Appendix to the Journal (part 2 of 2)
ing me a. sense of his almigaty power, and that “his hand was not shortened.” Sometimes by affording me a fresh and lively view of some remarkable freedom and assistance I had been repeatedly favoured with in prayer for the ingathering of these heathens some years before, even before 1 was a missionary, and a refreshing sense of the stability and faithfulness of the divine promises, and that the prayer of faith
Gg should not fail. Thus I was supported under these trials; and the method God was pleased to take for the removal of the difficulty, respecting my interpreter, I have sufficiently represented elsewhere.
Another thing that rendered it very difficult to convey divine truth to the understanding of the Indians, was the defectiveness of their language, the want of terms to express and convey ideas of spiritual things. There are no words in the Indian language to answer our English words, “ Lord, Saviour, salvation, sinner, justice, condemnation, faith, repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification, grace, glory, heaven,” with scores of the like importance.
The only methods I can make use of for surmounting this difficulty are, either to describe the things at large designed by these terms, as if I was speaking of regeneration, to call it the “heart's being changed” by God’s Spirit, or the “heart’s being made good.” Or else I must introduce the English terms into their language, and fix the precise meaning of them, that they may know what I intend whenever I use them.
But what renders it much more difficult to convey divine truth to the understanding of these Indians is, that there seems to be no foundation in their minds to begin upon; I mean no truths that may be taken for granted as being already known, while I am attempting to instil others. Divine truths having such a necessary connection with and dependence upon each other, I find it extremely difficult in my first addresses to pagans td begin and discourse of them in their proper order and connection, without having reference to truths not yet known,—without taking for granted such things as need first to be taught and proved. There is no point of Christian doctrine but what they are either wholly ignorant of, or extremely confused in their notions about. Hence it is necessary they should be instructed in every * truth, even in those that are the most easy and obvious to the understanding, and which a person educated under gospellight would be ready to pass over in silence, as not imagining that any rational creature could be ignorant of.
The way I have usually taken in my first addresses to pagans has been to introduce myself by saying, that I was come among them with a desire and design of teaching them some things which I presumed they did not know, and which
s h I trusted would be for their comfort and happiness; desiring they would give their attention, and hoping they might meet with satisfaction in my discourse. 1 have then proceeded to observe, that there are two things belonging to every man, which I call the soul and body. These I endeavour to distinguish from each other, by observing that there is something in them that is capable of joy and pleasure, when their bodies are sick and much pained; and on the contrary, that they find something within them that is fearful, sorrowful, ashamed, Sc. and consequently ‘very uneasy, when their bodies are in perfect health. I then observe to them, that this which rejoices in them (perhaps at the sight of some friend who has been long absent) when their bodies are sick and in pain,—this which is sorrowful, frighted, ashamed, &c. and consequently uneasy, when their bodies are perfectly at ease,—this 1 call the soul. And though it cannot be seen like the other part of the man, viz. the body, yet it is as real as their thoughts and desires, which are likewise things that cannot be seen.
I then further observe, that this part of the man which thinks, rejoices, grieves, &c. will live after the body is dead. For the proof of this, I produce the opinion of their fathers, who (as I am told by very aged Indians now living) always supposed there was something of the man that would survive the body. And if for the proof of any thing I assert, 1 can say as St. Paul to the Athenians, “ As certain also of your own sages have said,” it is sufficient. Having established. this point, I next observe, that what I have to say to them respects the conscious part of this man, and that with relation to its state after the death of the body; and that I am not come to treat with them about the things that concern the present world..
This method I am obliged to take, because they will otherwise entirely mistake the design of my preaching, and suppose the business I am upon is something that relates to the present world, having never been called together by the white people upon arty other occasion, but only to be treated with about the sale of lands or some other secular business. J find it almost impossible to prevent their imagining that I am engaged in the same or such like affairs, and to beat it into them, that my concern is to treat with them about their invisible part, and that with relation to its future state. But
G6g2 having thus opened the way by distinguishing between sou —and body, and shewing the immortality of the former, andthat my business is to treat with them in order to their hap-
piness in a future state; I proceed to discourse of the bei g
and perfections of God, particularly of his eternity, unity, self-sufficiency, infinite wisdom, and almighty power. It is necessary in the first place to teach them, that God is from everlasting, and so distinguished from all creatures; though it is very difficult to communicate any thing of that nature to them, they having no terms in their language to signify an eternity aparte ante. Itis likewise necessary to discourse
of the divine unity, in order to confute the notions they seem to have of a plurality of gods. The divine all-sufficiency must also necessarily be mentioned, in order to prevent their imagining that God was unhappy while alone, before the formation of his creatures. Something also
respecting the divine wisdom and power seems necessary to be insisted upon, in order to make way for discoursing
on God’s works.
Having offered some remarks on the divine perfections, I proceed to open the work of creation in general, and in particular God’s creation of man in a state of uprightness and happiness, placing them in a garden of pleasure; the means and manner of their apostacy from that state, and the loss of: that happiness. But before I can relate the history of the fall, I am obliged to make a large digression, in order to give an account of the origin of the tempter, and the circumstances under which he seduced our first parents. Then I go on to show, the ruins of our fallen state, the mental blindness and vicious dispositions our first parents then contracted to themselves, and propagated to all their posterity; the numerous calamities brought upon them and theirs by this apostacy from God, and the exposedness of the whole human race to eternal perdition. 1 then labour to shew the necessity of an almighty Saviour to deliver us from this deplorable state, as well as of a divine revelation to instruct _and direct us in the will of God.
By such an introductory discourse, the way is prepared for opening the gospel-scheme of salvation through the great Redeemer, and for treating on those doctrines that immediately relate to our renovation by the divine Spirit, and preparation for a state of everlasting blessedness.
THE.CONVERSION OF THE INDIANS. 453
In giving such a relation. of things to pagans, it is not a little difficult, as was observed before, to deliver truths in their proper order, without interfering, and without taking for granted things not as yet known; to discourse of them in a familiar manner, suited to the capacities of heathen; to illustrate them by easy and natural similitudes; to obviate or answer the objections they are disposed to make against the several particulars of it, as well as to notice and canfute their contrary notions,
What has sometimes been very discouraging in my first discourses to them is, that when I have distinguished between the present and future state, and shown them that it .was my business to treat of those things that concern the life to come, they have some of them mocked, looked upon them as things of no importance; have scarcely had a curiosity to hear, and perhaps walked off before I had half done my discourse. In such a case no impressions can be made upon their minds to gain their attention. They are not awed by hearing of the anger of God against sinners, of everlasting punishment as the portion of those who neglect the gospel, nor allured by hearing of the blessedness of those who embrace and obey it. To gain their attention to my discourses, has often been as difficult as to give them a just notion of their design, or to open truths in their proper order.
Another difficulty naturally falling under this head is, that it ts next to impossible to bring them to a rational conviction that they are sinners by nature, and that their hearts are corrupt and sinful, unless one could charge them with some gross acts of immorality, such as the light of nature condemns. If they can be charged with behaviour contrary to the commands of the second table, with manifest abuses of their neighbour, they will generally own such actions to be wrong; but then they seem to think it was only the actions that were sinful, and not their hearts. But if they cannot be charged with such scandalous actions, they have no consciousness of sin and guilt at all, as 1 had occasion to observe in my Journal of March 24, So that it is very difficult to convince them rationally of that which is readily acknowledged, though, alas! rarely felt in the Christian world, viz. ‘ That we are all sinners,’
The method I take to convince them that we are sinners
€g¢3 by nature is, to lead them to an observation of their little children, how they will appear in a rage, fight and strike their mothers, before they are able to speak or walk, while they are so young that it is plain they are incapable of learning such practices. The light of nature in the Indians condemning such behaviour in children towards their parents, they must own these tempers and actions to be wrong and sinful; and the children having never learned these things, they must have been in their natures, and consequently they must be allowed, to be “ by nature the children of wrath.” The same I observe to them with respect to the sin of lying, to which their children are’ much inclined. They tell lies without being taught so to do, from their own natural inclination, as well as against restraints, and after corrections for that vice, which proves them sinners by nature.
To shew them that their hearts are all corrupted and sinful, I observe to them that this may be the case, and they not be sensible of it through the blindness of their minds. That it is no evidence they are not sinful, because they do not know and feel it. I then mention all the vices I know the Indians to be guilty of, and so make use of these sinful streams to convince them the fountain is corrupt. And this is the end for which I mention their wicked practices to them, not because I expect to bring them to an effectual reformation merely by inveighing against their immoralities; but hoping they may hereby be convinced of the corruption of their hearts, and awakened to a sense of the depravity and misery of their fallen state. Also to convince them that they are sinners, I sometimes open to them the great command of loving God with all the heart; shewing them the reasonableness of loving him who has made, preserved, and dealt so bountifully with us. I then labour to shew them their utter neglect, and that they have been so far from loving God in this manner, that on the contrary, he has not been “ in all their thoughts.”
These, and such like, are the means I have made use of in order to remove this difficulty; but if it be asked after all, how it was surmounted; I must answer, God himself was pleased to do it with regard to a number of these Indians, by taking the work into his own hand, and making them feel at heart, that they were both sinful and miserable. And in the ‘ day of God’s power,’ whatever was spoken to them
THE CONVERSION OF THE INDIANS, 455
from God’s word, served to convince them they were sinners, even the most melting invitations of the gospel, and ta fill them with solicitude to obtain a deliverance from that deplorable state.
Further, it is extremely difficult to give them qny just notion of the undertaking of Christ in behalf of sinners; of his obeying and suffering in their room and stead, in order to atone for their sins and procure their salvation; and of their being justified by his righteousness imputed to them.—They are in general wholly unacquainted with civil laws and proceedings, and know of no such thing as one person’s being substituted as a surety in the room of another, nor have any kind of notion of civil judicatures, of persons being arraigned, tried, judged, condemned, or acquitted. Hence it is very difficult to treat with them upon any thing of this nature, or that bears any relation to legal procedures. And though they cannot but have some dealings with the white people, in order to procure clothing and other necessaries of life, yet it is scarcely ever known that any one pays a penny for another, but each one stands for himself. Yet this is a thing that may be supposed, though seldom practised among them, and they may be made to understand, that if a friend of theirs pays a debt for them, it is right that upon that consideration they themselves should be discharged.
This is the only way I can take in order to give them a proper notion of the undertaking and satisfaction of Christ in behalf of sinners. But here naturally arise two questions. First, ‘ What need there was of Christ’s obeying and suffering for us; why God would not look upon us to be good creatures (to use my common phrase for justification) on account of our own good deeds?” In answer to which I sometimes observe, that a child’s being ever so orderly and obedient to its parents to-day, does by no means satisfy for its contrary behaviour yesterday; and that if it be loving and obedient at some times only, and at other times cross and disobedient, it never can be looked upon as a good child for its own doings, since it ought to have behaved in an obedient manner always. This simile strikes their minds in an easy and forcible manner, and serves in a measure to illustrate the point. For the light of nature teaches them, that their children ought to be obedient to them, and that at all times;
Gg 4 and some of them are very severe with them for the contrary behaviour. This I apply in the plainest manner to our behaviour towards God; and so shew them that it is impossible for us, since we have sinned against God, to be justified before him by our own doings, since present and future goodness, although perfect and constant, could never satisfy for past misconduct.
A second question is, ‘ If our debt was so great, and if we all deserved to suffer, how one person’s suffering was sufficient to answer for the whole.’ Here | have no better way to illustrate the infinite value of Christ's obedience and sufferings, arising from the dignity and excellency of his person, than to shew them the superior value of gold to that of baser metals, and that a small quantity of this will discharge a greater debt than a vast quantity of the common copper pence. After all, it is extremely difficult to treat with them upon this great doctrine of justification by imputed righteousness.
[ scarcely know how to conclude this head, so many things occurring that might properly be added here: but what has been mentioned may serve for a specimen of the difficulty of conveying divine truths to the understandings of these Indians, and of gaining their assent to them as such.
Thirdly, Their inconvenient situations, savage manners, and
unhappy method of living, have been an unspeakable difficulty and discouragement to me in my work., They generally live in the wilderness, and some that I have visited at great distances from the English settlements, which has obliged me to travel much, and oftentimes over hideous rocks, mountains and swamps,—frequently to lie out in the open woods,—deprived me of the common comforts of life, and greatly impaired my health.
When I have got among them in the wilderness, 1 have often met with great difficulty in my attempts to discourse to them. I have spent hours with them in attempting to answer their objections, and remove their jealousies, before I could prevail upon them to give me a hearing upon Christianity; haye been often obliged to preach ‘in their houses in cold and windy weather, when they have been full of smoak and'cinders, as well as unspeakably filthy; which has many times thrown me into violent sick head-aches.
While 1 have been preaching, their children have frequently eried to such a degree that I could scarcely be heard, and their pagan mothers would take no manner of care to quiet them. At the same time perhaps some have been laughing and mocking at divine truths; others playing with their dogs, whittling sticks, and the like; and this, in many of them, not from spite and prejudice, but for want of better manners.
- A view of these things has been not a little sinking and discouraging to me; it has sometimes prevailed so far as to render me entirely dispirited, and wholly unable to go on with my work; and given me such a melancholy turn of mind, that I have many times thought I could never more address an Indian upon religious matters.
The solitary manner in which I have generally been obliged to live, on account of their inconvenient situations, has been not a little pressing. I have spent the greater part of my time, for more than three years past, entirely alone, as to any agreeable society; and a very considerable part of it I have lived in houses by myself, without having the company of any human creature. Sometimes I have scarcely seen an Englishman for a month or six weeks together. I have also had my spirits so depressed with melancholy views of the temper and conduct of pagans, when I have been for some time confined with them, that I have felt as if banished from all the people of God.
I have likewise been wholly alone in my work, there being no other Missiqnary among the Indians in either of these provinces. And other ministers, neither knowing the peculiar difficulties, nor most advantageous methods of performing my work, have not been able to afford me much assistance or support in any respect. Feeling the great disadvantages of being alone in this work, has discovered to me the wisdom and goodness of the great Head of the church, in sending forth his disciples two and two, in order to proclaim the sacred mysteries of his kingdom; and has made me long for a colleague to be a partner of my cares, hopes and fears, as well as labours amongst the Indians. This has. excited me to use means in order to procure such an assistant, though I have not as yet been so happy as to succeed in that respect.
I have not only met with great difficulty in travelling to, and for some time residing among the Indians far remote in the wilderness, but also in living with them in one place and another more statedly. 1 have been obliged to remove my residence from place to place; have procured, and after some poor fashion, furnished three houses for living among them, in the space of about three years past. One at Kaunaumeek, about twenty miles distant from the city of Albany; one at the Forks of Delaware in Pennsylvania; and one at Crosweeksung in New-Jersey. The Indians in the latter of these provinces, with whom I have lately spent most of my time, being not long since removed from the place where they lived the last winter, (the reason of which { mentioned in my Journal of March 24, and May 4,) I shave now no house at all of my own, but am obliged to lodge with an English family at a considerable distance, to the great disadvantage of my work among them, they being like children that continually need advice and direction, as well as incitement to their worldly business. The houses } have formerly lived in are at-great distances from each other; the two nearest of them being more than seventy miles apart, and neither of them within fifteen miles of the place where the Indians now live.
The Indians are very poor and indigent, and so destitute
’ of the comforts of life at some seasons of the year especially, that it is impossible for a person who has any pity for them, and concern for the Christian interest, to live among them without considerable expense, especially in time of sickness. If any thing be bestowed on one, as in some cases it is peculiarly necessary, in order to remove their Pagan jealousies, and engage their friendship to Christianity; others, be there never so many of them, expect the same treatment. And while they retain their pagan tempers, they discover little gratitude, or even manhood, amidst all the kindnesses they receive. If they make any presents, they expect double satisfaction; and Christianity itself does not at once cure them of these ungrateful and unmanly tempers.
They are in general unspeakably indolent and slothfal; have been bxed up in idleness; know little about cultivating land, or indeed of engaging vigorously in any other business. So that I am obliged to instruct them in, as well as press them to the performance of their work, and take the oversight of all their secular concerns. They have little or no ambition or resolution; not one in a thousand of them that has the spirit of a man. It is next to impossible to make, them sensible of the duty and importance of being active, diligent and industrious in the management of their worldly business; and to excite any spirit and promptitude of that nature in them. When I have laboured to the utmost of my ability to shew them of what importance it would be to the Christian interest among them, as well as to their worldly comfort, for them to be laborious and prudent in their business, and to furnish themselves with the comforts of life; how this would incline the pagans to come among them, and so put them under the means of salvation; how it would encourage religious persons of the white people to help them, as well as stop the mouths of others that were disposed to cavil against them; how they might by this means pay their just debts, and so prevent trouble from coming upon themselves, and reproach upon their Christian profession :—when I have endeavoured to represent this matter in the most advantageous light I possibly could, they have indeed assented to all 1 said, but been little moved, and consequently have acted like themselves, or at least tao much so. It must at the same time be acknowledged, that those who appear to have a sense of divine things, are considerably amended in this respect; and it is hopeful that time wii] make a yet greater alteration upon them for the better.
The concern I have had for the settling of these Indians in New-Jersey in a compact form, in order to their being a Christian congregation, in a capacity of enjoying the means of grace; the care of managing their worldly business in order to this end, and to their having a comfortable livelihood, have been more pressing to my mind, and cost me more labour and fatigue, for several months past, than all my other work among them.
Their wandering to and fro in order to procure the necessaries of life, is another difficulty that attends my work, This has often deprived me of opportunities to discourse to them; has thrown them in the way of temptation, either among pagans further remote where they have gone to hunt, who have laughed at them for hearkening to Christianity; or among white people still more horribly wicked, who have often made them drunk; and then got their commodities, such as skins, baskets, brooms, shovels, and the like, with which they designed to have bought corn and other necessaries of life for themselves and families, for it may be nothing but a little strong liquor, and then sent them home empty. So that for the labour perhaps of several weeks, they have got nothing but the satisfaction of being drunk once; and have not only lost their labour, but which is infinitely worse, the impressions of divine things that were made upon their minds before. But I forbear enlarging upon this head. The few hints I have given may be sufficient to give thinking persons some apprehensions of the difficulties attending my work, on account of the inconvenient situations and savage manners of the Indians, as well as of their unhappy method of living.
Fourthly, The last difficulty 1 shall mention, as having attended my work is, what has proceeded from the attempts that some ill-minded persons hace designedly made, to hinder the propagation of the gospel, and a work of divine grace among the Indians.
The Indians are not only of themselves prejudised against Christianity, on the various accounts I have already mentioned, but as if this was not enough, there are some in all parts of the country where I have preached, who have taken pains industriously to bind them down in pagan darkness; “neglecting to enter into the kingdom of God themselves, and labouring to hinder others.’ After the beginning of the religious concern among the Indians in New-Jersey, some endeavoured to prejudise them against me and the traths I taught them, by the most unmanly and false suggestions of things that had no manner of foundation but in their own brains. Some particulars of this kind I formerly noticed in one of the remarks made upon my Journal concluded the 20th of November last. I might have added yet more, and of another nature, than those already mentioned, had not modesty forbidden me to mention what was too obscene to be thought of. But through the mercy of God they were never able, by all their abominable insinuations and downright lies, to create in the Indians those jealousies they desired to possess them with, and so were never suffered to hinder the work of grace among them.
But when they saw they could not prejudise the Indians against me, nor hinder them from receiving the gospel, they THE CONVERSION OF THE INDIANS. 46f
then noised it through the country that I was undoubtedly a Roman Catholic; that I was gathering together, and training up the Indians in order to serve a popish interest; that I should quickly head them, and cut people’s throats. The pretended reason for this opinion was, that they understood I had a commission: from Scotland. They could therefore with great assurance say, “ All Scotland is turned to the Pretender, and this is but a popish plot to make a party for him here.” And some, I am informed, actually went to the civil authority with complaints against me, only they laboured under this unhappiness, that when they came they had nothing to complain of, and could give no colour of reason why they attempted any such thing, or desired the civil authority to take cognizance of me, having not a word to alledge against my preaching or practice; only they surmised that because the Indians appeared so very loving and orderly, they had a design of imposing upon people by that means, and so of getting a better advantage to cut their throats! What temper they would have had the Indians to possess, in order to have given no occasion, nor have left any room for such a suspicion, I cannot tell. I presume if they had appeared with the contrary temper, it would quickly have been observed of them, that they were now grown surly, and in all probability were preparing to ‘ cut people’s throats.’ From a view of these things, I have had occasion to admire the wisdom and goodness of God in providing so full and authentic a commission for the undertaking and carrying on of this work, without which, notwithstanding the charitableness of the design, it had probably met with molestation.
The Indians who have been my hearers in New-Jersey, have likewise been sued for debt, and threatened with imprisonment more since I came among them, as they inform me, than in seven years before. The reason of this I suppose was, they left frequenting those tippling houses where they used to consume most of what they gained by hunting and other means; and these persons seeing that ‘the hope of future gain was lost,’ were resolved to make sure of what they could. And perhaps some of them put the Indians to trouble, purely out of spite at their embracing Christianity, This has been very distressing to me; for I was sensible, that if they did imprison any one who embraced or hearkened to Christianity, the news of it would quickly spread among the pagans hundreds of miles distant, who would immediately conclude that I had involved them in this difficulty, and thence be filled with prejudice against Christianity, and strengthened in their jealousy that the whole of my design was to ensnare and enslave them. I knew that some of the Indians upon Susquahannah had made this objection against hearing me preach, viz. That they understood a number of Indians in Maryland, some hundred of miles distant, who been uncommonly free with the English, were after awhile put in jail and sold. Hence they concluded, it was best for them to keep at a distance, and have nothing to do with Christians.
{In order to remove this difficulty, I pressed Indians with all possible speed to pay their debts; exhorting those of them that had skins or money, and were themselves in a good measure free from debt, to help others that were oppressed. Frequently upon such occasions [ have paid money out of my own pocket, which I have not as yet received again. These are some of the difficulties I have met with from the conduct of those who, notwithstanding their actions tend so much to hinder the propagation of Christianity, would [ suppose be loth to be reputed Pagans.
Thus I have endeavoured to answer the demands of the Honourable Society in relation to each of the particulars mentioned in their letter. If what I have written may be in any measure agreeable and satisfactory, and serve to excite in them or any of God’s people, a spirit of prayer and supplication for the furtherance of a work of grace among the Indians here, and the propagation of it to their distant tribes, I shall have abundant reason to rejoice and bless God in this as well asin other respects.
David BRAINERD. June 20, 1746.
P.S. Since the conclusion of the preceding Journal, which was designed to represent the operations of one year only, from the first time of my preaching to the Indians in New-Jersey, I administered the Lord’s supper a second time in my congregation, viz. on the 13th of July. There were more than thirty communicants of the Indians, though divers were absent who should have communicated: so considerably has God enlarged our number since the former solemnity of this kind, described somewhat particularly in my Journal. This appeared to be a season of divine power and grace, not unlike the former; a season of refreshing to God’s people in general, and of awakening to some others, although the divine influence manifestly attending the several services of the solemnity, seemed not so great and powerful as at the former season.