No person, perhaps, had any
inclination to dispute it afterwards; or, if they had, could say with
positiveness what was or what was not seen by some or other of the army,
in the dismay and amidst the tumult of a battle.
In assigning false perceptions as the origin to which some miraculous
accounts may be referred, I have not mentioned claims to inspiration,
illuminations, secret notices or directions, internal sensations, or
consciousnesses of being 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.
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