Jonathan Edwards Quotes on Nature
Jonathan Edwards, the colonial New England theologian, brought an original idealist metaphysics to his understanding of nature, and the quotes gathered here reflect it. Edwards held, in a position marked here as attributed, that the world exists only as it is known by mind, that the natural order is sustained in being by divine perception. He saw nature as shot through with relation and harmony, writing that the beauty of the world consists wholly of sweet mutual consents, either within itself or with the supreme being. His early scientific notebooks show him reasoning closely about space, time, and creation, arguing that the universe could not have been created in another place or time since there was no space or time apart from it. Drawn from his notebooks and sermons, these passages present nature as a beautiful, mind-dependent order expressing the being of God.
Quotes
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Attributed to Jonathan Edwards:
“The world exists only as it is known by mind.”
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“There is, therefore, no difficulty in answering such questions as these. What cause was there why the Universe was placed in such a part of Space? and, Why was the Universe created at such a Time? for, if there be no Space beyond the Universe, it was impossible that it should be created in another place; and if there was no Time before, it was impossible it should be created at another time.”
The Mind (begun in September 1723; not completed). -
“When I am giving the relation of a thing, remember to abstain from altering either in the matter or manner of speaking, so much, as that, if every one, afterwards, should alter as much, it would at last come to be properly false.”
Diary (7 July 1724). -
“The beauty of the world consists wholly of sweet mutual consents, either within itself or with the supreme being.”
The Beauty of the World" (c.1725), from the notebook The Images of Divine Things, The Shadows of Divine Things, The Language and Lessons of Nature (published 1948). -
“Whatever in Christ had the nature of satisfaction, was by virtue of His suffering or humiliation; whatever had the nature of merit, was by virtue of His obedience or righteousness.”
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers(1895) | p. 489. -
“A little, wretched, despicable creature; a worm, a mere nothing, and less than nothing; a vile insect that has risen up in contempt against the majesty of Heaven and earth.”
The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners (1734).