d arranged all the events that must come to pass in it,
He paid attention to _all the circumstances_ which should accompany each
event, and, particularly, to _the dispositions, desires, and prayers_ of
every intelligent being; and that the arrangement of all events was
disposed _in perfect harmony_ with all these circumstances. When,
therefore, a man addresses to God a prayer worthy to be heard, that
prayer was already heard from all eternity, and the Father of mercies
arranged the world expressly in favor of that prayer, so that the
accomplishment should be a consequence of the natural course of events.
It is thus that God answers the prayers of men without working a
miracle."[213]

"It is not impossible," says Dr. Wollaston, "that such laws of Nature,
and such a series of causes and effects, may be originally designed that
not only general provisions may be made for the several species of
beings, but even _particular cases_, at least many of them, may also be
provided for, without innovations or alterations in the course of
Nature. It is true this amounts to a prodigious scheme, in which all
things to come are, as it were, comprehended under one view, estimated
and laid together: but when I consider what a mass of wonders the
universe is in other regards, what a Being God is, incomprehensibly
great and perfect, that He cannot be ignorant of anything, no not of the
future wants and deportments of particular men, and that all things
which derive from Him, as their First Cause, must do this so as to be
consistent with one another, and in such a manner as to make one compact
system, befitting so great an Author; when I consider this, I cannot
deny such an adjustment of things to be within His power. The order of
events, proceeding from the settlement of Nature, may be as compatible
with the due and reasonable success of _my endeavors and prayers_ (as
inconsiderable a part of the world as I am) as with any other thing or
phenomena how great soever.... And thus the _prayers_ which good men
offer to the all-knowing God, and the _neglects_ of others, may find
fitting effects, already _forecasted_ in the course of Nature, which
possibly may be extended to the _labors_ of men and their _behavior_ in
general."[214]

"If ever there was a future event," says Dr. Gordon, "which might have
been reckoned on with absolute certainty, and one, therefore, in the
accomplishment of which it might appear that _prayer_ could have no room
o