But suppose that a person claiming to be the Creator of all things, or to be a messenger from him, should attest his claim by shaking the earth, or turning back the floods of the ocean, it would be impossible for any man to witness these miracles without believing, that the Author of all things thus attested his own presence or the authority of his messenger. We have shown that the very organization of mind would necessarily force such a belief on all sane minds. One other method would be as effective. Should this person predict events so improbable and so beyond all human intelligence, as to be equivalent to an equal interruption of experience as to the laws of mind, as time developed the fulfillment of these predictions, the same belief would be induced in the authority of the person thus supernaturally endowed. In the case of miracles, the evidence would be immediate and most powerful in its inception. In the case of prophecy, the power of the evidence would increase with time. _Miracles and prophecy_, then, are the _only_ methods that we can conceive of, that would, as our minds are now constituted, insure belief in revelations from the Creator. But if every human being, in order to believe, must have miracles, there would result such an incessant violation of the laws of nature as to destroy them, and thus to destroy all possibility of miracles. The only possible way, then, to establish revelations to the _race_, is to have them occur at certain periods of time, and then have them adequately _recorded and preserved_. The Bible is a collection of books written at different periods of the world’s history. These books profess to be records of the various manifestations and teachings of the Creator to mankind. It is claimed for them, that their authority is established by miracles and prophecy, _with all the evidence that is possible, so far as we can conceive_, and that there are no other books in the world having any _such_ evidence of authorized revelations from God. No attempt will be made to set forth this evidence, which, it is claimed, is peculiar to the Bible. The point here attempted is, to show that, were the Augustinian system contained in these writings, it would destroy their claims as _reliable_ revelations from God, even allowing that miracles and prophecy attested their authority. All must allow that it is _possible_ to have such things given in a revelation from God as would destroy its reliability. For example, suppose it were a fact that a revelation, supported by miracles, taught that _there was no God_. This would necessarily destroy its authority as a revelation from God. Suppose again, that it taught that the Creator, who wrought the attesting miracles, was a liar, and loved to deceive his creatures; this would also destroy its reliability as a guide to truth.