The only conclusions, therefore, that can be drawn from them, must be such as are implied in the origin and purpose of their revelation; and the legitimacy of all conclusions must be tried by their consistency with those moral interests, those spiritual necessities, which are the proper final cause of the truths and of our faith therein.

For some of the faithful these truths have, I doubt not, an evidence of reason; but for the whole household of faith their certainty is in their working.

Now it is this, by which, in all cases, we know and determine existence in the first instance.

That which works in us or on us exists for us.

The shapes and forms that follow the working as its results or products, whether the shapes cognizable by sense or the forms distinguished by the intellect, are after all but the particularizations of this working; its proper names, as it were, as John, James, Peter, in respect of human nature.