eing acted upon by spiritual influences, good or
bad, because these, appealing to no external proof, however convincing
they may be to the persons themselves, form no part of what can be
accounted miraculous evidence. Their own credibility stands upon their
alliance with other miracles. The discussion, therefore, of all such
pretensions may be omitted.

II. It is not necessary to bring into the comparison what may be called
tentative miracles; that is, where, out of a great number of trials,
some succeed; and in the accounts of which, although the narrative of
the successful cases be alone preserved, and that of the unsuccessful
cases sunk, yet enough is stated to show that the cases produced are
only a few out of many in which the same means have been employed. This
observation bears with considerable force upon the ancient oracles and
auguries, in which a single coincidence of the event with the prediction
is talked of and magnified, whilst failures are forgotten, or
suppressed, or accounted for. It is also applicable to the cures wrought
by relics, and at the tombs of saints. The boasted efficacy of the
king's touch, upon which Mr. Hume lays some stress, falls under the same
description. Nothing is alleged concerning it which is not alleged of
various nostrums, namely, out of many thousands who have used them,
certified proofs of a few who have recovered after them. No solution of
this sort is applicable to the miracles of the Gospel. There is nothing
in the narrative which can induce, or even allow, us to believe, that
Christ attempted cures in many instances, and succeeded in a few; or
that he ever made the attempt in vain. He did not profess to heal
everywhere all that were sick; on the contrary, he told the Jews,
evidently meaning to represent his own case, that, "although many widows
were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three
years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land, yet
unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon,
unto a woman that was a widow:" and that "many lepers were in Israel in
the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed saving
Naaman the Syrian." (Luke iv. 25.) By which examples he gave them to
understand, that it was not the nature of a Divine interposition, or
necessary to its purpose, to be general; still less to answer every
challenge that might be made, which would teach men to put their faith
upon th