Please answer a question about the following article about On the Origin of Species:

The Protestant Reformation inspired a literal interpretation of the Bible, with concepts of creation that conflicted with the findings of an emerging science seeking explanations congruent with the mechanical philosophy of René Descartes and the empiricism of the Baconian method. After the turmoil of the English Civil War, the Royal Society wanted to show that science did not threaten religious and political stability. John Ray developed an influential natural theology of rational order; in his taxonomy, species were static and fixed, their adaptation and complexity designed by God, and varieties showed minor differences caused by local conditions. In God's benevolent design, carnivores caused mercifully swift death, but the suffering caused by parasitism was a puzzling problem. The biological classification introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1735 also viewed species as fixed according to the divine plan. In 1766, Georges Buffon suggested that some similar species, such as horses and asses, or lions, tigers, and leopards, might be varieties descended from a common ancestor. The Ussher chronology of the 1650s had calculated creation at 4004 BC, but by the 1780s geologists assumed a much older world. Wernerians thought strata were deposits from shrinking seas, but James Hutton proposed a self-maintaining infinite cycle, anticipating uniformitarianism.

Who proposed that life is a self-maintaining, infinite cycle?
James Hutton
The context states:
"Wernerians thought strata were deposits from shrinking seas, but James Hutton proposed a self-maintaining infinite cycle." 
This implies that Wernerians believed the earth is not an infinite process. In contrast to this view, it was James Hutton who suggested life on Earth goes through an ""infinite cycle"". This means he saw life as being in constant motion and process; always changing over time. He did not see creation or evolution as something with a clear beginning or end point. Rather, there are many different stages of development all working together to constantly change and adapt according to environmental factors like climate change. The idea of Uniformitarianism supports this theory because it suggests natural events have remained consistent throughout history which allows for cycles within nature.