184 



atones for another to a third person ; and leave the 

 unintelligible part of that divine operation, for the 

 subject of future praise and contemplation. Let 

 men, I say, believe as far as they thus clearly under- 

 stand, without perplexing themselves or others with 

 what is incomprehensible ; and then they fulfil the 

 whole purpose of God in all his revelations. 



By thus carefully distinguishing the several kinds 

 of knowledge and evidence, what endless confusion 

 may be prevented in religious controversies 1 Most 

 of these have arisen from supposing these heads of 

 knowledge to differ in degree only, not in kind ; and 

 from confounding the different kinds of evidence 

 peculiar to each of them ; from men's insisting upon 

 the evidence proper to one kind of knowledge, for 

 that of another, which will not admit of it ; from 

 opposing to each other the different kinds of know- 

 ledge, which can never interfere, or clash with each 

 other ; and, lastly, from not distinguishing between 

 a blind implicit assent to the testimony of another, 

 and that faith, which implies a full, rational con- 

 viction of the truth of what is believed. 



SECT. III. 



Of the Improvement of Knowledge by 

 Her elation* 



w, 



E have HOW brought the mind of man, fey se* 

 veral steps, to the utirost knowledge it can reach by 

 its own faculties. . Whatever is bevoad that contained 



