Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A76129
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The light and dark sides of God or A plain and brief discourse of the light side (God, Heaven and angels.) The dark side (Devill, sin, and Hell.) As also of the Resurrection and Scripture. : All which are set forth in their severall natures and beings, according to the spirituality of the Scripture. / Written by Jacob Bauthumley.
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Bauthumley, Jacob.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing B1165B; ESTC R16169
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44,323
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100
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proper and peculiar to God for I really see that after God is manifest in flesh and seen of Angels preached in the world and believed in that then he shall after all this be received up into glory and that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the Kingdome of God and that nothing lives to all eternity but pure Divine glory I cannot conceive any other resurrection then of carnall to be made spirituall and that is no other then the spirituall appearance of God so that when I would find out what the resurrection is I reflect upon my own spirit and trace the goings of God there and there I can find God rising from one degree of glory to another and changing me into his image by his spirit and so I see how he hath led me from one dispensation to another and from one ordinance to another till at last he appears so spiritually that he over-powers all flesh and formes which I admired in my carnall condition and appears to be that temple glory and light himselfe which I had thought to have had in a sensible and carnall enjoyment hereafter so that I am led to believe that there is no such outward felicity to be enjoyed in this resurrection but that it is God arising in the spirit and shining brighter and brighter till the perfect day making all the creature-apprehensions and knowledge of God to cease and this resurrection I clearly finde in my owne spirit that the most glorious and inlarged parts and abilities in prayer speaking or otherwise in which I have delighted and no question but I did enjoy God in them though in a darke and low estate these I say the glory and beauty of them are all withered and vanished before the bright and glorious appearances of God in the spirit for the Son in me having delivered up his Kingdome and those fleshly and formall manifestations and outward bodily worships ceasing God is all in all so that I can neither in Jerusalem or in the Mount or in any outward form or duty worship God knowing that he is only to be worshipped in spirit truth and that though God was with me in my former carnall and dark condition and did lead me in it gently yet all was but to raise up himselfe and to be that spiritually in me in another way then that which I expected and so of naturall he hath made me spirituall which is the spirituall resurrection that we are speaking of And further I really see that the flesh of man and of all other creatures differ not any thing in the nature of them indeed in respect of the kind and manner some flesh is of men some of Beasts and some of fishes but as flesh none of them are capable of any more glory then one another all being of the same mould and comming to the same end and though the spirit in them or whatsoever is God in them return to their originall which is God and so lives in him again yet the fleshly part returns to dust from whence it came and as the man dies so dies the beast as dies the wise man so dies the foole one end is to them all as Solomon speaks and whereas men imagine that there is a fleshly resurrection and that the same body flesh and bones shall rise and remain a corporall and visible substance how this should be I am sure they do not know themselves for however men speak that the corporall body shall be made a spirituall to me it is ridiculous because the Scripture saith That which is borne of flesh is flesh and can remaine in no other capacity And besides I hope no man will deny that a spirituall thing can be seen of a fleshly or that an externall organ of the body can see an internall and invisible thing the Apostle makes it plaine that the things which are seen are temporall and the things that are not seen are eternall Now how it can stand or consist with reason or Scripture Logick or Rhetorick that men should hold and maintaine that men should visibly see one another in heaven as they call it and know one another and see their visible shape as they lived in on the earth yet they maintaine on the other side this is a spirituall body I cannot see if this be divinity then I am not in the humanity but indeed I am willing to give way to their weaknesse because I have been as childish my selfe only I cannot but take notice of the Babell and confusion that men are in and yet thinke themselves the only Embassadours of peace and as if all knowledge and spirituall learning were confined to them but laying my hand gently on their sore I let them passe and go on to that in hand And whereas the Scripture speaks of a spirituall body I conceived that there is a spirituall body and that this body must be raised which spirituall body I apprehend to be nothing but the divine Being or God in spirit termed a Body for these two reasons as I conceive First because God is the body and substance of all things and so it is said that this God dwelt bodily or substantially in the man Christ he being that person in whose flesh God did more gloriously appear then in any other so he was the most expresse Image oâ— his Fathers person and in this respect God may be termed a spirituall Body though for my part I dare not imagine him to have either person or body Secondly God may be stiled a spirituall body because this body or divine Being is and hath its Being in many Members And so God is stiled the head of the body and Christ is the head of the Church which is his body wherein Ireally apprehend that all the apperances of God in the Saints as they are called all the manifestation of God in flesh or in any fleshly or outward dispensation or form they are but the Carkes and shadow of God who is the body or substance of them all and all these dying and vanishing as they shall God shall onely live and raise himself a spiritual body and therein live to all eternity so that it is spiritually true that the body which is fleshly shall perish and the spirituall body shall be raised as we shall have occasion in the sequel of the discourse to make out but because men are still poring upon a Scripture without them to prove a carnall Resurrection and will believe nothing but what they think the Scripture speaks in the letter though indeed they erre not knowing it or the power of God I shall a little condescend to their weakness in this kind though for my part if there were not a letter in all the Bible to strengthen me in my opinion of the Resurrection I should not much care nor need I the testimony of it as to my self for I have a surer word within to which I take heed yet I say for other mens sakes I shall
The Light and Dark sides of GOD Or a plain and brief DISCOURSE OF The light side God Heaven and Angels The dark side Devill Sin and Hell As also of the Resurrection and Scripture All which are set forth in their Severall Natures and Beings according to the spirituality of the Scripture Written by Jacob Bauthumley I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to Babes even so it is thy pleasure The spirituall man judgeth all things and he himself is judged of none LONDON Printed for William Learner at the Black-more in Bishopsgate-streete 1650. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER I Have onely directed my discourse to thee though I know the most unto whose hand it may come cannot read it But that it will be a Barbarian to them and they to It. However if I be beside them yet I am not beside my selfe If I be it is to God The reason why I have not directed it to any particular man or sort of men what ever as is usuall in things of this nature is because I desire not any mans approbation of it as knowing I am not subject to mans judgement neither would I have any man to subject himself to mine neither shall I be ashamed to own what I have writ for the present or to cast it away for the future if God shall lead me thereunto I have cast up my accounts what all will amount unto upon either of the former considerations and so have sweet peace in my spirit in my present thoughts and apprehensions leaving the issue of all to the wise disposing providence All I desire is that those to whom these few lines may come would if they can be so charitable of me as to conceive and judge that I have not writ any thing with any spirit of opposition to any sort of men under what forme of godlinesse soever as knowing that there is a sweet appearance of God in them All. And however my person and parts be meane in the Worlds Eye and so may cast an odium upon the things that I hold forth yet I shall runne the hazard in that kinde and leave the Lord to gaine his own Honour and Glory in it as seeing by sweet experience it is one of his greatest designes in the World to confound the high and mighty things thereof by the most meanâ— and contemptible And so though men be not satisfied yet herein I shall receive sweet content in my own spirit that my worke shall either burne and consume or else abide the fiery tryall of mens indignation And as I shall wish no man to embrace it or condemne me So I shall neither thank them that do the one or condemne them that do the other For the subject matter of the Discourse I must confesse they are things of that nature that are not obvious to every capacity and so lye obnoxious unto their censure and when time was I should have been as ready to have sat in Judgement against the Maintainer of such Principles yet to me they are such as wherein the Mystery of godlynesse mainly consists and so are not to be slighted And however I do not looke that I or any man else shall receive much by this or any other Booke which had almost perswaded me to have been silent in this kind yet was I inwardly enforced thereunto to ease the burden that lay upon my spirit which was one great motive to me to act my part so publickly Besides having converst with men under severall formes and administrations not to speake of those of the inferiour sort as Papists Episcoparians and Presbyterians But those that are got to the highest as Independents an a Anabaptists commonly so called and seriously viewing the carnall apprehention of things in themselves and there mis-apprehenâ—ion of the minde of God held forth by others condemning them as Heriticall and Blasphemous in whom the Mysteryes of the Kingdome are most clearly revealed and they themselves placeing Religion and the Mystery of godlinesse in outward Ordinances and administrations of which they are all but Shaddowes Having a strong conceite of a Creature happynesse and selfe injoyment and so are acted to attaine to the End In all these respects I could not but gratifie them so farre as to set forth what is held out by a certaine Generation of Men and Woemen in the World That if it may be there may be such a favourable opinion of us from them that we neither deny there is a GOD Heaven or Hell Resurrection or Scripture as the World is made to believe we do And I thinke they are all as plainly and briefly made out as they themselves could desire And further I know by experience that there are some with whom my spirit sweetly closed in the Vnity thereof and that travell with me in the same birth yet are not able to bring forth their conceptions for so much as many times the Truth suffers by a weake delivery and for their sakes have I held this Glasse before them that so they may be the better able to describe themselves to others and to help them to bring forth that out of their mouths which perhaps may lye in the bottome of their hearts For these Reasons have I taken the boldnesse to set pen to Paper though otherwise I was unwilling desiring that and no more of others then what I would do to them which is to let every man stand and fall to his own Master One thing I thought fit to premise onely to satisfie any that shall be so weake as to make it a matter of offence to them In that I have not set downe the chapter and verse of many places of Scripture which I do hint upon all along the Discourse To answer them and so to salve up that pretended soare I found things of such a Mysterious nature as they are that while I was looking for them in the Letter of the Scripture I was at a great losse in the present delivery of my selfe of those things which I found spiritually and secretly conveyed to me in the Spirit and so rather then I would loose or let passe what was spiritually discovered in me I was willing to omit the outward viewing of them in a chapter or verse Besides there is nothing laide downe by me by way of Argument or formall dispute which might ingage me to an outward proofe of things as men usually do in matters of controversie and what is positively affirmed there is punctually Scripture for But my designe was mainly to deliver my private Meditations and apprehension of such things which are most carnally conceived of I thought it not therefore necessary to trouble my self or the Reader wiâ—h multiplicity of places of Scripture to prove those things of which I hed so reall and spirituall a Testimony of in my own spirit and which I am confident that the most spirituall man can set