: "The
peculiarity of the new doctrine is that these (the physical, organic,
and moral laws) operate independently of each other; that each requires
obedience to itself; that each, in its own specific way, rewards
obedience and punishes disobedience; and that human beings are happy in
proportion to the extent to which they place themselves in accordance
with _all_ of these Divine institutions." In regard to these "natural
laws,"--including the physical, the organic, the intellectual, and the
moral,--_four_ positions are laid down: first, that they are independent
of each other; secondly, that obedience or disobedience to each of them
is followed by reward or punishment; thirdly, that they are universal
and invariable; and, fourthly, that they are in harmony with the
"constitution of man."[198]

Now, in this theory of "natural laws," especially as it is applied to
the doctrines of Providence and Prayer, there seem to be _three_ radical
defects:

1. Mr. Combe speaks of _obedience_ and _disobedience_ to the "physical
and organic" laws, as if they _could_ be obeyed or disobeyed in the same
sense and in the same way as the "moral" laws, and as if they imposed an
obligation on man which it would be sinful to disregard. He has not duly
considered that the moral law differs from the physical and organic laws
of Nature in two important respects: first, that while the former _may_,
the latter _cannot_, be broken or violated by man; and secondly, that
while the former does impose an imperative obligation which is felt by
every conscience, the latter have either no relation to the conscience
at all, or, if they have, it is collateral and indirect only, and arises
not from the mere existence of such laws, but from the felt obligation
of a _moral law belonging to our own nature_, which prescribes
_prudence_ as a duty with reference to our personal conduct in the
circumstances in which we are placed.

That the "physical and organic" laws cannot be broken or violated in the
same sense in which the "moral law" may be transgressed, is evident from
the simple consideration that the violation of a natural law, were it
possible, _would be not a sin, but a miracle_! And that these laws
impose no real obligation on the conscience is further manifest, because
we hold it to be perfectly lawful to counteract, so far as we can, the
operation of one physical or organic law by employing the agency of
another, as in the appliances of Mechanics, t