A Thing Called the Testimony of Faith

No. 414

There may undoubtedly be such a thing as is called the testimony of faith, and a sort of certainty of faith that is different from reason, that is, is different from discourse by a chain of arguments, a certainty that is given by the Holy Spirit; and yet such a belief may be altogether agreeable to reason, agreeable to the exactest rules of philosophy. Such ideas of religion may be in the mind, as a man may feel divinity in them, and so may know they are from God, know that religion is of divine original, that is, is divine truth. Yea, this faith may be to the degree of certainty, for he may certainly intuitively see God and feel him in those ideas; that is, he may certainly see that notion he has of God in them. The notion of God, or idea I have of him, is that complex idea of such power, holiness, purity, majesty, love, excellency, beauty, loveliness, and ten thousand other things. Now when a man is certain he sees those things, he is certain he sees that which he calls divine. He is certain he feels those things to which he annexes the term God; that is, he is certain that what he sees and feels, he sees and feels; and he knows that what he then sees and feels is the same thing he used to call God. There is such an idea of religion in his mind, wherein he knows he sees and feels that power, that holiness, that purity, that majesty, that love, that excellency, that beauty and loveliness, that amounts to his idea of God. - Jonathan Edwards, Miscellany aa. Faith

Theological Concepts

The large visualization above explores connections between theological terms and concepts present in Miscellany aa. Faith and the rest of the Works of Jonathan Edwards Online volumes 1–73.

The terms explored are:

List 1: faith, testimony of faith, reason, Holy Spirit, religion, divine original, divine truth, divinity, power, holiness, purity, majesty, love, excellency, beauty, loveliness, complex idea

List 2: certainty, discourse, arguments, mind, ideas, belief, intuition, philosophy, charmingness, corporeal beauties, ineffable, properties, testimony of the Spirit, knowledge, belief, objects, distinguishing, amiable

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