12. The existence of other finite spirits not knowable, and rests on faith.
What ideas we have of spirits, and how
we come by them, I have already shown. But though we have those ideas in our minds, and know we have them
there, the having the ideas of spirits does not make us know that any such things do exist without us, or that there
are any finite spirits, or any other spiritual beings, but the Eternal God. We have ground from revelation, and
several other reasons, to believe with assurance that there are such creatures: but our senses not being able to
discover them, we want the means of knowing their particular existences. For we can no more know that there are
finite spirits really existing, by the idea we have of such beings in our minds, than by the ideas any one has of
fairies or centaurs, he can come to know that things answering those ideas do really exist.
And therefore concerning the existence of finite spirits, as well as several other things, we must content ourselves
with the evidence of faith; but universal, certain propositions concerning this matter are beyond our reach. For
however true it may be, v.g., that all the intelligent spirits that God ever created do still exist, yet it can never
make a part of our certain knowledge. These and the like propositions we may assent to, as highly probable, but
are not, I fear, in this state capable of knowing. We are not, then, to put others upon demonstrating, nor ourselves
upon search of universal certainty in all those matters; wherein we are not capable of any other knowledge, but
what our senses give us in this or that particular.