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 or efficacy, it was just the restoration of the Jewish captives to the land and city of their fathers.

And yet, so far from supposing that there was no place for prayer to occupy, among the various means that were employed to bring about that event, it was just his firm belief in the nearness and certainty of it that set Daniel upon fervent and persevering supplications for its accomplishment....