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leave to Inquire, whether all the branches, leaves, and fruit, that sprout after¬ 
wards from the stock yearly, were formed actually in the first ash, or plumb- 
tree, that God created? Did the Creator provide actually sufficient leaves 
and fruit in every first tree to answer for such voluntary mutations of the 
gardener in five thousand years to come? How unreasonable it is to suppose 
this! 
But, on the other hand, if the natural laws of motion are left to form the 
limb of an animal, or part of a vegetable, on such occasions, why might not 
the same Divine Wisdom contrive laws which might form the whole animal 
or vegetable in its appointed successions in the course of nature? 
7 , In the formation of insects, and especially of larger animals, daily 
experiment destroys this hypothesis, by shewing us, that the animal, in 
several parts and members of it, is imperfect and defective in the embryo, 
the work is unfinished, and the laws of nature finish it by degrees, till it 
becomes ripe for production.* 
I think this argument is conclusive alone, but all these considerations 
put together, give us abundant reason to believe, that it is by the continual 
and uniform agency of God upon the material world, according to certain 
laws of matter and motion which he has appointed in the vegetable and 
animal world, that there is a continual succession of plants and animals 
through all ages; and the honour of such a wonderous contrivance is due to 
the great Creator. 
* This account seems more exactly conformable to the words of scripture. Psalm cxxxix. 16. Thine 
eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect, and in thy book my members were written, which 
in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them. 
f Perhaps, after all, it may be inquired here, whether plants and animals can possibly be formed 
by the mechanical motions and powers of matter? To this I answer, If by the word mechanical we 
mean nothing else but those motions and powers which proceed from the essential properties of 
matter considered as a mere solid extended substance, then I cannot allow the proposition to be true: 
but if we include in the word mechanism, all those additional powers and motions also, which arise 
from the original laws of motion which God imposed upon matter at first, such as gravitation or 
mutual attraction, and others of the same kind, then I allow that all things, in the successive ages of 
the world, are formed mechanically; always supposing the Divine Agency preserving all the atoms 
of matter and their motions, according to these laws. And it is my opinion, that all beyond this is 
miracle. God is great and wonderous in all his works ! 
