An alarm to all flesh with an invitation to the true seeker forthwith to flye for his life (clearly) out of the short-lived Babylon into the life ... also, a word of encouragement to the faithful to be faithful still / by E.B.

An Alarm to all Flesh ; with an Invitation to the true Seeker , forthwith to flye for his Life ( clearly ) out of the short-liv'd Babylon , into the Life , &c.

HOwle , howle , shrick , yell and roar , ye Lustful , Cursing , Swearing , Drunken , Lewd , Superstitious , Devillish , Sensual , Earthly Inhabitants of the whole Earth ; Bow , bow ye most surley Trees , and lofty Oaks , ye tall Cedars , and low Shrubs , Cry out aloud ; hear , hear ye proud Waves , and boistrous Seas , also listen ye uncircumcised , stiff-necked , and mad-raging Bubbles , who even hate to be reformed .

In the Name of the Lord God of Gods , and King of Kings , Hear , hear ; Repent , Repent , forthwith Repent ; for be as sure as the Lord liveth , ye shall feel ( though ye will not see nor hear ) the Irresistable and Mighty Hand of the Almighty Lord God of Heaven and Earth ; yea he can , he will overtake ye suddenly ; and in a moment ye are not aware of , will he for ever raze down your whole Fabrick of Prophaneness and Superstiton ( to wit ) the Builders and the Built ; for witnesse O Heaven , and know oh Earth , Earth , that the Lord God hath not pull'd down Hypocrisie to establish Idolatry : And this is the Word of the Lord God to all ye who live in pleasure , wantonness and fulness of Bread , being dead whilest ye seemingly live , Prepare to meet the pure God of the Righteous , Innocent , and ( by ye ) Oppressed Seed ; For behold , his Invincible , Glittering , Invisible Sword is on his Thigh ; and he whose Eye to the Light is kept in his Head , sees it ; and the whole Sensualists upon the whole Earth , shall feel ( if they will not see ) that he can , he will in a moment deliver his whole Seed from under the Bondage of their cruel and unreasonable Task-Masters , and Crown his own Seed in the face and Power of the Son ; Then shall the Bashan Oaks , Ismaels and Diveses of this Generation , roar and reel , yea shake and quake , look upward and downward , and curse their Leaders and their God , which now is their Lusts , Bellyes , Superstitions and Pleasures . Horror shall lay hold on their right , and Terror shall seize upon their left Hand ; Every man's Hands shall be upon his Loyns , and the Cry shall be , Who will shew us any Good ? And an unparallel'd Dart of Amazement shall pierce quite through the Liver of the Champion , ( insomuch that he shall Implore the Despised , to shew him the Way : ) And a Remediless and Importable Confusion shall be in the very Inmost middle of them ; The Judge and Mighty Pursuer of every man , shall be ( then known ) in his own Breast , and they shall not have any remedying Help left in the Earth . I say , ( not I , but the Lord ) in that Day the whole Interest of the Wicked shall be utterly be-feebled , and Rottenness shall seize upon them all , as one man ; and they shall be but one Intire Lump , fit to Receive ( not able to resist ) the fierce Wrath of the long-provoked God of the Oppressed ; for whose sake he will work Wonders , yea he will accomplish unutterable things in , and upon the Earth : ( The I am , a Consuming Fire , hath spoken it . ) Then shall the whole Brood of Evil-doers , whose Tongues in this their Day ( which also is the Day of Jacob's Troubles ) walk too and fro thorough the Earth , making a Mock at Sin , turning their Day of Mercy into Superstition , Swearing , Cruelty , Wantonness , Feasting , Plays , Sports , and Lasciviousness , gnash their teeth , and gnaw their Tongues for very pain ; and even as they have made shipwrack of a good , or that of the good God in their Consciences ; so shall themselves , their Accomplices or Assistants , be wreaked , mangled , and spoiled , Yea the Prophane as well as the Hypocrite , shall flye when no man pursueth . for the Spoyler hath been , and yet shall be spoiled . The All-trying , All seeing , Pitiful God of the spoiled hath said it , who will compleatly perform to the latter , and to the former , every one according to his Deserts and Degrees of ( done ) Cruelty ; For know , O Worst , and believe , O Best of Men , God is Just , and he never did , nor at this day doth , nor in that ( most terrible ) hour will respect the person of any Mortal : And whosoever thinks his Person is Reverend , Worshipful , Sacred , Honorable , or Holy , and can one moment impede the Wrath of God ( which I say will swiftly thunder down , and light upon all that 's fleshly ) is a foolish Blasphemer ; for Right Honourable , Worshipful , Sacred , Holy and Reverend is the Name of him who made Heaven and Earth ; and onely him who hath revealed and will perform ; To whom be ascribed as is directly due , all Might , Power , Dominion , Glory and Majesty , now and for ever ; Even so be it acknowledged by all who know and fear his Name , Amen , and Amen . Which Lord over all , is exactly jealous of his Honour , and will not give it ( though too too many rob him ) to another : But that soul which believes , and in word and deed is subject to the Higher Power , and Rules in God , is worthy of double Honour : And such seek not the Honour of man which is from below in the fall , in the Curse , in the Hellish Darkness , in the Name and Authority of him who spake of himself , which was , and is a Lyar from his Beginning : But in the Light I see Light , the brightness of whose coming , who will come quickly , and will not tarry long ( before whom the whole Arm of Flesh must wither , bow , submit , or breake ) shall blast all this as untimely fruit , and shall say to every individual Tree , Sucker , Sient , Graft or Plant , or ignoble Vine , which his own Right Hand hath not planted ( or is become a degenerate Plant ) Be thou accursed from henceforward , never more grow so much as leaves upon thee in the least , to hide thy shame , or cover thy Deceit . Then shall a holy Nation be born in a day , and the memory of the prophane shall rot and perish like their own Dung ; and in their rooms shall be fixed ( as the Stars of the Firmament ) peace and good will upon Earth , Counsellors as at the first , and Judges as at the beginning . Also in that day shall the Truce-breaking Hypocrites , for their mocking of God , their Earthly-mindedness , their causing the way of truth ( in this day ) to be blasphemed , and not doing the Work of the Lord faithfully , and for their persecuting ( in their past day ) the innocent Lambs of Christ , who would have done the Work without Sword or Rapine ; I say , in this the Lord's Day which hastens , shall they feel ten times triple the vengeance of the Lord , of which they have already an earnest ; but that is to them but the beginning of sorrows ; for their latter end shall be worse then their beginning .

And this is the Word of the living God to thee O Europe , falsely ( now ) called Christendom ; and to the Prophane , the Superstitious , the Idolatrous , the Oppressors ( of the Just ) the Hypocrites , and all the super-abounding swarms of Antichrists and false Prophets within thee ; from him that is by the now disorderly World permitted to beg , even to him that fits upon the highest Earthly Throne , or pretends to usurp the Spiritual Throne , to make and prescribe Laws there ( to wit ) in the Conscience of man , which is the rightful Seat and Temple of the living God onely ; and the Rebel and Usurper he hates , and the Hypocrite shall not enter within his Rest ; I say , This is the Word of the Lord to that part of the World call'd Christendom , but most especially , particularly and immediately to thee O England , the Land of my Nativity .

First , to all the prophane within thee , who rush into all sorts of Iniquity , even as the horse into the Battel , most greedily bowing the knee to Baal , striking hands with all manner of Superstition , Idolatry and Uncleanness , crying Aloud with the false Prophets , A Confederacy , A Confederacy with whatsoever is against the Lord and his Annointed . As also to the very Best and well-favoured ( as well as worst ) Pharisaical Hypocritically-Religious Harlot , and to all thy whited Walls within thy utmost Confines , whose pretences have been , and still are as broad and large as from thy Sea to Sea , ( Ah pooor abused Land ! ) But they are but pretences of intruding pretenders , they have been tryed to the full ; and God the Lord hath laid his Ax to the very root of them that vowed ( in his presence ) and not performed ; and they are but for the present hewn up , bundled together ( left to themselves ) marked and cast by from further cumbering God's ground , and that every man may say , that 's he , or , that 's one of them ; but be as sure as the Lord God of Vengeance liveth , he will hereafter plead with them in the Valley of Decision , [ mark that ] when neither Mountain , Flesh nor Hill , shall scarcely so much as pity , or cry , Alas for thee . And although thou hast abused thy self , deceived the simple , and betrayed the innocent , day after day , time after time , and season after season , into the hands of unreasonable men , ( and hast murdered several of the innocent Lambs ) yet now deceive not thy self one jot longer , God ( is not ) will never again by thee be mocked , but will ( I say ) plead and reckon most severely with thee in the Valley of Decision , and thou shalt be the miserablest and wretchedst of man-kind : In which day no flesh , or any thing that 's fleshly , shall be saved ; or self to its self helpful , useful , or in the least advantageous .

And if the Prophane and Professor can command the Sun from shining , the Sea from fluxing and refluxing , or the Eternal Light from in , or within-lightning every man that cometh into the world , that thereby all men might believe and be saved : Then they may say , Tush , there is no God , this shall not come to pass .

But then , even then in the midst of all this will the Lord pity the little , little Remnant , his own Seed , and grasp them in the hollow of his hand , and hide ( at least ) a Remnant of a Remnant under his own Pavillion ; yea [ in that day ] the Lord will answer his people , and say unto them , Behold , I will send ye Corn , Wine and Oyle , in as much as ye shall be satisfied therewith ; and ye shall eat in the secret-Plenty , and be fully satisfied , praising the Lord your God for ever and ever , that hath dealt wonderfully with you ; for I Jehovah am the Lord your God , and my people shall never be ashamed , extinguished , or confounded .

Wherefore know O Vniverse , in vain are all thy Hell-deep-Plottings against the Seed Immortal ; for the Man-Child which was caught up to God , is come down , and the woman is returning out of the Wilderness ; and the Beast , Floods , unstable Waters , Dragon and false Prophets , must be ( in the life ) trampled under , and the Gospel must be preached again to Nations , Kindreds , Tongues and Peoples ; and Amos the now dejected Herdsman , must not , shall not be prohibited from entering into the Chappel of a King . Wherefore let the weak in the Lord say , I am strong ; but let the knees of the Rebellious fail him , and let them be forced down to the Valley of God's Controversie : Get thee down ( saith the Lord ) for the Press is full ; and the Fats of thy Idolatrous Abominations overflow & stink , and thy super-abundant Wickedness hath ( and hourly doth ) provoke the just God , and grieve the souls of his righteous Lots , yea the Lot of his own Inheritance ; but the wickedness of the wicked shall be stopt , and a hook of the mighty Strength shall be riveted into the Jaws of the Leviathan , and the teeth of that Conscience-Oppressor shall be utterly broken ; And although Baal and his Priests may strive to hinder this , ( and confound each other ) and the greedy dumb dogs , the blind Watch-men who Divine for money , pieces of bread , and hand-fulls of Barley , should or may in the strength of ( and for ) Wine , and strong Meats , prophesie lyes of Deliverance , ( and be believed by any as blind as themselves ) verily , verily they shall not save themselves , nor one creature ( that continues to believe in their Sorceries ) out of the Ditch .

And the Armed man in that day shall not be able to strengthen his Force , nor the Mighty Man deliver himself ; [ Mark ] Neither shall he that rideth upon the Horse , and handleth the Sword or Battle-Ax most exquisitely , thereby be inabled to make his Escape ; and the Lyon shall be afraid of the Lamb , who must and will have the Victory ; and he that may be said to be the Mightiest among men , in that day shall quake , and the most Couragious shall shiver and howle ; For the Lyon of Judah hath roared , Who will not fear ? The LORD hath spoken aloud , who can but Prophesie , that Babylon , her Merchants , Upholders and Adherents shall fall , sink , and never rise again ?

Wherefore , O ye fondlings of all sorts out of the Truth , in the Set-Forms , Sects and Likenesses whatsover , come out of her quickly , before she receive her fatal plunge : O ye unwise prating Virgins , be silent , make haste , make good speed into , within the Vail , before the impenitrable Door be shut : I say , Sink down , turn in to within , to the just measure of God within , ( given to every man to profit withall ) and hearken there diligently ( in the Light ) to that still Voice , the Word , the Bread which comes down from Heaven , which will bring to the beginning , from off your own barren Mountain , or stately Edifice ( of your own making ) into the bread of Life , quite out of the several deficient Cisterns which your own hands have hewn , into the River of Life in your own bellyes , which by your own Inventions is dam'd up : Oh! come out of Words , into the Word , which is nigh in the heart , in the month , that ye may hear , obey and do it , and live for ever : O love that , and let that ( the Word ) dwell richly in you , which will cut down , and wholly root out the whorish Wo-man within in your selves , which is not permitted to speak in the Church , the which steals the Prophets , Christ's , and his Apostles words ; O that 's the Clamberer , the Thiefe , and the Robber , that doth not enter in by the Door , the Light , the Life , the Way .

I further say to him that 's spotted , Let him forthwith in good-will to Sion , take up the Crosse , and cleanse his wrinckled heart , and try his Reins ; yea , I say , ( not I , but the Lord ) Let him that 's unclean , wash quickly and throughly in the Cross , by , and with the living Hysop in himself ; For the Day is at hand , that he who is fil●hy , ( with the filthy ) may be filthy still . Wherefore in the Eternal fear , let every soul that hath rebell'd against the Light , be subject to the higher Power , and immediately take the first offered wing of the Morning , and flye for his Life out of Self , into the Life , which is crucified in your selves because of Self ; from which the Wo-man , the unprofitable talker , the vain babbler , boasts in the line of another man , ( whose Voice the Sheep cannot own ) which must not , is not permitted to speak in the Church . Oh Male and Female , man married or unmarried , ( according to the flesh ) ask that question at home , within , of thy Head , thy Husband , thy Maker ; For that which may be known of God , is manifest in thee . O Male & Female-man , wherefore keep thine to within , in thy Head , and the Head of every man is Christ Jesus : The Fools Eye is abroad , but the wise man's Eye is within in his Head , in the one onely , one thing needful , wholly out of the many things , ( in which all men sin : ) But he that 's born of God , ( and stays within , in God , who is light ) sins not ; and the blessed and sinless JESUS , came to save his people from ( not in ) their sins : [ Mark ] And he that 's a Christian , is like Christ ; and as he is , so were , and are the Saints in the present evil world . Wherefore all that profess his Name out of the unbelieving hast , make ( good ) speed into the pure , perfect , holy and sinless Life ; yea , let the Godly be like God ; be ye perfect , be ye holy as your Heavenly Father is holy .

A Word of Encouragement to the Faithful , to be faithful still .

ANd ye my Brethren & Sisters , the little despised , oppressed Flock , and gathered Seed and Lambs of God the Lord , Keep in your sweet Innocency , in your proper places and sphears , out of , and over all . Stir not to the left , neither look to the seeming Right ; but out of the distrust , even and upright in the Seed , in the Life , in your own keep ; ye have been faithful in a little , ye shall be Master over much ; for the mighty shout of a King is heard in the midst of us ; the Lord of Hosts is our Leader , and the everlasting God of Salvation is our Rearward ; For by him we have ( without Carnal Sword ) run thorow a Troop ; by him we have gave Battel to a Legion , and by him ( the same God ) we , the Faithful , shall set our feet upon the Mountains , and leap over the Wall , and through , and over the Seas of Cruelty we must pass ; yea , the many Waters must divide , and give way ; for the God of Strength is infallibly on our side ; wherefore let not the seeming Giants in the way , or the worst of Tidings at all afright ye ; but let the living pass on . And as the Eternal moves , Thresh the Mountains , Trample upon the Hills , Rebuke the Whore , Chastise the Diviner , and suffer not the Witch , or Poysoner to live ; for , for that purpose hath the Lord Jehovah be-trusted his Spiritual Weapon ( which is Mighty ) into your hands , ( and let the Whore perish , rather than your selves wither : ) Do violence to no man , seek , and reach to the good in all ; In the Dread and Power of God , preach the Gospel unto all freely and boldly , in season and out of season , without respect of persons , place or time ; committing your righteous Cause to the Father ; patiently suffer all things , yea , your selves to be abused , and your Goods spoiled ; for Great is , and shall be your Reward , ( and as ye have done ) willingly give your backs to the smiter , and your cheeks to have the hair pull'd off : Ye have been men of sorrows , and ever since ye were a people , deeply acquainted with grief ; And yet Alas , alas , poor precious Seed of God , ye must be tryed , abused , and most shamefully intreated once more . But wo , wo , wo , from the Lord God of Heaven and Earth to them that do it .

This in the motion and fear of the Lord , is transcribed by the hand of me Edward Billing , who neither hates or fears any man , but am a lover of all men in the Lord , being as willing to dye for ( as to live in ) his truth , to see the accomplishment of what is here declared ; whose Prisoner I am ( through the Cruelty of unreasonable men ) for the Testimony of that Eternal Jesus , who saith , Swear not all .

And I say , Above all things my Brethren , swear not , by ; to , for , or against any man , Thing , or Creature in Heaven , or upon the Earth whatsoever ; but let your yea be yea , and your nay , nay ; and because of Oaths this Land mourns , and the Curse is intailed upon the House of the Swearers , Lyars and Hypocrites ; and they who shall still persist and refuse to hear that Great and Mighty Prophet ( which is the performed Oath of God , of whom Oaths were a type ) who said , Swear not at all ; and teach others so to do ; It swiftly comes to pass , that they shall be cut off from among the people ; For my spirit shall not always strive with man , saith the Lord .

Then will I turn to the People a pure Language , that they may all call upon the Name of the Lord , to serve him with one consent : I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people , and they shall trust in the Name of the Lord . The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity , nor speak lyes ; neither shall a deceitful Tongue be found in their Mouth ; for they shall feed , and lye down , and none shall make them afraid . The Lord is in the midst of thee , thou shalt not see evil any more . I will gather them that are sorrowful , for the solemn Assembly , who are of thee , to whom the reproach of it was a burden . Behold , at that time I wil undo all that afflict thee , and I will save her that halteth , and gather her that was driven out ; and I wil get them a praise and fame in every Land where they have been put to shame ; at that time will I bring you again , even in the time that I gather you ; for I will make you a Name , and a praise among all People of the Earth , when I turn back your Captivity before your eyes , saith the Lord . Zeph . 3.9 , 12 , 13 , 15 , 18 , 19.

The tenth of the tenth Month , 1660.

Arise , Arise , Help , Help , and Deliver for thy Name sake , O Lord our God .

THE END .