The nature and immortality of the soul proved in answer to one who professed…

That I may therefore put you to as little trouble as I can, I will first tell you what I do believe, and then what I stick at.

First, therefore, I do really believe, and am very well satisfied, That there is a God, or a first Cause that hath created all things, and given to every thing its Being. For I am not acquainted with any independent Being. I know not any thing that is able to subsist without the Contribution of its ⟨p. 6⟩Fellow-Creatures. I am conscious to my self, when sickness invades me, and death summons my Compound to a dissolution, I can do nothing to the preservation of the Being I enjoy. And if I cannot preserve my self as I am, much less could I make my self what I am: For when I was nothing, I could do nothing. And Experience and Sense tells me, As it is with me, so it is with others; as there is none can preserve their Beings, so there is none could acquire to themselves the Being they have; and if none, then not the first man. And indeed that was it I enquired after, from whence every species had at first their Beings; the way, how, and means by which they are continued. I know not any Cause of the Being of any thing, of which again I may not enquire the Cause: and so from Cause to Cause, till through a multitude of Causes, I necessarily arrive at the first Cause of all Causes, a Being wholly uncaused, and without Cause, except what it was unto it self.

My next Enquiry was into my self; and my next business, to find what Concern I have with my Creator: which I knew no better way to attain, than by searching the bounds of humane Capacity. For I ⟨p. 7⟩concluded it reasonable to judg those attainments I was capable of in my Creation, I was designed for. Now if man is nothing more than what is visible, or may be made so by Anatomy or Pharmacy, he is no Subject capable of enjoying, or loving God, nor consequently of a life of Retribution.