SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING RELIGION, NATURAL and REVEALED. WITH. REFLEXIONS O N The Sources of INCREDULITY With regard to RELIGION. By the Right Honourable DUNCAN FORBES of EDINBURG H: Printed for G, HAMILTON and J. BALFOUR. MDCCL. SOME THOUGHTS I CONCERNING RELIGION, &c. Tis impoffible to view the immensity, the variety, the harmony, and the beauty of the universe, without concluding it to be the workmanship of a Being infinitely powerful, wife, and good. It is impoffible to examine the ftructure of the moft inconfiderable plant or animal, without being furprised with fuch admirable contrivance, as pronounces the author infinitely intelligent, and excludes all fufpicion that it ow'd its origin to blind chance. The vegetable world is adjufted with fuch amazing kill, that each plant, perfect in its own kind, is fupported, and propagated, me chanically, by the unerring action of the fun, the air, and the earth where it grows its feeds, by that mechanifm, produce new plants of the fame kind; and the herb, that perishes with the feafon, clothes the fields with the fame livery against the next. That brute matter, inert, and infenfible, fhould be fra A med med fo as to perform fuch wonders, fhews wifdom, and power, far beyond the compre henfion of the most perfect man. The action of the material powers in this fyftem upon the organized body of a plant, preferves, and propagates it: its roots fhoot out into the foil where it grows; there it finds abundant aliment for perfecting its trunk, and preparing its feeds; and thofe feeds are dropped where they meet the like encouragement. But it is not fo with animals: the most perfect of the kind, left to the direction of material and mechanical powers only, muft perish without rearing any fucceffion. Vegetables and animals are fo far fimilar, that both require conftant fupplies of fresh juices; but in this they differ, that nature mechanically reaches to the one the fupply it wants, whereas the other muft, by fome act of its own, find, and fetch it: and therefore, in animals, befides matter and mechanifm, there is an active principle; fomewhat, of which we have no conception or knowledge but by its effects, that finds, prepares, and takes in proper nourishment, and determines to the propagation and prefervation of its own fpecies. By what fort of mechanifm this principle acts on, or is affected by, the meer matter to which it is join'd, we cannot at all conceive; but this we fee, that it brute animal creation to those calls all the acts that are neceffary for felf-prefervation, and propa gating the fpecies: each clafs of animals is highly induftrious to compass these ends; and, if we may judge by what we feel tranfacting in the brute part of ourselves, there is in them a strong defire to do thofe acts that are neceffary for the fupport of themfélves, and a very fenfible pleasure attending the gratification of that defire. It does not appear to us that plants are fenfible of pleasure or pain; whereas animals, we know, are affected by both. To a plant it is indifferent whether it is fupported or not; but to an animal it is not fo: it taftes felicity in receiving the neceffary fupplies, and languishes under want: the pleafures it receives in feeding, is the motive to look for food, and it is bribed to fupport itself by the happiness it meets with in taking in its nourishment. What the plant does neceffarily, the animal does from choice, and is highly rewarded, by the pleasure it receives for every act of its duty in preferving itself, and propagating. Who can give attention to this oeconomy, and at the fame time reflect on the profufe fupply that nature every where affords, for the fupport of the infinite numbers of animals, of different kinds, that fwarm upon this globe, without concluding, that overflowing goodnefs and benevolence is an attribute of the infinitely wife, and powerful, Author of nature? In looking over the whole animal creation, one fees infinite variety of instincts, and talents, A 2 |