One thing contained in heavenly rest is the ceasing from the means of grace. We have obtained the haven, we have done sailing.. When the workman receives his wages, it is implied that he has done his work. When the workman receives his wages, it is implied that he has done his work. When we are at our journey’s end, we have done with the way…There shall be no more prayer because there shall be no more necessity but the full enjoyment of what we h ave prayed for. Neither shall we n eed to fast, and watch, and weep any more, being out of the reach of sin and temptation… The labourers are called in because the harvest is gathered, the tares burned, and the work finished; the unregenerate past hope, and the saints past fear, for ever.
—Richard Baxter

If you would be preserved from actual and scandalous sins, labour to mortify original sin, think what an odious thing sin is, get the fear of God planted in your hearts, be careful to avoid all the inlets and occasions of sin, study sobriety and temperance, watch your passions, consult with the oracles of God, be well-versed in Scripture (Ps. 119:11), get your hearts fired with love to God.
—Thomas  Watson “Practical divinity”

Matthew 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Christians are the followers of Christ, and they should follow him… We see from what we have heard, how great the labour and travail of Christ’s soul was for others’ salvation, and what earnest and strong cries to God accompanied his labours. Here he hath set us an example. Herein he hath set an example for ministers, who should as co-workers with Christ, travail in birth with them till Christ be found in them; “My little children, of whom I travail in birth against until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). They should be willing to spend and be spent for them. They should not only labour for them, and pray earnestly for them, but should, if occasion required, be ready to suffer for them, and to spend not only their strength, but their blood for them: “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2 Corinthians 12:15). Here is an example for parents, showing how they ought to labour to cry to God for the spiritual good of their children. You see how Christ laboured and strove and cried to God for the salvation of his spiritual children; and will you not earnestly seek and cry to God for your natural children?
—Jonathan Edwards

I ordered some books today; some of them are ones I have wanted to get hold of for a while, and it is likely to be the last time I am able to spend that much money on books at once. I am sharing them with any readers who have an interest in puritanism, in case they are titles you may not be aware of and because at least a couple of them are worthy of pointing out a few things about:

The Above Title along with William Haller’s Rise of Puritanism are worthy of special note. Because until around 50-60 years ago, puritanism was very much still a dirty word, a by-word, and people really had a cock-eyed impresssion of who the puritans were, what they stood for, and the lives they lived.  These two books are two that earlier this century helped to set the record straight.  And perhaps started the tide turning, so that in those days, there was around 10-25 puritan titles printed in the preceding fifty years, that in the fifty years since then,  it well into treble figures, and around 50-60 new titles are being printed every year that was written by the puritans. Another book I ordered of which the same is true as the two preceding book is this one:

These 3 titles in particular I have wanted for some time. If we are going to either encourage their thought, or refute and reject any group of people’s thoughts or ideology then the least we can do, is have an informed opinion,  one not based on fable or folk-lore, or the BBC, but  by things that have been proved to be fact and some good men have set these things down on paper just for the very reason that we need not be ignorant.

A couple more I ordered as relatively inexpensive paperbacks were these:

If I had to pick just 2 or 3 as recommendations, it would either be William Haller,  Worldly Saint’s and/or Visible Saint’s. I’ve heard enough to know they changed the face of how the  puritans as a group of people are perceived, though sadly, much ignorance does still reign over this issue, which is the reason for this blog post, because today, we have no justification for ignorance to continue forever.

However, I do want to add a short anecdote I heard last weekend, as far as exhorting or reading the puritans.  That we can read all we like, it is only a walk and life to match, and  a heart cleansed by Christ’s blood in sanctification that will lead us to purer lives and purity in the puritan vein.  I heard  a well known preacher relate this tale the weekend and I shall use my own words to get across what he said. He knew a man who had a vast puritan library. He was very proud of his library. He was thought to be a pillar of the Christian community,  and a bright light.  But what no one outside of his home knew, was that next to his wonderfully spiritually rich puritan library, in the next room, he had a different kind of library, of shelf after shelf of triple X movies, and the police had raided him, and he was now in prison on pornography charges and was an active and practicing homosexual. AS Christ so wisely said, and it applies no less to good stuff as bad stuff, that it is not what goes in that defiles a man, (or improves him) its what comes out, as that shows what is in our hearts.

No surer shorter way there is than when a man is led to despise the present life and meditate upon heavenly immortality. From this derive two rules: The first rule is that those who use this world must have as little affection for it, as if they used it not; those who marry, as if they did not marry; those who buy, as if they did not buy–according to St. Paul’s rule. The second rule is that we learn equally to bear poverty with grateful and patient hearts, and to use affluence with moderation.
He who bids us use this world as if we used not, not only suppresses all intemperance in eating, drinking, all delights too great ambition, pride, overfastidiousness in buildings, clothing, styles of life; but also corrects all care and inclination that divert and hinder us from thinking  on the heavenly life and from decking our soul with its true ornaments. Long ago Cato truly said, “Where there is great care for dress there is great neglect of virtue.” And as the old proverb bears it out that those who are much occupied with pampering and decking our their bodies do not take sufficient care of their souls.
Therefore, although the freedom of the faithful in outward matters must be restricted to fixed formulas, still it is subject to this law, namely that they allow themselves as little as possible on the other hand that they be watchful to cut back all superfluity and vain show of affluence–but not intemperately and diligently to guard against making hindrances of the things that ought to help them.
—John Calvin, “The Piety of John Calvin”

It is not sufficient to be established and grounded in the faith, we must daily increase and grow and more therein… It is the holy ambition of Christians to be more like God every day… None are so knowing but that they may know more… Here we are in a state of progress, not of rest and perfection… always reaching forth and pressing onward.
To grow in faith means to persevere in faith. Man is of an active nature; either he grows better or worse. We shall not keep what we have received if we do not labour to increase in it, as a house begun to be built goes to decay and drops down more and more, if we do not go on to finish it.
Thomas Manton “The Epistle of Jude”

When we consider this fighting life aright, we need not be dissuaded from loving it. We rather have need to be strengthened with patience to go through and to fight on with courage and assurance of victory; still fighting in a higher strength than our own, against sin within and troubles without. This is the great scope of this epistle.  Against sin the apostle instructs us at the beginning of this chapter. And here again, against suffering… He urges us to be armed with the same mind that was in Christ… The words to the end of the chapter contain grounds of encouragement and consolation for the children of God in sufferings, especially in suffering for God.
—Robert Leighton “A practical commentary on 1 Peter”

All faithful men so long as they dwell on earth must be as sheep destined for slaughter, that they may be shaped to Jesus Christ, their head. Desperately unhappy would they have been if they had not directed their minds upward to surmount all that is in this world and pass beyond the contemplation of present things.

Conversely, if they have once raised their thought above the things of the earth, when they see the wicked flourishing in wealth and honours, enjoying deep repose, having everything as they wish, living in luxury and pomp; even when they see themselves inhumanly treated by the wicked; when they bear their insults; when they are robbed or harried with all manner of outrage—still will it be easy for them to bear up under these evils. For they will ever have before their eyes the last day, on which they know the Lord must gather His faithful ones into the repose of His kingdom, wipe the tears from their eyes, crown them with glory, clothe them with rejoicing, fill them with infinite sweetness of His delights, elevate them into His loftiness; To sum up–make them sharers in His happiness.

On the contrary the wicked ones who have flourished on earth He must have cast into utter disgrace, change their delights to dreadful torments, their laughter and joy to weeping and gnashing of teeth; break their peace with dire torment of conscience; To sum up–plunge them into eternal fire and put them in subjection to the faithful whom they have so wickedly treated.
—-John Calvin, “The piety of John Calvin” pp. 103-4

David’s condition was such, that deserving his people’s esteem, he was nontheless groundlessly hated by many (as he complained that “he had paid back what he had not taken away”). No small consolation for me it was— when assaulted by the unwarranted hatred of those who should have put their efforts into  helping me—To conform myself to such a great, excellent pattern.
And this very knowledge and experience was a great help to me in understanding the Psalms, to keep me from wandering, as it were, in a strange land. And actually, my readers, (I am sure) will recognize that when I recount the inner feelings both of David and of others, I am speaking of them as things, with which I am intimately acquainted.
—John Calvin, “The Piety of John Calvin” pp. 56

Let us note that all such as boast as having faith in the gospel, and are not sanctified by God, betray their own hypocrisy and lying, and belie themselves by their own life, no matter what they may sing or say, just as we see many nowadays who defile and profane the name of the faith which ought to be holy. For every man will say that he is faithful, and they who have least faith are boldest to say their is no faith but in themselves. And would God that it were so, only by half! But we see even among all that bear the name of Christians that their whole life is disordered and loose, insomuch that they mock God to the full and despise all religion, and yet nevertheless in the meanwhile think  they they are greatly wronged if they are not taken as good catholic Christians.
—From Sermon One on Ephesians

None but the upright, who are indeed renewed by the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, will in all things make Christ’s will their rule and in everything hold close to it, preferring it before their pleasure, profit, preferment, or any other outward allurement. They who do so give good evidence that they belong to the body of Christ, and may be sure that Christ is their Saviour.
Christ became a King to govern us, a Prophet to instruct us, a Priest to make atonement for us… He wholly set himself apart for our use and benefit.
—William Gouge “Domestic Duties.”

Another glorious effect of acquaintance with God, is that it makes a man like God… Company is of an assimilating nature. He that before was unholy, and like the devil, by conversion to God and converse with him is made holy like God… A full and perfect conformity and likeness to God is the very glory of glory… Be acquainted with him, and you shall be like him. Keep much in his company by faith, secret prayer, and meditation, and you will be more holy, divine and spiritual. The last effect of this acquaintance with God: it will make a man better, far more excellent in all states and relations. All his friends will have the better life with him, the whole family… will fare the better with him.
—-James Janeway “Heaven upon Earth: Jesus the best friend of man.”

It is fit that professors of all sorts should be reminded of these things; for we may see not a few of them under visible decays, without any sincere endeavours after a recovery, who yet please themselves that the root of the matter is in them. It is so, if love of the world, conformity unto it, negligence in holy duties, and coldness in spiritual love, be an evidence of such decays. but let none deceive their own souls; wherever there is a saving principle of grace, it will be thriving and growing unto the end. And if it falls under obstructions, and thereby into decays for a season, it will give no rest or quietness unto the soul, wherein it is, but will labour continually for a recovery. Peace in a spiritually decaying condition is a soul ruining security; better be under terror on the account of surprisal into some sin, than be in peace under evident decays of spiritual life.
—John Owen

Whatever one thinks of  Richard Baxter’s somewhat strange views of Justification, there is not a shred of doubt that this holy man of God, who was known as holy Baxter, has left us a wonderful legacy in his voluminous writings that are still readily available to us. There are a few I would put on the “Must Read” list of his if I was making one.  The Christian Directory,  The Saint’s Everlasting Rest, Dying thoughts and perhaps one or two others. As  a hard core Calvinist, despite Baxter’s erronous views on justification, I am not ashamed to say he is one of the puritans whom  I Have and continue to read above many others.  Baxter in my opinion, is the quintisential example, of grace being the great equalizer when doctrine is somewhat poor, and is surely an excellent example of why we must not consider Arminians as all going to destruction,  because Baxter himself in many ways, was little more than confused Arminian.

I want to quote Baxter here from two different works,  on how we are our own worst enemies very often. It’s a lesson we all need to continue to learn and fight the demon of self:

First from The Reformed Pastor, and again I add that the things in this little book do not only apply to ministers of the Gospel because all true Christians belong to the preisthood, and we should all be taking part in the great commision that Jesus left us to do:

1. Let me notice the difficulties in ourselves.

(1) In ourselves there is much dullness and laziness, so that it will not be easy to get us to be faithful in so hard a work. Like a sluggard in bed, that knows he should rise, and yet delayeth and would lie as long as he can, so do we by duties to which our corrupt natures are averse. This will put us to the use of all our powers. Mere sloth will tie the hands of many.

(2) We have a base man–pleasing disposition, which will make us let men perish lest we lose their love, and let them go quietly to hell lest we should make them angry with us for seeking their salvation. We are ready to venture on the displeasure of God, and risk the everlasting misery of our people, rather than draw on ourselves their ill–will. This distemper must be diligently resisted.

(3) Many of us have also a foolish bashfulness, which makes us backward to begin with them, and to speak plainly to them. We are so modest, forsooth, that we blush to speak for Christ, or to contradict the devil, or to save a soul, while, at the same time, we are less ashamed of shameful works.

(4) We are so carnal that we are drawn by our fleshly interests to be unfaithful in the work of Christ, lest we should lessen our income, or bring trouble upon ourselves, or set people against us, or such like. All these things require diligence in order to resist them.

And Baxter again, from The Saint’s Everlasting Rest. This is quite one of my most favourite puritan quotes of all time. And how true it is!

oh the hourly dangers that we here walk in! Every sense and member is a snare; every creature, every mercy, and every duty, is a snare to us. We can scarcely open our eyes, but we are in danger of envying those above us; or despising those below us; of coveting the honours and riches of some, or beholding the rags and beggary of others with pride and unmercifulness. If we see beauty, it is a bit to lust; if deformity, to loathing and disdain. How soon do slanderous reports, vain jests, wanton speeches, creep into the heart! How constant and stirring a watch does our appetite require! Have we comeliness and beauty? What fuel for pride! Are we deformed? What an occasion of repining! Have we strength of reason, and gifts of learning? O how prone to be puffed up, to hunt after applause, and despise our brethren! Are we unlearned? How apt then to despise what we have not! Are we in places of authority? How strong is the temptation to abuse our trust, make our will our law, and cut out all the enjoyments of others, but rules and model of our own interest and policy! Are we inferiors? How prone to grudge at others pre-eminence, and bring their actions to the bar of our judgment? Are we rich, and not too much exalted? Are we poor, and not discontented? Are we not lazy in our duties, or make a Christ of them? Not that God hath made all these things our snares, but through our own corruption they become so to us. Ourselves are the greatest snare to ourselves Richard Baxter’s “The Saint’s Everlasting Rest.”

In perseverance, there is a concurrence of our care and diligence (Phi. 2:12, 13)…The main work is God’s: “He that has begun a good work must perfect it” (Phi. 1:6)…But yet there is a concurrence of our care and endeavours…We have a power to act and do what is necessary for the preservation of the spiritual life. Well, then, let us not neglect the means. You must not think that God must do all. He does all, indeed, but in us and by us. Idle wishes will do us no good as long as our hands refuse the labour.
We ourselves are prone to…a decay of both faith, love and obedience, which are the three main graces…We are assaulted with continual temptations…apt to grow secure and negligent…Let us make it our care to keep what graces we have gotten.
—-Thomas Manton, “Epistle of Jude.”

Submit to the dispensation. Murmuring doth but entangle you more.   God will have us stoop to his sovereignty and wisdom before he hath done. A husband must be absent for necessary occasions. A frown is as neces sary for a child as a smile. David refu’seth not to be tried ; only he says, *’ O forsake me not utterly.” It is a fond child that will not let its parent go out of sight.

Learn to trust in a withdrawing God, and depend upon him ; to stay ourselves upon his name when we see no light (Isa. 1. 10). Never leave until you find him. Look, as Esther ; she would go into the king’s pre sence when there was no golden sceptre held forth ; so, venture into God’s presence when you have no smile and countenance from Heaven, trust in a withdrawing God ; nay, when wrath breaks out, when God killeth you : ” Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him ” (Job xiii. 15). With such a holy obstinacy of faith should we follow God in this case.

Doctrine IV. — When God seemeth to forsake us, and really doth so in part, yet we should pray that it be not an utter and a total desertion. ” Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever : behold ! see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people” (Isa. Ixiv. 9) (1.) Do not despond ; we are very apt to do so : ” Will the Lord cast off’ for ever, will he be favourable no more ? Is his mercy clean gone for ever ? Doth his promise fail for evermore ? Hath God forgotten to be gracious, hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ? Selah” (Psalm Ixxvii. 7 9). The worst kind of despondency is to lie in sin. To lie in the dirt, because we are fallen, is foolish obstinacy. (2.) Pray to God. 1st, Ac knowledging that we have deserved it. 2ndly, By supplication. There is nothing which God hath promised to perform, but we may ask it in prayer : “He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” (Heb. xiii. 5). If thou provest me, let me not miscarry ; if thou exercisest me, let me not be cut off”. Beg his return. (3.) Give thanks that God is not wholly gone, as certainly he is not, as long as you are sensible of your loss, and have a tender heart left. Though he hath withdrawn the light of his countenance, yet he hath left the esteem of it, a thirst after God, and a desire of communion with himself. As long as there is any attractive left, you may find him by the smell of his ointments.
Thomas Manton–Sermon 9 on Psalm 119

How many of us put off this or that, to “soon” and before we know it, days, weeks, or months have passed and we’ve still not gotten to grips with the things we knew we should have done months previously? What darling sin do we love just a little too much to give up and turn from right this moment? What spiritual duty are we ommitting, that we say we will really get to grips and get a handle on this “soon”?  How often do we declare to give God and spiritual things more of our time than we are doing, but put it off but will change from that “soon” and yet time slips further away from us, and a month or two down the line are no nearer to giving more time to spiritual concerns and eternity than we did when first saying “soon”? How many after making a similar vow, in fact find that rather than increasing the time we spend on eternity and spiritual concerns, has actually become less regardless of our vow to give more “soon.”

It is easy to get caught up in the normal and daily things of life. Yet, none of those things are one jot as important as eternity. We have a duty to our own souls, to put eternity ahead of anything or anyone else, and if we fail to do so, we are not living up to our calling.

We all assume, tomorrow, next week, next month, even next year, we will have time to amend the things we know are wrong with our lives.  Even I do, when as ill as I am.  You even get used to living in the shadow of the valley of death, so that it seems normal, and the sense of time could end tomorrow loses its sharpness.

Let us all set our minds, hearts and souls, on making Eternity, and the welfare of our own souls, and making our calling and election sure the main priority of our life. Or we may just procastinate our way out of Heaven, because we left it too late to live up to our calling and inside God’s will for His people.

Thomas Brooks put it aptly

There is no time yours but the present time, no day yours but the present day; therefore, do not please and feed yourselves with hopes of time to come; that you will repent, but not yet; and lay hold on mercy, but not yet; and give yourselves up to the Lord next week, next month, or next year; for that God who has promised you mercy and favour upon the day of your return, has not promised to prolong your lives till that day comes.
—Thomas Brooks

At some point I wish (Lord willing) to write more extensively about David Brainerd, same as tht of William Cowper.  Yet of all the worthies of that time and kind that come to mind, Brainerd is the one I relate to most. He knew the misery of a life while chronically ill, lacking comfort, and the agony he felt at his lonliness and isolation.   Whether Cowper or Brainerd, it seems there was a stronger Christian in the picture to help make these men or the legacy they have left us and the church in general by the stories of their lives; the stories of great perseverance against incredible odds.

But for now I want to talk about Jonathan Edwards as he is related to Brainerd’s story. Out of all Edwards works, his work on Brainerd and the diary of Brainerd’s that Edwards published after Brainerd’s death is the one thing that has outsold all his other works.  If not for Brainerd’s connection with Edwards, we may not now have the great testimony and encouragment that lies in Brainerd’s story; in his diary.  His papers may well have been burned or just kept in family chests, and never seen light of day, far less publiclitation.

It is widely thought that Edwards daughter, Jerusha was the woman that Brainerd fell in love with.  Brainerd of course died in the home of the Edwards, and having Brainerd there with the highly infectious condition of tuberculosis, ultimately cost Edwards his daughter Jerusha’s life . Within a short time of Brainerd’s death, Jerusha succumbed to the same illness and within days she died.   Brainerd and Edwards daughter’s graves lie side by side.  But what an impact Brainerd must have had upon Edwards, when even knowing that taking him into his home for him to die there had cost his daughter’s life, that two years later, when Edwards published Brainerd’s diary, he could write these words in full  knowledge of the very personal loss he had endured as a result of Brainerd spending his last days in his home and Jerusha being the one to constantly nurse him.

Despite his own personal loss, he gave thanks that, Brainerd “should be cast hither to my house, in his last sickness, and should die here.”  There speaks a man that despite his very great loss, knew it was the Lord’s will and accepted it unflinchingly, without any regret for the kindness and charity he showed towards his young friend.

It is said that both Edwards and Brainerd mirrored each other in many ways of how they thought about things of faith.  The older man was like a father  and the younger man reflected the views of the elder, like will happen commonly among natural generational relations.

One thing I personally take comfort from, is that if God has not cast Brainerd upon that bed of suffering he found himself, where at times he was in total misery,  but if not for the bed of suffering the story of David Brainerd would not be the powerful one it has become.  And Edwards was to write of the young man, despite the total misery he was often consumed by, the deep fits of paralyzing depression and melancholia, where he couldn’t “do” that he was “a remarkable instance of true and eminent Christian piety in heart and practice… most worthy of imitation.”

Yet Brainerd’s diary seems to have two types of readers. Those who loath it and criticise Brainerd’s dejection of spirit and  and the misery of mind and soul he endured, or those who find in it, a light of encouragement;  a beacon for the church to use and it is still used in the field of missions and has been since first published, stronger than any other story on the missionary field.  Those who criticize Brainerd, it is my opinion from my own experience in my own misery at times, are those who are presumptious of their comforts, and have not one iota a clue what Brainerd suffered,  because it is easy to criticize what one does not understand.  It is easy to stomp underfoot someone as weak as Brainerd, and its the way often with the strong and poweful that they think they have some God given right to, where but for the grace of God could they be in Brainerd’s shoes too. And the riches that keep them comfortable and complacent today, and looking down on the Brainerd’s could all be taken from them in the blink of an eye, but they way they look down on Brainerd speaks of great presumption that way, because if they really believed they could find themselves on a similar bed of suffering,  they would be far more cautious and reticient about criticizing Brainerd, because if they were, perhaps they would not show the courage that  Brainerd did, but they may be even more miserable even more melacholy than he was.  Folks who sit in comfort and still expereince deep melancholia  and yet criticize someone like Brainerd has double standards.

But same as Brainerd, if the Lord had not put me on this particualr bed of suffering, maybe I would be totally ineffective,  living my life comfortable and  like many Christians sadly do, resting in those Comforts, rather than seeking to the do the Lord’s work no matter how small,  when lacking almost every comfort I desire.  To be on a sick bed, and abandoned by everyone you have known, parted from your loved ones through providence, and to not see a human soul day after day or week after week, is a peculiar greif of its own, one I believe Brainerd knew first hand as he sat in his hut, spitting blood up week after week, with agonizing pain in his chest and craving for Christian companionship.  And not just any Christian companionship but particular types.

Brainerd could have opted out, much like I have had opportunities in the past, which may have brought temporary relief but without a doubt would have been bad for my soul and long term eternal well being.  Yet you rarely see those who criticize folks like Brainerd, choose to put away their comforts for  a few weeeks, to do the Lord’s work, so they have no reason to think themselves better than Brainerd or Cowpwer or the Brainerd’s and Cowper’s of today.

Edwards had genuine affection for his young friend, and it showed.  And the sacrifice that Edwards made personally, to care for his young friend in his last days, when his daughter contracted the same disease as their guest and died, shows how he was not more intersted in  keeping his comforts than doing the Lord’s work, of love and charity.

There is so  much we today can learn from these mens’s stories and those of the same era. Those of whom the world was not worthy.  Though they be dead, yet speaketh.

Brainerd left behind his papers and journal and the labours of Jonathan Edwards on editing, and publishing them have left a great gift to the church.  These man like Brainerd and Cowper may on the surface seem like stories of men in abject misery, yet the balance is, whichever way one looks at it, they are also great stories of hope. Where the Lord working to keep them, the instruments he used to do so, when they were totally incapable to keep themseves even more than most, because of what tye suffered and how paralyzed they became by grief and longed for death more than they cherished life, displays God’s power and glory in a way that if they had suffered less,  it never could do.

Names instantly recognizable to many Christians today have had this to day about Brainerd and his life and his diaries.

Robert Murray McCheyne: “Most wonderful man! What conflicts, what depressions, desertions, strength, advancements, victories within thy torn bosom!…Tonight more set upon missionary enterprise than ever.

David Brainerd dead more greatly influenced the missionary cause than David Brainerd alive, because of his depths of extradonariy suffering, and his persevering despite them.

Jim Elliot wrote: “Confession of pride—suggested by David Brainerd’s diary yesterday–must become an hourly thing with me.”

Anglican, Henry Martyn Carey,  considered Edwards “life of brainerd” to be a “sacred text.”

Francis Asbury, who in 1771 become the first methodist missionary to America referred to Brainerd’s oas “that model of meekness, moderation, tempation and labour and self denial.”  Thomas Coke, founder of world wide mission, [1747-1814] wrote: “His humility, his self denial, his perseverance and his flaming zeal for God, are exemplary indeed.”

But if not for what Providence had in store for Brainerd, how  he was ejected from Yale and lost his whole ambition, and missionary work was then one of the few real only opportunites left to him, and what he endured for the four years he was on the mission field, none of it would be known, and if not for that first instance when Brainerd’s dream was taken away from him of being an ordained minister,  for an act for which he profusely apolgized, and yet most people accept his apology should have been enough,  Brainerd’s life would have been very different indeed, and  I feel no doubt that it would not have left the powerful testimony he has left behind.  David Brainerd was a broken vessel of magnaminous proportions, but how God has used that broken man, for his own glory, for the good and edification  of the church, and even 300 years later, the story of Brainerd is still being used to inspire people and encourage missions.

Providence can be hard, dark and painful. What Brainerds life demonstrates, (one of the things) is that when things go totally opposed to how we hope and desire, you can without a doubt know and trust that God is at work.  The way the story of Brainerd has been used and continues to be, is overwhelming evidence of that.   In life he was not known, it was only after his death,  when his older friend, took his papers and published them, having invited the young  man into his home to die, which cost him his daughers life,  again, dark providnece at which God was at work for good.

But one thing stands out in the above story. Whether Brainerd or Edwards.  The spirit of self-denial to the utter most.  And till that is shed abroad again in the church on the scale it was in those days,  she will remain in the shadows as compared to the glory days, of  the puritan era, or the times of Edwards.