BELIEF, in its more restrained and technical sense,
invented by the schoolmen, denotes that kind of assent
which is grounded only on the authority or testimony
of some person or persons, asserting or attesting the
truth of any matter proposed.
In this sense, belief stands opposed to knowledge and
science. We do not say we believe that snow is white,
or that the whole is equal to its parts; but we see and
know them to be so. That the three angles of a tri-
angle are equal to two right angles, or that all motion
is naturally rectilinear, are not said to be things cred-
ible, but scientific; and the comprehension of such
truths is not belief but science.
But when a thing propounded to us is neither appar-
ent to our sense, nor evident to our understanding;
neither certainly to be collected from any clear and nec-
essary connection with the cause from which it pro-
ceeds, nor with the effects which it naturally produces;
nor is taken up upon any real arguments, or relation
thereof to other acknowledged truths; and yet, not-
withstanding, appears as true, not by manifestation,
but by an attestation of the truth, and moves us to as-
sent, not of itself, but in virtue of a testimony given to
it—this is said to be properly credible; and an assent
to this is the proper notion of belief or faith.