Highmore 1651

Highmore, quoting Digby:

"But a sensitive Creature (saith he) being compared to a Plant, as a Plant is to a mixed Body; you cannot but conceive, tha the must be compounded, as it were of many Plants, in like sort as a Plant is of many mixed Bodies: But so, that all the Plants, which concur to make one Animal, are of one kinde of nature, and cognation. And besides ,the matter, o which such diversity is to be made, must of necessity be more humid, and figurable, then that of an ordinary Plant: and the Artificer, which worketh & mouldeth it, must be more active. Wherefore we must suppose, that the Mass, of which an Animal is to be made, must be actually liquid; and the Fire that worketh upon it, must be so powerful, that of its own nature, it may be able to convert this liquid matter, into such breaths and steams, as we see do arise for mWater, when the Sun or Fire worketh upon it." (10-11)

in response to Digby:

"How much this Concipt subverts the antique principles of Philosophy, I shall not here undertake to demonstrate: How far it shoulders out Truth it self, and so blots out those indeleble Characters, fixt by the finger of the Creator on every species; those inscriptions on all his works, the distinct constitutions, parts, operations, and figures (which are so many Bushes, or Signes, hung out, to discover what are the inhabitants within) will easily shew us." (12-13)

on seed containing preformed plant: pg 18