JONATHAN EDWARDS'S PREFACE

Summary

There are two ways of representing and recommending true religion and virtue to the world, which God hath made use of: the one is by doctrine and precept, the other is by instance and example; both are abundantly used in the Holy Scriptures. Not only are the grounds, nature, design, and importance of religion clearly exhibited in the doctrines of Scripture, and its exercise and practice plainly delineated, and abundantly enjoined and enforced in its commands and counsels; but there we have many excellent examples of religion, in its power and practice set before us, in the histories both of the Old and New Testament.

Jesus Christ, the great Prophet of God, who came to be the Light of the world, to teach and enforce true religion, in a greater degree than ever had been before, made use of both these methods. In His doctrine He declared the mind and will of God, and the nature and properties of that virtue which becomes creatures in our circumstances, more clearly and fully than ever it had been before, and more powerfully enforced it by what He declared of the obligations and inducements to holiness; and He also in His own practice gave a most perfect example of the virtue He taught. He exhibited to the world such an illustrious pattern of humility, divine love, discreet zeal, self-denial, obedience, patience, resignation, fortitude, meekness, forgiveness, compassion, benevolence, and universal holiness, as neither men nor angels ever saw before.