Robert Murray M’Cheyne, referring to Brainerd, exclaimed, “Most wonderful man! O to have Brainerd’s heart for perfect holiness!” John Newton said, “Next to the Word of God, I like those books best which give account of the lives and experiences of His people. No book of this kind has been more welcome to me than the life of Mr Brainerd of New England”.2 And nothing is clearer in reading the life of Brainerd than that he was an exceptionally godly man.
David Brainerd was born in April 1718 at Haddam, in the American state of Connecticut. His father, Hezekiah Brainerd, died when David was only nine and his mother Dorothy when he was just 14. David noted: “I was from my youth somewhat sober, and inclined rather to melancholy than the contrary extreme”.3 When he was about 7 or 8, he became concerned for his soul; he was terrified at the thought of death, and felt driven to perform the duties of the law. But this did not last long; he had little further concern until he was about 13. Again he turned to the deeds of the law, but he gradually lost his religious concern.
He was not much given to what was called “frolicking”, in the company of other young people, but he confessed, “When I did go into such company, I never returned with so good a conscience as when I went; it always added new guilt, made me afraid to come to the throne of grace, and spoiled those good frames I was wont sometimes to please myself with. But, alas, all my good frames were but self-righteousness, not founded on a desire for the glory of God” (p 15).
When David was about 20 he became anxious to acquire a better education and began to study seriously. He also became more serious than ever about religious duties. He recalled, “I became very strict, and watchful over my thoughts, words and actions; and thought I must be sober indeed, because I designed to devote myself to the ministry; and imagined I did dedicate myself to the Lord” (p 15).
In 1739 he set apart a day for secret prayer and fasting, spending almost the whole day crying to God for mercy. He comments, “Still I trusted in all the duties I performed. . . . Yet God was pleased to make my endeavours that day a means to show me my helplessness in some measure. Sometimes I was greatly encouraged and imagined that God loved me and was pleased with me; and thought I should soon be fully reconciled to God. But the whole was founded on mere presumption, arising from enlargement in duty, or flowing of affections, or some good resolutions, and the like. . . . Once, I remember, a terrible pang of distress seized me, and the thoughts of renouncing myself and standing naked before God, stripped of goodness, were so dreadful to me that I was ready to say to them as Felix to Paul, ‘Go thy way for this time’” (pp 17,18).
Brainerd noted later that he was then looking for greater conviction of sin as one of the qualifications that he imagined others obtained before they received Christ; he was looking for further conviction in order to recommend himself to the Saviour. He could scarcely allow himself to sleep, in case he would waken up in hell. Yet he dreaded the loss of convictions; he clearly had some desire to be reconciled to God. But he found great fault with Adam’s sin being imputed to his descendants and “often wished for some other way of salvation than by Jesus Christ” (p 19). But one morning, as Brainerd was walking outside alone, he saw that all his efforts to “procure deliverance and salvation for myself were utterly in vain” (p 23); he saw that it was impossible for him to do anything towards delivering himself. He was convinced that his state would be for ever miserable. He realised, he said, “The more I did in prayer or any other duty the more I saw I was indebted to God for allowing me to ask for mercy”. He now saw: “It was self-interest had led me to pray, and . . . I had never once prayed from any respect to the glory of God” (p 24).
On the evening of 12 July 1739, he was trying to pray in the same place, yet he had no heart to do so; he thought the Holy Spirit had completely left him. After about half an hour, he recalled, “Unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and apprehension of my soul”. It was not, he emphasised, “any external brightness”, or “any imagination of a body of light” in heaven, but it was a new inward apprehension or view that I had of God, such as I never had before . . . but it appeared to be divine glory”. He went on: “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, and other perfections of God, that I was even swallowed up in Him . . . I had no thought (as I remember) at first about my own salvation, and scarce reflected that there were such a creature as myself” (p 25). One may feel surprised that there is nothing thus far in Brainerd’s account, which is taken from his diary, about Christ and His work of redemption. But he speaks of what could only flow from a new heart: “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. He goes on to speak of the views he had the following evening: “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. . . 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 it. I wondered that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation, entirely by the righteousness of Christ” (p 25). There can be no doubt, from the rest of Brainerd’s brief life, that he was a remarkable example of a true follower of the Lamb.
Later that year, Brainerd began his studies at what is now Yale University. He records several times of great blessing in his soul, one of which gave rise to the remark: “One hour with God infinitely exceeds all the pleasures and delights of this lower world” (p 29).
During his second session at Yale, Brainerd had to return home because of physical weakness and spitting blood; this was perhaps the first indication of the tuberculosis that was to cause his death at the early age of 29. During his time at Yale, there was a revival of religion. The effects have been described thus: “Prayer meetings replaced drunken parties, and frivolities gave place to serious times of Bible study and conversation about the Christian faith”.4
1The first part of a longer version of a paper given at this year’s Theological Conference.
2These commendations appear on the back cover of the Banner of Truth 2007 edition of The Diary and Journal of David Brainerd.
3Jonathan Edwards, editor, The Diary and Journal of David Brainerd, Banner of Truth Trust 2023 edition, p 14. Page references in brackets, in the body of the text are to this edition of the Diary and Journal.
4John Thornbury, David Brainerd, Evangelical Press, 1996, p 61.