2. For Man knows that he himself exists.

I think it is beyond question, that man has a clear idea of his own
being; he knows certainly he exists, and that he is something. He that
can doubt whether he be anything or no, I speak not to; no more than I
would argue with pure nothing, or endeavour to convince nonentity that
it were something. If any one pretends to be so sceptical as to deny his
own existence, (for really to doubt of it is manifestly impossible,) let
him for me enjoy his beloved happiness of being nothing, until hunger or
some other pain convince him of the contrary. This, then, I think I may
take for a truth, which every one's certain knowledge assures him of,
beyond the liberty of doubting, viz. that he is SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY
EXISTS.


3. He knows also that Nothing cannot produce a Being; there ore
SOmething must have existed from Eternity.

In the next place, man knows, by an intuitive certainty, that bare
NOTHING CAN NO MORE PRODUCE ANY REAL BEING, THAN IT CAN BE EQUAL TO TWO
RIGHT ANGLES. If a man knows not that nonentity, or the absence of all
being, cannot be equal to two right angles, it is impossible he should
know any demonstration in Euclid. If, therefore, we know there is some
real being, and that nonentity cannot produce any real being, it is an
evident demonstration, that FROM ETERNITY THERE HAS BEEN SOMETHING;
since what was not from eternity had a beginning; and what had a
beginning must be produced by something else.