary to Native Americans, edited and published Brainerd's journals and papers to produce An Account of the Life of the Late Rev David Brainerd (1749).

It became the most often reprinted and the best known of all Edwards' works. Like Wesley's abridgement of it in England, it quickly became a bestseller in America.

*

Brainerd's earthly life lasted 29 years, five months, 19 days. You can divide it into five unequal parts.

1. A melancholy boy: parentage, birth, parents' deaths (Apr 1718-Mar 1732)

We know little of his childhood. The fifth of five boys and four girls, his parents were Christians. His father Hezekiah was a country squire, a JP and one of the King's counsel for the colony. When he married David's mother Dorothy she was a widow. Her father, Jeremiah Hobart, had been minister in Haddam. An ancestor, Peter Hobart, had ministered at Hingham, Essex before crossing the Atlantic to settle in Hingham, Massachusetts.

A schoolhouse was established in Haddam in 1728. Perhaps David went there. His education would certainly have been thorough but basic. The simple Congregational church the family attended was built in 1721 when David was still a child. Long sermons and sober worship were the order of the day. The local parson was treated with the highest respect.

The upbringing would have been strict but loving and Bible-centred. Books like Janeway's Token for children and Pilgrim's Progress would have been used. In those early days Brainerd had some marked religious experiences that he later mentions but they did not last.

His father died, away on business in Hartford, when David was only nine. Five years later, in March, 1732, his mother also died. Brainerd confesses that he was a sad boy by temperament and no doubt these early deaths encouraged his serious temperament.

2. A serious teenager: with his sister, studies, conversion (Mar 1732-Sep 1739)

After his mother's death Brainerd lived with newly married sister Jerusha and her husband Samuel Spencer. During this period he struggled to find Christ and knew a good deal of inner conflict. He confesses to hating things he found in Scripture, especially the idea God could save or damn him. Like so many he wanted to be saved on his own terms.

In April, 1737, he returned to the farm, where he worked for a year before beginning to study and lodge with his pastor, Phineas Fiske (c 1682-1738). The families were close. Three of six Fiske daughters married Brainerds. Brainerd soon became a serious student of the Bible and took Fiske's advice to spend more time with older rather than younger people interested only in card playing and 'frolics'. He also spent time with more sober-minded young people.

In Autumn, 1738 Fiske also died. All this while Brainerd had been seeking the Lord. Though he sometimes thought himself acceptable, he was not converted. All his religion, he saw, was just show. By February, 1739, he was in the habit of setting aside days for fasting and prayer to seek God. Eventually, on July 12, 1739, he was converted and blessed with a wonderful assurance of salvation in Christ. Unspeakable glory seemed to open to his view. To quote him

I continued, as I remember, in this state of mind, from Friday morning until the Sabbath evening following ... when I was walking again in the same solitary place where I was brought to see myself lost and helpless ... and here, in a mournful melancholy state, was attempting to pray; but found no heart to engage in that, or any other duty; my former concern, and exercise, and religious affections were now gone. I thought the Spirit of God had quite left me; but still was not distressed: Yet disconsolate, as if there was nothing in heaven or earth could make me happy. And having been thus endeavouring to pray (though being, as I thought, very stupid and senseless) for near half an hour ... as I was walking in a dark thick grove, unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and apprehension of my soul: I do not mean any external brightness ... nor ... any imagination of a body of light, somewhere away in the third heavens, or any thing of that nature; but it was a new inward apprehension or view that I had of God, such as I never had before, nor anything which had the least resemblance of it. I stood still, and wondered and admired! I knew that I never had seen before anything comparable to it for excellency and beauty: It was widely different from all the conceptions that ever I had had of God, or things divine. I had no particular apprehension of any one person in the Trinity ... but it appeared to be divine glory that I then beheld: And my soul rejoiced with joy unspeakable, to see such a God, such a glorious divine Being; and I was inwardly pleased and satisfied, that he should be God over all for ever and ever. My soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God, that I was even swallowed up in him; at least to that degree, that I had no thought ... about my own salvation, and scarce reflected there was such a creature as myself.

Thus God, I trust, brought me to a hearty disposition to exalt him, and set him on the throne, and principally and ultimately to aim at his honour and glory, as King of the Universe.

I continued in this state of inward joy and peace, yet astonishment, until near dark, without any sensible abatement; and then began to think and examine what I had seen; and felt sweetly composed in my mind all the evening following: I felt myself in a new world, and every thing about me appeared with a different aspect from what it was wont to do.

At this time, the way of salvation opened to me with such infinite wisdom, suitableness and excellency, that I wondered I should ever think of any other way of salvation; was amazed that I had not dropped my own contrivances, and complied with this lovely, blessed, and excellent way before. If I could have been saved by my own duties, or any other way that I had formerly contrived, my whole soul would now have refused. I wondered that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation, entirely by the righteousness of Christ.

3. An idealistic young man: in and out of Yale (Sep 1739-Jul 1742)

In September, 1739, he entered Yale College, New Haven. There were then about 45 students, mostly younger than Brainerd. As he expected, time for private devotions was now at a premium. Students then as now were often drunk and engaged in riotous behaviour. It was also a terribly cold winter and a bout of measles laid him aside that first year. He tried to catch up after being away only to get ill again. By August, 1740, he was weak and spitting up blood. Tuberculosis was the plague of colonial New England and already Brainerd showed signs of being a sufferer.

In November, 1740, however, he returned to Yale and found there had been a marked spiritual change. Whitefield had visited on October 27, and revival fires had touched the school. Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764) of New Jersey, author of a famous sermon on The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry, also preached in New Haven in March, 1741. All this fuelled opposition to moderates in religion. Brainerd and other students became very zealous and visited each other 'for conversation and prayer'. It was through Brainerd that Samuel Hopkins (1721-1803) came under conviction of sin at this time.

In April, New York pastor Ebenezer Pemberton (1704-1777), another revivalist preacher, visited Yale and gave a stirring address on missionary work to the Indians. The next day Brainerd was 23. He vowed to be wholly the Lord's and forever devoted to his service.

The college authorities were opposed to the revival and forbade students to attend services in connection with it. They also decreed that any student speaking critically of the spiritual standing of any tutor would have to come before the college and openly repent. Failure to do so would lead to expulsion. The excesses of the Connecticut preacher James Davenport (1716-1757) confirmed their worst prejudices. Students favourable to the revival would meet together for fellowship, however, and it was in one of these gatherings that Brainerd said of his tutor Chauncey Whittelsey (1717-1787), whom he thought antagonistic to the revival, that he had 'no more grace than this chair' (a remark that turned out to be quite unjust).

A younger student overheard what was said and mentioned it to someone else who in turn spoke to the college's strict and overbearing rector, Thomas Clap (1703-1767) who demanded a public confession, even though the remark was made in private. Brainerd's refusal to comply, probably exacerbated by continued attendance at meetings in New Haven, led inevitably to expulsion. He was also accused of saying that he was surprised Clap had not dropped dead for fining students who went to hear Tennent in Milford but this he denied.

Despite Brainerd's expressions of regret his remark, his refusal to make a public confession led to him being expelled. Many, many attempts were made to have him reinstated and in fact the way eventually opened up for his reinstatement, but by then he was wholly taken up with missionary work and a return to college was not realistic. Ironically, in the 19th Century a Brainerd Hall was established on the Yale campus.

Expulsion was a bitter blow to Brainerd but readmission proved impossible, despite his repeated regrets and pleas from a council of Congregational ministers. He waged a constant fight against the bitterness of disappointment over his expulsion. The day of graduation when he would have passed out as top student was a testing one but he was able to cope by God's mercy. At other times he was thrown into deep despair. As time passed, he came to see how mistaken he had been to speak as he did, adding to his sense of shame and sadness. Undoubtedly Brainerd was constitutionally inclined to depression and no doubt his physical illness added to this. His shameful expulsion and his conviction that he had been misguided in his zeal served to increase his tendency to depression in this period.

Like other troubles he faced, though it cut him deep, by God's grace he seems to have been sanctified by it. The immediate effect was to draw him closer to God. It should also be noted that it was in this period that he came to Edwards' attention, receiving support from him and other like-minded ministers. He also came to know Jonathan Dickinson (1688-1747) who went on to be first president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton College, from which came Princeton Seminary, that bastion for orthodoxy in the following century). Dickinson and later Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) saw Brainerd's expulsion as an important catalyst in bringing about the foundation of Old Princeton.

Following Brainerd's expulsion laws were passed forbidding lay preachers, itinerant preachers and other unqualified men. However, attempts were made to provide ways for men like Brainerd to serve the Lord nevertheless. A new association was formed in Connecticut for licensing preachers unable to meet the demands of existing associations. A prime mover in forming this new group was Jedediah Mills (1697-1776) who, in Spring, 1742, invited Brainerd to his home in Riperton, 10 miles west of New Haven. On his 24th birthday Brainerd wrote,

... I hardly ever so longed to live to God and to be altogether devoted to him; I wanted to wear out my life in his service and for his glory …

But what was he to do? That June he spent several days in fasting and prayer yet still remained in a quandary about the future.

4. An earnest minister: labours among Native Americans (Jul 1742-Mar 1747)

On June 19 Brainerd wrote of Kaunameek where he first was and the Forks of the Delaware where he now was 'Not having had any considerable appearance of success in either of those places, my spirits were depressed, and I was not a little discouraged.' His expeditions along the Susquehanna had not given him reason to expect success anywhere there either.

It was at this time that he heard of a group of Indians at a place called Crossweeksung, about 80 miles south east of the Forks of the Delaware. He arrived there June 19, 1745, and spent two weeks among them. He saw a real interest in the gospel there. Upon his return to the Forks, the people there seemed more responsive too. On July 21 he baptised Moses Tattamy and his wife, his first converts among the Indians. Tattamy was in his fifties by this time. He had once been a hard drinker but under Brainerd's influence had slowly come to faith.

Then back in Crossweeksung he experienced the most glorious week of his life. Under William Tennent's ministry the small group had been sustained and grown but on August 8 the power of God came down as Brainerd preached to a group of about 65 and many genuine conversions took place in a short time. Brainerd wrote

There was much visible concern among them while I was discoursing publicly; but afterwards when I spoke to one and another more particularly, whom I perceived under much concern, the power of God seemed to descend upon the assembly like a rushing mighty wind, and with an astonishing energy bore down all before it.

I stood amazed at the influence that seized the audience almost universally, and could compare it to nothing more aptly than the irresistible force of a mighty torrent or swelling deluge, that with its insupportable weight and pressure bears down and sweeps before it whatever is in its way. Almost all persons of all ages were bowed down with concern together, and scarce one was able to withstand the shock of this surprising operation. Old men and women who had been drunken wretches for many years, and some little children not more than six or seven years of age, appeared in distress for their souls, as well as persons of middle age. And it was apparent these children (some of them at least) were not merely frighted with seeing the general concern; but were made sensible of their danger, the badness of their hearts, and their misery without Christ, as some of them expressed it. The most stubborn hearts were now obliged to bow. A principal man among the Indians, who before was most secure and self-righteous, and thought his state good because he knew more than the generality of the Indians had formerly done, and who with a great degree of confidence the day before, told me 'he had been a Christian more than 10 years,' was now brought under solemn concern for his soul, and wept bitterly. Another man advanced in years, who had been a murderer, a powow, (or conjurer,) and a notorious drunkard, was likewise brought now to cry for mercy with many tears, and to complain much that he could be no more concerned when he saw his danger so very great.

Brainerd now proceeded to disciple these young converts. Meanwhile as news travelled, more and more Europeans and Indians came to hear the young preacher. On August 25, he baptised 25 Indians (15 adults, 10 children). After the years of prayer and suffering, fruit was beginning to be seen.

Brainerd was still concerned about the Indians along the Susquehanna River and spent the period September 9-28 in the area. Despite several interesting encounters he saw no apparent success. Back at Crossweeksung on October 5, on the other hand, he was overjoyed at the response to the gospel. Others were converted and baptised. On November 14 he baptised 14, bringing the number to 47, including 12 from the Forks.

On December 22 he preached on the rich young ruler. His diary relates how, speaking to a woman later she spoke in broken English saying

Me try, me try, save myself, last my strength be all gone, (meaning her ability to save herself,) could not me stir bit further. Den last, me forced let Jesus Christ alone, send me hell if he please.' I said, But you was not willing to go to hell, was you? She replied,'Could not me help it. My heart he would wicked for all. Could not me make him good;' (meaning she saw it was right she should go to hell because her heart was wicked, and would be so after all she could do to mend it). I asked her, how she got out of this case? She answered still in the same broken language, 'By by my heart be glad desperately.' I asked her why her heart was glad? She replied, 'Glad my heart Jesus Christ do what he please with me. Den me tink, glad my heart Jesus Christ send me hell. Did not me care where he put me, me love him for all,' &c. And she could not readily be convinced but that she was willing to go to hell, if Christ was pleased to send her there. Though the truth evidently was, her will was so swallowed up in the divine will, that she could not frame any hell in her imagination that would be dreadful or undesirable, provided it was but the will of God to send her to it.

Brainerd not only taught the people but also catechised them and helped them practically. Some had debts that he arranged to be discharged. On January 31, 1746, a schoolmaster he appointed arrived with a dozen primers for them. In February he visited Indians back at the Forks 'under great weakness and some pain'. Some from Crossweeksung accompanied him. They persuaded some of the believers to join them in Crossweeksung.

About 150 now followed him and looked to him for direction. He encouraged these scattered Indians to develop Spring planting at a settlement he had picked out at what was originally a Scots settlement 15 miles distant called Cranberry (Cranbury). He later called it Bethel. They cleared the land in March and by May had moved to the new settlement. His attempts to turn the converts into farmers, however, were not very successful.

On April 27 the Indians took the Lord's Supper. In less than a year 77 (38 adults) had been baptised. The lives of these people had been permanently changed. What a happy situation Brainerd now found himself in. He continued to know some depression and at times bemoaned his relative ineffectiveness. It was an attractive situation, however. He was still concerned, nevertheless, for the pagan Indians of the Susquehanna River area where he had already failed to make headway three times. Finally, on August 12, 1746, he left his praying friends at Cranberry and with six Indian evangelists set out on his fourth trip. He had previously not gone further west than the 'Indian capital' Shamokin, but now wanted to go a hundred miles further to a site near present day Lockhaven, Pennsylvania.

This trip finally broke his health completely, and he had to curtail much of it. One wonders why he went on such an arduous journey. Such was his passion for Christ that he simply could not confine himself to one spot. Back at Shamokin on September 6, he clung to life, 'coughing and spitting blood'. On September 20 he arrived back at Cranberry, realising now that the tb was going to destroy him. There was some guilt at having so recklessly injured his health and aggravated the illness but it is probably true to say that his zeal and outdoor life had done something to preserve him, as we know his problems had started several years before, while still at Yale.

On October 6, he had his last blessed day at Cranberry, taking the Lord's Supper with 40 converts and baptising two adults. Some 85 Indians were now converted. November 3 was his last day as pastor in Cranberry. He spent the long winter in Elizabethtown with Dickinson. Rallying in health he made a last visit to his Indian converts March 18-20, 1747, bidding them farewell for what would be the last time.

5. A dying saint: final months, death, what followed (Mar-Oct 1747)

He then travelled further east, visiting family and friends at Haddam on May 10. His sister Jerusha would be dead in just two months.

On May 28 he arrived at Edwards' home. At this time he was much better and quite cheerful. For his remaining 19 weeks he was nursed by Edwards' daughter Jerusha who devoted herself to him with great delight, looking on him as an eminent servant of Christ. They travelled to Boston together in search of a cure but there was none.

By June he was worse. He took his last ride and prayed with the family for the last time on August 11. A room on the ground floor was set aside for him the following week as he could not climb steps. He went to church for the last time September 2. Edwards described his last days – his feet swollen, in constant pain, many indignities and bodily struggles.

On the morning of October 4, his last Lord’s day, Edwards wrote

as my daughter Jerusha, who chiefly attended him, came into the room, he looked on her very pleasantly, and said, ‘Dear Jerusha, are you willing to part with me? - I am quite willing to part with you: I am willing to part with all my friends: though if I thought I should not see you and be happy with you in another world, I could not bear to part with you. But we shall spend a happy eternity together.'

On the Wednesday he discussed his Indian work with his brother John, who succeeded him in it. On Friday, October 9, the appointed day arrived and he died. His last words were said to be 'He will come, and will not tarry. I shall soon be in glory; soon be with God and his angels." He was buried on the Monday, Edwards conducting the funeral. Four months later, grieving Jerusha, just 18 years old, took sick and in five days, on February 14, 1748, joined David in heaven. She was buried next to him. Brainerd's gravestone reads A faithful and laborious missionary to the Stockbridge, Delaware and Susquehanna tribes of Indians.

*

Edwards, John Thornbury tells us, was not the first to make use of Brainerd's diaries. As well as his personal diary, Brainerd composed a journal in which he chronicled the story of his ministry among the Indians. In this he explained in detail Indian customs and manners, what he preached to them and the difficulties and successes he knew. He prepared the Journal for the leaders of the missionary society from whom he received financial help. In 1746 William Bradford in Philadelphia published these portions for The Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge in the Highlands of Scotland and in popish and infidel parts of the world. The extracts deal with his work at Crossweeksung June 19-November 4, 1745; November 24, 1745-June 19, 1746. The account of great revival became an important instrument in stirring up interest elsewhere in missionary work among native Americans. Both in America and in Britain many eagerly read it.

It was the private diary, however, that formed the basis of Edwards' Life. His edition became the standard one, although over the years it has been published many times with various editorial notes and alterations. A complete edition appeared in 1765 in Edinburgh and an abridged American edition was published in 1793. In 1822, Edwards' great grandson Sereno Edwards Dwight (1796-1850) edited and published the life and diary entire, with letters and other writings. In 1843 the Presbyterian Board of Publications printed an abridgement entitled The Missionary in the Wilderness or Grace displayed among the heathen. John Wesley (1703-1781) included the Life in abridged form in Volume 12 of his collected works (Bristol, 1771-1774). A complete edition was printed in London in 1851 in the Christian's Fireside Library series. The diary continues to be in print in various forms. In 1884 a more thorough revision was prepared by James Manning Sherwood (1814-1890) in New York.

By 1749 Edwards was already a well-known writer. His first publication in 1731 was God Glorified in Man's Dependence on 1 Corinthians 1:29-31. Others followed, such as A Narrative of Surprising Conversions (1736) dealing with the Great Awakening, his famous Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1742) and Religious Affections (1746). Edwards was about to set to work on his treatise Freedom of the will when these materials came to hand. (Freedom of the will did not appear until 1754). It seems the Brainerd project took priority because Edwards saw it as providing an excellent example of the sort of qualities extolled in his previous book The Religious Affections (1746). Perhaps no book by Edwards was to be more significant than his one on Brainerd.

Edwards rewrote parts of Brainerd's testimony and diary, which can be tedious in its repetitions. He also omitted phrases he deemed unsuitable for the Christian public. The book contains a preface (10 pages); Brainerd's edited papers interspersed with Edwards' narrative in eight parts (378 pages); further 'remains', mostly letters (33 pages); reflections and observations (42 pages); a funeral sermon (12 pages) [Page numbers refer to the Yale Edition which reinserts missing entries].

It has been said that Brainerd is the phantom in the background of other works. The Life gave a flesh and bones example of the sort of thing that Edwards was commending. In the Yale edition Professor Norman Pettit has written that “If it is true that his treatises were too abstruse to make an impact on the spiritual life of the ordinary person, then his Life of Brainerd represents an effort to reach a larger audience and to teach by example.” He draws attention to similarities between Brainerd's conversion and that of Edwards's wife Sarah, described anonymously in Some thoughts concerning the revival of religion in New England (1742). He also points out that though the text of Edwards' biography is largely Brainerd's “the volume as Edwards conceived it belongs to him”. Brainerd's journal provided not only his own example but that of other conversions, all judged according to the criteria laid down in Edwards' Distinguishing marks of 1741. Brainerd in turn undoubtedly influenced Edwards, who spent most of his last seven years working among Native Americans in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

The Book's Impact

It is perhaps no surprise that the life of Brainerd, one that exemplifies spiritual intensity and zeal for the salvation of souls, had such a profound impact on all who read about this brief but powerful ministry. The historian William Warren Street (1818-1959) remarked “Indeed, David Brainerd dead was a more potent influence for Indian missions and the missionary cause in general than was David Brainerd alive.”

Iain Murray in his life of Edwards goes as far as to say that “No book did more to create concern for wider missionary endeavour than Edwards' Life of Brainerd.” He mentions Gideon Hawley (1727-1807), Edwards' assistant at Stockbridge, as the first in a long line of Calvinist missionaries to benefit from the book. He carried it in his saddle-bag as he pioneered among the Iroquois.

The Welsh revival leader Howell Harris (1714-1773), we know, was one who was reading an edition of Brainerd's life in 1761. In England Philip Doddridge (1702-1751) had read Edwards' work much earlier and was among the first in England to do so. “I have been reading the life of excellent Mr. Brainerd,” he writes, “and it has greatly humbled and quickened me.” He recommended it widely and went on to publish parts of the diary.

John Wesley, though no Calvinist, once said, “Find preachers of David Brainerd's spirit, and nothing can stand before them, but without this what will silver or gold do?” He also asked “What can be done to revive the work of God where it is decayed?” His answer? “Let every preacher read carefully over the life of David Brainerd”. Methodist preachers in those days were all required to carefully read Edwards' Life. Later, at Princeton Seminary too, the Life was often commended, but without Wesley's cautions about Brainerd's failure to understand Christian perfection.

To give one more example, when Robert Murray McCheyne (1813–1843) read the Life of Brainerd, he wrote that he could not “express what I think when I think of [Brainerd]. Tonight, more set upon missionary enterprise than ever.”

Observations and lessons

Finally, I want to make some observations and draw some lessons arising out of what we have learned.

1. Extraordinary. I think we have to begin by saying that by any measure this was an extraordinary life. Brainerd is one of the great heroes of the faith yet even among these he stands out for his incredible zeal and prayerfulness. It is not simply that he is from another age. Even among his contemporaries it is clear that there was something rare about Brainerd. It is unusual to have such a full record of a man's prayer life. It reveals to us a man who was besotted with God who sought practically every day of his life only one thing – to glorify God.

2. The cross of Christ central in his preaching. Thornbury makes this point. He quotes this passage by Brainerd on his preaching. It begins

And I have oftentimes remarked with admiration, that whatever subject I have been treating upon, after having spent time sufficient to explain and illustrate the truths contained therein, I have been naturally and easily led to CHRIST as the substance of every subject.

3. Truth is more effective when backed up by a life without moral blemish. This was so in Brainerd in eminent degree.

4. Prayer and fasting. One cannot help but be struck by the large place prayer had to play in Brainerd's life. It is a rebuke to our prayerlessness and our self-reliance. He often spent days in fasting and prayer. This is part of the secret of his greatness. He believed (April 5 1744) that 'One hour of sweet retirement where God is, is better than the whole world.' Do you?

5. His zeal and devotion to the glory of God. This again stands out. Brainerd is an eminent example of truly outstanding zeal for God's glory. He wrote (18 July 1745) 'Longed to spend the little inch of time I have in the world more for God.' Is that you longing to?

6. His ability to overcome depression and adversity. Like every man Brainerd had his faults and failures. A more inwardly volatile man it would be hard to imagine. Nevertheless so set on God;s glory was he that every set back served only to strengthen him in his service to God. Here is a typical passage and perhaps we can end with this as typical of his approach (22 November 1744)

Came on my way from Rockciticus to Delaware river. Was very much disordered with a cold and pain in my head. About six at night I lost my way in the wilderness, and wandered over rocks and mountains, down hideous steeps, through swamps, and most dreadful and dangerous places; and the night being dark, so that few stars could be seen, I was greatly exposed. I was much pinched with cold, and distressed with an extreme pain in my head, attended with sickness at my stomach; so that every step I took was distressing to me. I had little hope for several hours together, but that I must lie out in the woods all night, in this distressed case. But about nine o’clock I found a house, through the abundant goodness of God, and was kindly entertained. Thus I have frequently been exposed, and sometimes lain out the whole night; but God has hitherto preserved me; and blessed be his name. Such fatigues and hardships as these serve to wean me more from the earth; and, I trust, will make heaven the sweeter.

Conscience 2 - Consciences strong and weak

We come next to the subject of the weak conscience. In practice, this is an affliction confined to believers. Weakness in conscience can lead a person to have an emboldened, defiled or wounded conscience. These are the terms Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 8, one of two places where he deals with the matter of the weak conscience. The other is Romans 14, 15. One of Paul's aims in his earlier letter is to show the Corinthians the limitations of knowledge, including the self-knowledge that conscience provides. This was something they had not really appreciated in the past.

The subject that prompts Paul to write as he does in 1 Corinthians 8 and which he continues with in Chapter 9 more broadly and returns to and concludes in Chapter 10, is the matter of food sacrificed to idols. In the pagan city of Corinth it was common for meat to be offered to idols before being sold in the market place. You never quite knew when this had happened and when it had not. For some of the Corinthian believers this raised the question of whether it was right to eat meat that appeared to have been or that had been offered in this way.

As far as many were concerned, perhaps Jews and former Jewish proselytes in particular, it was not really an issue. In reality, idols are nothing at all so the fact someone thinks he has offered meat to a god that does not exist should not bother the conscience of a Christian one bit. Others, however, perhaps Gentiles with a pagan background in particular, were concerned about what was happening. For them it was against their conscience to eat such meat. In this case simply to say “do what is right” and “follow your conscience” was not enough. Because people's minds and consciences were telling them different things, it was becoming another source of contention and potential division in a church already prone to fragmentation.

Strong and weak

It is in the course of dealing with this issue that Paul refers to the strong and the weak brother or the one with a weak conscience. As we have suggested, the strong are most likely to be Jewish believers and the weak Gentiles with a pagan background. The term strong is not necessarily entirely complimentary and the term weak is not necessarily entirely pejorative.

The weak Christians in this case are those who (8:7) “through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.”

Paul is clear that such an opinion is deficient. To think like that is a mark of immaturity.

1 Cor 8:4-6, 8 “Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "an idol has no real existence," and that "there is no God but one." For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth - as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"- yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. ... Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.”

Paul does not defend the point of view of the weak from the plain facts but he does defend the person of the weak from the tyranny of the strong. His opening remark is to the effect that love is far more important than knowledge. It is not enough simply to be strong, in the sense of knowing, rather than weak, in the sense of being ignorant. Rather, love is the paramount thing.

There is some debate as to what exactly constitutes the weakness of the weak conscience here. Clearly, the weakness in mind springs from the fact that this person is liable to be wounded or defiled, probably by being emboldened to go against his conscience. C A Pierce, referring back to Luke 17:1 and the verses that follow, quotes L S Thornton. He identifies the weak with the little ones of whom Jesus speaks and wants to put “inverted commas” around the word “weak”. He says it means “those whom you have the effrontery to despise as weaker brethren”. Pierce points out that the weak conscience is not necessarily the same as the over-sensitive conscience though we can see increased vulnerability in such a person.

It is important to stress that Paul's first concern is to defend the weak against the arrogance of the strong. However, as unhappy as he is with the strong, Paul is not happy for the weak to remain ignorant. It is, in fact, their ignorance that constitutes part of their weakness. The label weak may well also point to the fact that these believers were unstable. They had doubting consciences and were easily persuaded to go against them.

Whether a person considers himself to be weak or strong, he faces certain dangers when believers have a difference of conscience. It is all too easy to be encouraged or emboldened (verse 10) to go against conscience because of the example of a stronger brother. This leads to defiling, wounding or even destruction (verses 7, 12, 11). Of course, it is the person with the over-sensitive conscience who is most likely to face these dangers but wherever conscience is weak, that is uncertain, this danger lurks.

G C Berkouwer “Paul is here in no way implying the holiness of the consciences of the weak and of each individual – conscience can be related to idolatry! - he is simply concerned to protect the weak from a way of error in connection with something which for them is still a reality and therefore still plays a role in their total relation to God. The motif of Paul's warning is not the unassailability of the conscience, but love toward the weak.”

Mahatma Gandhi “there is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.” This is not a NT understanding of conscience.

Berkouwer agrees with the remark of the Catholic scholar Jacques Dupont “the novelty here is not Paul's, but the general Christian message, in which the conscience is not the final norm for conduct, but rather love, and in love not doing that which one's conscience allows - not as a limitation but as a manifestation of Christian liberty.”

The ideal is to have a strong conscience, that is a properly informed one. Believers ought to have strong convictions and ought to know how to exercise their Christian liberty with full peace of conscience, uninfluenced by the mere opinions of others. However, and this is Paul's main concern, if you really are strong, that strength is never to be used to bully the weak into submission to your point of view. Here, the Pharisaism that lurks in all of us can so easily raise its ugly head. Not only is it important for the individual adult Christian to act on the guidance of his own conscience rather than that of someone else's conscience but also there is a very real danger of wounding or defiling the weak conscience of a professed brother or sister or even destroying them.

Three categories

The helpful 1980 book Decision making and the will of God by Garry Friesen and J Robin Maxson, identifies three categories in connection with differences over conscience – the weaker brother, the convinced brother and the Pharisee. Believers may err to the right or to the left – towards Pharisaism on the one hand or towards weakness on the other.

1. Weaker brother - usually has a sincere belief on a matter but may not be fully convinced about it. He feels that he is in need of teaching rather than being the sort of person who wants to foist his opinions on others. Although at first surprised at the actions of others who differ from him, he is fairly easy to influence and can quickly be encouraged to go against his own conscience and so stumble in his Christian walk.

2. “Pharisee” - at the other end of the spectrum. He is fully convinced of the rightness of his own position and proudly refuses to consider that there might be another view. He wants everyone else to conform to his own viewpoint, even in the case of mature adult Christians who conscientiously disagree with him. He cannot bear the idea of others using their Christian freedom to act in a way that differs in some way from his own. Indeed, he takes offence at such behaviour. If he cannot eat it, wear it, listen to it, watch it, read it or use it, then no-one else ought to either!

3. What all Christians should be aiming at is to be humbly yet confidently persuaded on matters of conscience, while leaving room for making a correction, if they find that should prove necessary. We must recognise that there are differences on many matters among mature believers. Some Christians may object, eg, to wedding rings, mixed bathing, drinking alcohol, wearing or not wearing a tie, women wearing or not wearing hats in church, celebrating Christmas or Easter, addressing God as you or thou, writing of him rather than Him or Yahweh rather than Jehovah when referring to God, to mention just a few examples of the sorts of differences sometimes conscientiously held. We must accept that such differences exist and be willing to discuss such differences in a firm but friendly manner. Such a mature person will not be unduly influenced by the opinions and actions of others. On the one hand, he will avoid causing the weak to stumble and, on the other hand, causing the strong to be needlessly offended.

So, say I believe that it is okay to drink alcohol or to watch feature films and plays in a public place but I know that my fellow believer does not take that view. I do not keep my beliefs secret from him but I do avoid serving him alcohol or inviting him to see the latest film or musical. On the other hand, if I do not drink alcohol or watch feature films and plays in public places, though I may know other Christians who do, I will certainly put forward arguments for my view at appropriate times but I will not presume that because my fellow believer does such things he must be less of a Christian than I am.

Likely candidates

Friesen suggests four groups of people most likely to struggle with a weak conscience and so become vulnerable.

• Young adults in the process of leaving the parental nest and beginning to set down their own standards and norms, especially if they have been brought up in a particularly strict or legalistic way.
• Young converts, especially those who come from a licentious background that they have had to firmly reject. David Fountain similar when he drew an analogy between the awkward period some go through as teenagers and some of the difficulties of being a young Christian. Over-sensitivity in the young Christian is not necessarily a totally bad thing, he argues, but it is a stage that must be left behind at some point.
• Those who for one reason or another are unaware of the differences found from culture to culture. You may come from a culture where people always stand for prayer or to read God's Word or where all men wear neck ties to church on Sundays. Do not be offended when you come into contact with good Christians who sit to pray and read the Bible and whose menfolk may not wear a neck tie to church. Back in the 1950s, E A Nida gave a striking example of cross-cultural difficulties when he quoted an elder in an Ngbaka church in northern Congo saying “But we are not going to have our wives dress like prostitutes”. This was in reply to the suggestion made by a missionary that the women should be made to wear blouses to cover their breasts.
• Children of believers. Where children have been brought up with one particular set of rules, when they come up against those who have grown up with a different set of rules that seem more attractive, it can be tempting to thoughtlessly kick over the traces and leave behind almost all that has been learned.

Perhaps we can add a fifth category – those who for one reason or another, such as bad training, do not have a properly developed conscience but only one that is weak and immature.

As we have said, the person with the weak conscience is likely to be one who has an over-sensitive conscience. In a celebrated passage in The Institutes, dealing with Christian freedom, John Calvin warns against the miseries of an over-sensitive conscience

“The third part of Christian freedom lies in this: regarding outward things that are of themselves 'indifferent', we are not bound before God by any religious obligation preventing us from sometimes using them and at other times not doing so, as it suits us. And the knowledge of this freedom is very necessary to us, for, if it is lacking, our consciences will have no rest and there will be no end of superstitions. ... these matters are more important than is commonly believed. For when consciences once ensnare themselves, they enter a long and inextricable labyrinth, without an easy exit.

If a man begins to doubt whether he may use linen for sheets, shirts, handkerchiefs, and napkins, he will afterwards be uncertain also about hemp; finally, doubt will even arise over tow. For he will turn over in his mind whether he can sup without napkins, or go without a handkerchief. If any man should consider daintier food unlawful, in the end he will not be at peace before God, when he eats either black bread or common victuals, while it occurs to him that he could sustain his body on even coarser foods. If he boggles at sweet wine, he will not with clear conscience drink even flat wine, and finally he will not dare touch water if sweeter and cleaner than other water. To sum up, he will come to the point of considering it wrong to step upon a straw across his path, as the saying goes.”

There is some humour here for the outsider but not for the person with the over scrupulous conscience. I well remember as a young Christian getting tangled up over what was right or wrong for a Christian to do on the Lord's Day. It seemed to me that the Sunday newspapers delivered to our unbelieving home were well worth a miss, not only because of their dubious content but also because Sunday was not the day for discovering the “news of the world”. I was doing well with this until someone pointed out that perhaps I should be just as concerned about Monday's papers which had been prepared and printed on the Lord's Day. The point was made with some humour but it was all lost on me, a boy with a keen conscience who simply wanted to know what was right and wrong. I was only more bewildered and perplexed than I had been before.

When such a condition continues for any length of time, the continual uncertainty and the spiritual conflict can become unbearable. A person can become distraught, almost afraid to speak or act for fear of sin. Thankfully, like me, most young believers grow out of such immaturity but not always and many years of unhappiness and despair can be the result.

Hallesby speaks of a situation where “essentials and non-essentials become one confused mess”. A person has to speak about the things that are disturbing him to every believer he meets. He draws attention to the way an illness or a physical or mental disability can bring this sort of thing on in an otherwise mature believer. Where there is no apparent cause for it, we are perhaps best to look upon it as a temptation to despair.

What causes the conscience of an otherwise healthy and mature believer to become over-sensitive in this way? The chief problem is usually to do with a pre-occupation with the outward and theoretical side of religion rather than with what is inward and spiritual. This is the problem both with the weaker brother and the Pharisee. In both cases priorities are all wrong.

1. The Pharisee. The Pharisee is the person who has a critical spirit and attempts to bully others into conforming to his thinking. Such a person must be resisted, especially at the point where he begins to exert an unhealthy influence over the weak. We must seek to instruct his conscience from the Bible, as far as we can, so that his moral record conforms more accurately to what is found there. In practice, the Pharisee will not always reveal himself straight away. We usually have to begin by assuming that we are dealing with a weaker brother or sister. Our priority, therefore, must be love, love for our fellow believer. The person must be educated from God's Word and that is to be done with love. As Paul says, we must speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). We should avoid a scolding attitude. Such people must be lovingly brought to see that (Rom 14:17) “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”

Hallesby advises anyone in this position not to “consult more than one spiritual adviser and preferably one who is experienced and truly wise. But consult such a person often and be candid with him. Let him enlighten you from the Word of God and the experience of older Christians. If you have found a loving, wise and firm spiritual adviser you will with his help and intercession little by little be set free from the hindrances which are annoying you and come into the persuasion of a sound and healthy conscience.”

Of course, there are dangers even in this approach but where it is taken as a short term expedient rather than a way of life over months or years and where the adviser truly is wise and wants to encourage an adult, mature biblical use of conscience then good will surely come out of such an arrangement.

The Eclectic society

The Eclectic Society (founded 1783) March 16, 1812, subject for discussion “Wherein does a truly religious tenderness of conscience consist and how is it to be distinguished from (over)scrupulosity of conscience?” Great question. Some of the helpful remarks made on that occasion included 12 distinctions which we will summarise.

1. Rule. Tenderness of conscience regards God's rule. Scrupulosity frequently regards rules of its own traditions.

2. Meaning. Tenderness of conscience takes the obvious bearing of God's rule. St Paul would urge the spirit of a rule. Scrupulosity generally rests itself on far-fetched inferences from the rule.

3. Light. Tenderness of conscience desires light. Scrupulosity is frequently obstinate and unwilling to admit light.

4. Weight. Tenderness of conscience deals chiefly with the weightier matters of the law, the inside of the cup and platter. Scrupulosity principally deals with trifles; the outside.

5. Spiritual. Tenderness of conscience has a tendency to promote the spiritual interests of the individual. Scrupulosity frequently has little or nothing to do with those interests.

6. Thoughts of others. Tenderness of conscience is candid and liberal toward others. Scrupulosity is generally uncharitable in its judgement of others. It makes men offenders for a word.

7. Good of others. Tenderness of conscience is anxious to promote the spiritual good of others. Scrupulosity is generally indifferent to such interests. It is zealous to win to a party.

8. Righteousness. Tenderness of conscience is associated with appropriate and full commitment to Christ. Scrupulosity is self-righteous.

9. Universality. Tenderness of conscience has a universal regard to the commands of God. Scrupulosity will sometimes take liberties beyond God's commands.

10. Tenderness of conscience respects the glory of God. Scrupulosity respects principally the honour that comes from man.

11. Tenderness of conscience is joined with humility and tenderness. Scrupulosity, in the unconverted, with bigotry and pride.

12. Tenderness of conscience is attended with sympathy for the scruples of others. Scrupulosity will anathematise other views.

The men also pointed out that tenderness and over-scrupulosity can sometimes live side by side in the same person and that Satan will try and lead the person with a tender conscience into over- scrupulosity, if he can.

It is important to maintain a distinction between a tender conscience and an over tender, a scrupulous or what we would call today an over-scrupulous one. In seeking to avoid having what we might best call an over-sensitive conscience we must not swing to the other extreme of having a conscience that is not sensitive enough.

Isaac Watts “Preserve your conscience always soft and sensible. If but one sin forces its way into that tender part of the soul, and dwell easy there, the road is paved for a thousand iniquities. And take heed that under any scruple, doubt or temptation whatsoever, you never let any reasonings satisfy your conscience, which will not be a sufficient answer or apology to the great Judge at the last day.”

In this connection, Charles Buxton is often quoted “It is astonishing how soon the whole conscience begins to unravel if a single stitch drops. One single sin indulged in makes a hole you could put your head through.”

As we have said previously, the Christian must not go against his conscience.

Rom 14:23 “But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”

To go against conscience will serve only to desensitise it. Certainly we want our consciences to be better and better informed but as one American quipped “Quite often when a man thinks his mind is broadening it is more likely that his conscience is stretching”.

Commenting on Paul's understanding of conscience, Ridderbos “For a Christian not a single decision and action can be good which he does not think he can justify on the ground of his Christian conviction and his liberty before God in Christ.”

The way forward on any given moral question is always to follow conscience proper, while carefully seeking to educate the moral record from what is in the Bible. Where changes are felt to be necessary these should be implemented with great care and much prayer. Sometimes there will need to be some sort of sensitive explanation to fellow believers of the changes in conviction that have led to the alterations in practice.

Romans 14:5 “Everyone should be sure about their beliefs in their own mind.”