PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

266 lJulyand £1Ii(/](.,v if Pl·i.7,,\'cr.
the instrument of happiness and misery to another j
which is perfectly of a piece with the cnurse and order
that obtain, and \vhich \\-c Inu~t believe \\-cre intcndt'd
to obtain, in human affairs. \Vhy may we not he as~
sisted by the prayers of other men, who arc behC'Iden
for our support to their labour? '\7h}· may not
our happiness be made in SOOlC cases to depend upon
the intercession, as it certainly does in lnan)", upon
the good offices of cur neighbours? 1'he happiness
and misery of great numbers we see oftentimes at the
disposal of one man's choice, or liable to be much affected
by his conduct: what greater difficulty is there
in supposing, that the prayers of an individual may
avert a calamity from 111ultitudes, or be accepted to
the benefit of \vhole communities ?
CHAPTER
III.
PF THE DUTY AND EFFICACY OF PRAYER,
1\8 REPRESENTED IN SCRlp·fURE.
THE reader will have ob~erved, that the re·
~ections stated in the preceding Chapter, whatever
truth and \veight they may be allo\ved to contain,
rise niany of them no higller, than to negative arguments
in favour of the propriety of addressing prayer
to God. To prove that the ~fficacy of prayer is not
inconsistent \vith the attributes of the l)eity, does
not prove that prayers are actually efficacious ; and
in the want of that unequivocal tc:.,timony "",'hich experience
alone could afford to this point, (but which
we do llot possess, and have seerl good reason why'
we are not to expect) the light of nature Jeaves us
to controverted probabilities, dra\vn from tIle impulse
by which all nlaIlkind ha\Tc been almost uni ...
versally prompted to devotion, and from som.e ben.
eficial purposes, which, it is conceived, may be bet.
ter answered by the audience of prayer, than by any
other mode of communicating the same blessings.