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what is incomprehensible hi that proposition, namejy, 

 the supernatural generation, and the ineffable man- 

 ner of it, has an -evangelical faith. 



But what then, you will say, becomes of the mys- 

 teries of the gospel ? They are all laid up safe, out 

 of our reach, to be the immediate objects of our 

 knowledge, when we come to see face to face. 



From hence it appears, that Christian faith is not 

 an implicit assent to things unintelligible and uncon- 

 ceivable : since nothing that is incomprehensible, can 

 come into any question between us and unbelievers. 

 We can have no controversy, but about what is per- 

 fectly understood, as far as it is so ; and concerning 

 the moral evidence, upon which propositions, as 

 dear as any in human language, are founded. Our 

 controversies turn wholly upon what is clear : as to 

 what is incomprehensible, in any proposition, it can 

 be no immediate, direct object, either of knowledge 

 or of faith , 



The third species of knowledge, which we have 

 from reason, is opinion. This Plato well defines a 

 medium between knowledge and ignorance. It is a 

 sort of knowledge, loosely speaking, inferior to any 

 of the foregoing, but approaching nearest to that 

 founded on moral evidence. Only whereas moral 

 certainty, in its highest degree, leaves but a bare 

 possibility of the thing's being otherwise; all opinion 

 leaves room, more or less, for doubt, yea, for -some 

 fear of its being otherwise. But as for all the de- 

 grees- between the highest moral certainty on one 

 I 5 



