The Light and Dark Sides of God, by Jacob Bauthumley

[minionofmidas]

I'm glad to've finally found an excerpt of this book on the web. I'd long looked in vain, and had only known a couple of quotations. (Although I'm still looking for the whole book.)

A Ranter Looks at the Dark Side of God
by Jacob Bottomley [sic] (1650)

I. Concerning God


O God, what shall I say thou art, when thou canst not be named? What shall I speak of thee, when in speaking of thee, I speak nothing but contradiction? For if I say I see thee, it is nothing but thy seeing of thy self; for there is nothing in me capable of seeing thee but thy self. If I say I know thee, that is no other but the knowledge of thy self; for I am rather known of thee, than know thee. If I say I love thee, it is nothing so, for there is nothing in me can love thee but thy self; and therefore thou dost but love thy self. My seeking of thee is no other but thy seeking of thy self. My delighting enjoying thee, is no other but thy delighting in thy self, and enjoying of thy self after a most unconceivable manner.
. . . thou being the life and substance of all creatures, they speak and move, yea, live in thee; and whatever any creature is, it is that as it is in thee . . . Lord, whither shall I go from thy presence? For it is thy presence and being that is the substance and being of all creatures and things, and fills heaven and earth and all other places . . . Nay, I see that God is in all creatures, man and beast, fish and fowl, and every green thing from the highest cedar to the ivy on the wall; and that God is the life and being of them all, and that God doth really dwell, and (if you will) personally (if he may admit so low an expression) in them all, and hath his being no where else out of the creatures . . .
Did men see that God was in them, and framing all their thoughts and working all their works, and that he was with them in all conditions: what carnal spirit would reach out to that by an outward way, which spiritually is in him, and which he stands really possessed of, and which divine wisdom sees the best, and that things can be no otherwise with him? . . . [Formerly I] thought that my sins or holy walking did cause [God] to alter his purpose of good or evil to me, but now I cannot look upon any condition or action, but methinks there appears a sweet concurrence of the supreme will in it. Nothing comes short of it, or goes beyond it, nor any man shall do or be any thing but what shall fall in a sweet compliance with it; it being the womb wherein all things are conceived, and in which all creatures were formed and brought forth.
. . . As all things were let out of God, so shall they all give up their being, life, and happiness unto God again . . . Though the clothing dissolve and come to nothing, yet the inward man still lives; though the shadow dies, yet the soul or substance, which is God, lives to all eternity. Further, to me it is clear that there is nothing that partakes of the divine nature, or is of God, but it is God. The reason is because there are no distinctions in God, he being one individed [sic] essence . . . I cannot see . . . that [God] is capable of any degrees of more or less, or that he loves one man more than another, or hates one man more than another . . . I cannot see that there is love and hatred in God, or any such passions. That which admits of degrees is not perfect. . . . And God loves the being of all creatures; yea, all men are alike to him, and have received lively impressions of the divine nature, thought they be not so gloriously and purely manifested in some as in others; some live in the light side of God, and some in the dark side. But in respect of God, light and darkness are all one to him, for there is nothing contrary to God, but only to our apprehension . . . I do not apprehend that God was only manifest in the flesh of Christ, or the man called Christ; but that he as really and substantially dwells in the flesh of other men and creatures, as well as in the man Christ.

II. Concerning Heaven

. . . then men are in heaven, or heaven in men, when God appears in his glorious and pure manifestations of himself, in Love and Grace, in Peace and rest in the Spirit . . .
. . . I find that where God dwells, and is come, and hath taken men up, and wrapped them up into the Spirit, there is a new heaven and a new earth, and all the heaven I look ever to enjoy is to have my earthly and dark apprehensions of God to cease, and to live no other life than what Christ spiritually lives in me.

III. Concerning Sin

. . . though men act in darkness, yet God is there veiling his glory, and so they must needs sin; for sin is properly the dark side of God which is a mere privation of light. Further, we must consider that God gives not any law or rule out of himself, or beyond his own glory . . . sin itself doth as well fall in compliance with the glory of God, as well as that which we call grace and goodness; for sin abounds that grace may abound much more . . .
And whereas some may say, "Then men may live as they list, because God is the same, and all tends to his glory, if we sin or if we do well." I answer them in the words of the Apostle: "Men should not sin because grace abounds; but yet if they do sin, that shall turn to the praise of God, as well as when they do well." And so the wrath of man praises God as well as his love and meekness, and God [is] glorified in the one as well as the other. And however this may seem to countenance that God is the author of sin, and wills sin, yet to me it is plain that there is nothing that hath being but God, and sin being a nullity, God cannot be he author of it, and so [it] falls not within the decree of God . . .
Further, I see that the reason why we call some men wicked and some godly is not anything in the men, but as the divine being appears more gloriously in one than in another. So we say the one is a saint and godly, and the other is wicked and profane, and yet the one acts as he is carried forth by the supreme power, and so doth the other. And if there be any difference it is not in respect if the creature, of what it is or doth, for the same divine being is in the other as well as the other, but only it doth not manifest itself in the one as the other . . .
[God's] will is his power, and his power is his will; and by the self same act that he wills things, by the self same act he doth things. And it is our weakness otherwise to apprehend, for God being one and entire, admitting of no distinction or division in himself, he admits of no variations, but all things are as that supreme will acts and brings them forth. And I see according to the counsel of his will; they did no more that crucified Christ, than they that did embrace him.
These things I write, not to countenance any unseemly act or evil in any man . . .

IV. Concerning Hell

I was continually suffering the torment of hell, and tossed up and down, being condemned of myself . . . And this is that I found til God appeared spiritually, and showed me that he was all the glory and happiness himself, and that flesh was nothing . . . God . . . brought me into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God, whereas I was before in bondage to sin, law, an accusing conscience (which is hell) . . .
[The soul] came immediately from God, and is no other but of God, and if I may say further without offence, it is God; for that which is of God is God, because God cannot be divided . . . How this soul, as men speak of, should be impure and sinful, I know not, for how flesh should defile a spirit I cannot imagine . . .
The truth is, there is nothing lives to all eternity but God; everything below God perisheth and comes to nothing. And as all things had their subsistence and being in God, before they were ever manifested in the world of creatures, so in the end whatsoever is of God, or God in the world, at the end of it they shall all be wrapped up into God again. And so as God from all eternity lived in himself, and all things in him, so when he shall cease to live in flesh and creatures, he will then live in himself unto all eternity, and will gloriously triumph over sin, hell, and death. And all creatures shall give up their power and glory unto God, back again from whence it originally came, and so God shall be all.