Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses … run with patience the race that is set before us. …

There surely never was a greater number of miracles ascribed to one person, than those, which are lately said to have been wrought in France upon the tomb of Abbé Paris. … Where shall we find such a number of circumstances, agreeing to the corroboration of one fact? And what have we to oppose to such a cloud of witnesses, but the absolute impossibility or miraculous nature of the events, which they relate?

The evidence of testimony depends not only on the reliability of those testifying, but also on the credibility of what they attest apart from their testimony for it.

[When] the fact which the testimony endeavours to establish partakes of the extraordinary and the marvellous – in that case the evidence resulting from the testimony admits of a diminution, greater or less in proportion as the fact is more or less unusual … “I should not believe such a story were it told to me by Cato” was a proverbial saying in Rome. … The incredibility of the fact, it was allowed, might invalidate so great an authority. (p. 113)