277 
consequents, in every region or kingdom of Nature, mineral, 
vegetable, animal, or elementary. 
That the “ laws which rule Nature” are “ alone and 
supreme ” may be conceded, relatively speaking, i. e., in respect 
to the ruling of Nature ; but this is merely moving round the 
circle of cause and effect, antecedent and consequent ; the 
question is. How these laws work, and how the manifold results 
in Nature are obtained ? And the partisan of “ science ” who 
has acknowledged that there is a Grod,* does not pretend that, 
distinct from material Nature, there is no other ruling power 
or law. Nature’s laws, “ ruling Nature,” are themselves distinct 
from and above Nature; and, whether Nature “know” it or 
not, we know that the Intelligence which established those laws 
and ordained them to work out His unchangeable will, and 
still upholds them in His hands, causing while yet placing 
bounds to their mutual action and reaction, is necessarily 
distinct from and above Nature. 
The argument continues : — - 
te To assert that an event , or a series of events occurred, which 
are contrary to this uniformity , which are not the result of these 
laws and 'properties, hut opposed to them, and incompatible with 
them, is to assert the occurrence of an impossibility , and is simply 
absurd . 33 f 
But we have seen that nothing is more “ uniform , 33 in the 
sense here intended, in Nature, than the constancy of a 
mutual crossing or counteraction in its laws, and that it is 
not “ incompatible ” with these laws that one should be con- 
tinually over-riding another, and producing thereby a new 
order of results or chain of consequents, therefore miracles ; and 
that without such opposition and mutual reaction of her laws. 
Nature’s only law would be speedily to die out and cease to be. 
In miracles, commonly so called, Nature’s laws are neither 
violated nor modified in themselves ; one law is simply over- 
ruled by another, a new chain of cause and effect being com- 
menced thereby. The power which directs this over-ruling, 
whether intelligibly to itself or not, is the worker of the 
miracle. The vegetable germ, blindly exerting the powers 
with which it is endowed, assimilates the earthy and gaseous 
elements to itself, over-rules the mineral and atmospheric 
law r s, and works a miracle. The ox which eats the grass, and 
converts its elements into its own flesh and bones, over-rules 
the laws of vegetable life, and works a miracle. And, above 
all, every act of man may be called a miracle, inasmuch as one 
law of Nature is thereby, and that “ inexorably,” over-ruled 
Ibid. p. 96. 
t Ibid. p. 95. 
