turning water into wine
(John ii.); feeding multitudes with a few loaves and fishes (Matt. xiv.
15; Mark vi. 35; Luke ix. 12; John vi. 5); walking on the sea (Matt.
xiv. 25); calming a storm (Matt. viii. 26; Luke viii. 24); a celestial
voice at his baptism, and miraculous appearance (Matt. iii. 16;
afterwards John xii. 28); his transfiguration (Matt. xvii. 18; Mark ix.
2; Luke ix. 28; 2 Peter i. 16, 17); raising the dead in three distinct
instances (Matt. ix. 18; Mark v. 22; Luke vii. 14; viii. 41; John xi.).
_________

I apprehend that, when we remove from the comparison the cases which are
fairly disposed of by the observations that have been stated, many cases
will not remain. To those which do remain, we apply this final
distinction; "that there is not satisfactory evidence that persons
pretending to be original witnesses of the miracles passed their lives
in labours, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undertaken and
undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and
properly in consequence of their belief of the truth of those accounts."

CHAPTER II.

But they with whom we argue have undoubtedly a right to select their own
examples. The instances with which Mr. Hume has chosen to confront the
miracles of the New Testament, and which, therefore, we are entitled to
regard as the strongest which the history of the world could supply to
the inquiries of a very acute and learned adversary, are the three
following:

I. The cure of a blind and of a lame man of Alexandria, by the emperor
Vespasian, as related by Tacitus;

II. The restoration of the limb of an attendant in a Spanish church, as
told by Cardinal de Retz; and,

III. The cures said to be performed at the tomb of the abbe Paris in the
early part of the eighteenth century.

I. The narrative of Tacitus is delivered in these terms: "One of the
common people of Alexandria, known to be diseased in his eyes, by the
admonition of the god Serapis, whom that superstitious nation worship
above all other gods, prostrated himself before the emperor, earnestly
imploring from him a remedy for his blindness, and entreating that he
would deign to anoint with his spittle his cheeks and the balls of his
eyes. Another, diseased in his hand, requested, by the admonition of the
same god, that he might be touched by the foot of the emperor. Vespasian
at first derided and despised their application; afterwards, when they
continued to urge their petitions,