And if the opinions and persuasions of
others, whom we know and think well of, be a ground of assent, men
have reason to be Heathens in Japan, Mahometans in Turkey, Papists
in Spain, Protestants in England, and Lutherans in Sweden. But of this
wrong ground of assent I shall have occasion to speak more at large in
another place.
Chapter XVI
Of the Degrees of Assent
1. Our assent ought to be regulated by the grounds of probability.
The grounds of probability we have laid down in the foregoing chapter:
as they are the foundations on which our assent is built, so are
they also the measure whereby its several degrees are, or ought to
be regulated: only we are to take notice that, whatever grounds of
probability there may be, they yet operate no further on the mind
which searches after truth, and endeavours to judge right, than they
appear; at least, in the first judgment or search that the mind makes.
I confess, in the opinions men have, and firmly stick to in the world,
their assent is not always from an actual view of the reasons that
at first prevailed with them: it being in many cases almost
impossible, and in most, very hard, even for those who have very
admirable memories, to retain all the proofs which, upon a due
examination, made them embrace that side of the question.
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