Doubtless, it shews the wisdom of God, to have so fram'd things at first, that there can seldom or never need any extraordinary interposition of his power; or the employing from, time to time, an intelligent overseer, to regulate, assist, and control the motions of matter.
"A Free Inquiry into the Vulgar Notion of Nature," Sect.1 in The Philosophical Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle (1725) Vol.2