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    and wlio shall say that we know all the laws by which the universe is governed , or that , in any peculiar case , and for any particular design ,, a law may not be applied which has * long existed ^ But of \* hich we have beheld no

    analogy ? When a dead man suddenly rises from his grave , is it at all more wonderful than that he should at first be formed in the womb of his mother ? When the deaf are suddenly restored to hearing ^ or the blind to sighr * is «

    more extraordinary operation of divine power required , than when the ears and eyes were at first adapted , to their wonderful offices ? But , according to our Teasoner , all men ought to be born

    biind ^ that they may suddenly be brought to . sight ) or deaf that they may suddenly hear , or else each miracle of the gospel must have required a new law , made for the

    occasion and abrogated assoohasit produced asrngle effect . Even in the moat extraordinary instance of the change of water into wine at Cana , can it be said to be a more

    impracticable , though certainly a more sudden and unusual process , than that , by tjhe elaboration of its juices ^ such a liquor should by different and slow advances be produced from the stone of a

    single grape ? Before then we can pronounce that any circumstance is contradictory to the laws of nature , we ought first , accurately to know what those laws are , and then , how far those laws extend , and by what circumstances their

    operation is limited * And with respect to the introduction' of ' $ vH , because a mixture of it , has formed'a useful and according to the present arrangement , an apparently necessary in ^ redienti in

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    the government of the world * does it thence follow , that it could not have been originally excluded , or that the time may not arrive , when it shall b 6 no

    longer necessary ? And are we to suppose , that because every thing is not at once made perfect , there can be no such thing as perfection in the universe ? If the churchmtin ' s rule be just , where

    will his own church find the grounds for her faith in miracles ? But we will now come , to the most curious pan of his argu * ment on this third point of xinrea ~ sonable doctrine : — " What" sa y * he , " is prayer but a solicitation of a miracle ? " It is difficult to dis «*

    cover whether he gives this definition of prayer , as the language of a believer in the doctrine off necessity , or whether he means it as a description of his own apitn

    on , concerning the nature of this exercise ; his language is , to say the least , very ambiguous . —If he means the former , the necessari * ans will tell him ' , that they consider prayer merely as a necessary expression of devout

    dependance upon God , and as a powerful and appointed means for forming the mind of man into such a state as shall make him a fit subject for the divine favours and for

    the possession of future happiness * —If , on the other hand , ht \ means it in the latter sense , he has incautiously dropped his vizor ,

    and we immediately recognize tha features of a Shaftesbury , a 136-lingbrokt * , or a Hume . — " All religions in the world , " hegoes ' on to tell us > * have-considered- th , e condtict of God to man , to be ~

    like the conduct of man to man . *' What an admirable rule ! what a sagacious and ^ fiUWim <^ form ula '

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    Gpstigatbr ' s Answer to tieGkurtftmnto . 4 V 9

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    vol . nu 3 & »

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1808, page 417, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2395/page/17/