Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

If every man had a beginning, every man then was once nothing; he could not then make himself, because nothing cannot be the cause of something, Psa. 100.3. The Lord he is God he hath made us and not we our selves, [whatsoever begun in time, was not; and when it was nothing, it had nothing, and could do nothing: And therefore could never give to it self nor to any other to be, or to be able to do: For then it gave what it had not, and did what it could not.^* Since reason must acknowledge a first of every kind, a first Man, &c. it must acknowledge him Created and made, not by himself: why have not other men since rise up by themselves? not by Chance; why hath not Chance produced the like in that long time the World hath stood? If we never knew any thing give being to it self, how can we Imagine any thing ever could? If the chiefest part of this lower World cannot, nor any part of it hath been known to give being to it self, then the whole cannot be supposed to give any being to it self: Man did not form himself: His body is not from himself, it would then have the power of moving it self, but that is not able to live or act without the presence of the Soul: Whilst the Soul is present the body moves, when that is absent, the body lies as a senseless log, not having the least action or motion. His Soul could not form it self, can that which cannot form the least mote, the least grain of dust, form it self a nobler substance than any upon the Earth?

If every man had a beginning, every man then was once nothing; he could not then make himself, because nothing cannot be the cause of something, Psa. 100.3. The Lord he is God he hath made us and not we our selves, [whatsoever begun in time, was not; and when it was nothing, it had nothing, and could do nothing: And therefore could never give to it self nor to any other to be, or to be able to do: For then it gave what it had not, and did what it could not.^* Since reason must acknowledge a first of every kind, a first Man, &c. it must acknowledge him Created and made, not by himself: why have not other men since rise up by themselves? not by Chance; why hath not Chance produced the like in that long time the World hath stood? If we never knew any thing give being to it self, how can we Imagine any thing ever could? If the chiefest part of this lower World cannot, nor any part of it hath been known to give being to it self, then the whole cannot be supposed to give any being to it self: Man did not forme himself: His body is not from himself, it would then have the power of moving it self, but that is not able to live or act without the presence of the Soul: Whilst the Soul is present the body moves, when that is absent, the body lies as a senseless log, not having the least action or motion. His Soul could not form it self, can that which cannot form the least mote, the least grain of dust, form it self a nobler substance than any upon the Earth?