Again, if all suffering, however unavoidably incurred, is to be regarded as a punishment from the Divine Legislator, to attempt to alleviate or remove the suffering thus incurred would be to fly in the face of the Divine authority, by endeavoring to set aside the punishment it had inflicted; just as it would be an opposition to the authority of human laws to rescue a prisoner from custody, or deliver a culprit from punishment."[202] 3.

We deem it another radical defect in Mr.Combe's theory of "natural laws," that he represents the _distinct existence and independent action of these laws_ as "the key to the Divine government," as the one principle which explains all apparent irregularities, and accounts satisfactorily for the casualties and calamities of human life.

We cannot doubt, indeed, either the wisdom or the benevolence of that constitution of things under which we live, nor dispute the value and importance of those laws according to which the world is ordinarily governed.

We admit that the suspension of any one of these laws, except perhaps on some signal occasion of miraculous interposition, would go far to unsettle and derange the existing economy.

But "natural laws"-- whether viewed individually or collectively, and whether considered as acting independently of each other, or as mutually related and interdependent--cannot afford of themselves any key to the Divine government, or any solution of the difficulties of Providence.