A TRUMPET SOUNDING AN ALARVM FROM THE SPIRIT of LIFE Through an Inhabitant of the City of GOD TO ALL The Inhabitants of the Earth But most especially To the RULERS and Inhabitants of the CITY OF EXON TO THE END The dead may be raised the deaf hear the dumb speak the lame walk and the unclean spirit cast out and the poor receive the Gospel LONDON Printed in the Yeer 1662. A Trumpet sounding an Alarms from the Spirit of Life through an inhabitant of the City of God to all the inhabitants of the Earth c. AWake awake arise arise prepare prepare all you who are in and under sin death and darkness have power over you Oh! come away stay not to meet the Lord of Life who is a Spirit by fasting weeping and mourning who is come and coming to judge the quick and the dead and this is the glad tydings of the Gospel which is the cross of Christ the power of God that convinceth condemneth and judgeth sin in your mortal flesh Tremble and fear and come down all you proud high and lofty ambitious wanton sons and daughters of men you that live in pleasures are dead while you live and cut off from the Land of the living except you speedily repent and forsake all your abominations by which you have provoked the Lord to pour down his judgments upon you Oh! alas alas I am filled with the sence of the wrath anger and indignation of the Lord of Hosts whose dreadful day is at hand Oh! howle and lament waile and weep bitterly bow down put your mouths in the dust renâ— off your filthy polluted Harlots attire and cloath you with sackcloth and wallow in ashes for Sodom's sins are multiplied in and amongst you and you are covered with a cloud of error and the ignorance of Nineveh hath overshadowed you who are wise to do evil but to do good you know not how and whilst you profess God Christ Faith and Scripture you perish for want of the knowledge of God Christ Faith and Scriptures And Friends this is the Word of the Lord to you all Rulers Judges and all Officers Bishops Deans Chapters Curates Priests and all people small and great high and low rich and poor bond and free Except you return unto and believe in the true Light of Jesus Christ the Son of the living God you wil perish and dye and never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Oh! come down ye uncircumcised in heart and ears and lend an ear to hear him who is the good Shepherd and the Light of the World that lighteth every man that cometh into the World for it is he onely who destroyeth him that hath the power of death which is the Devil who is the new and living way to God out of the fall and separation which sin hath made between you and God which you all are in until you return to him believe in and follow him Friends this is no new nor strange thing but to them that are alienated from the life and knowledge of God Oh! Rebel no longer against the light as the generation of old did in Job's days who said God depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes for it is the true Light that shineth in your dark hearts which you in the darkness cannot comprehend till you receive and love it and are led by it that must bring you all to the knowledge of God and his wayes if ever you come to know it for there is no man that knoweth the Father save the Son and he to whom the Son shall reveal him and this revelation or inspiration giveth to all mankind that receive it and wait in it a right understanding to know him that is true the beginning of the Creation of God Oh Friends consider betime who say you believe in God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost What are you come to witness of the power and coming of Jesus Christ the holy and the just one And what comfort have you in the Holy Ghost in your own particulars Is the Devil's Work destroyed in you which is the cause of God's Wrath and Indignation these branches as followeth which sprung from the seed of the Serpent and is brought forth by the Dragons power and encouraged by the Whore and Beast Murder VVhoredom Theft Swearing Lying Cursing Drunkenness Covetousness Pride Idolatry Heresie Sedition Strife Envy Fighting Cheating Cozening defrauding one another greedily following lust in Bull-baiting Cock-fighting Hunting Card-playing Dice Stage-playes and other vain and ungodly practices which are all the Works of the flesh brought forth under the power of death and darkness Oh Friends if these things be not destroyed in you by the power and coming of Jesus Christ you are without salvation by him or comfort by the Holy Ghost and dead to God and crucifie Christ a fresh and alive in your sins posting on in the broad way and are near destruction whose portion is the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Oh! lament and bow down you tall Cedars repent and forsake your sins for the great and terrible day of the Lord God hasteneth yea in the Name and Fear of the Lord I proclaim it to you all it is near at hand a Day of fierce wrath blackness and thick darkness distress gloominess and desolation is swiftly and irresistably coming upon all the wicked and ungodly that hate reproof and make a mock at sin and will not take counsel of the Spirit of Life which hath long striven with you then you that are strong and mighty and trust in the arm of flesh and carnal Weapons Swords Guns Clubs and Staves Oh! alas alas then fear terror weakness amazement and astonishment shall seize upon you all and the carnal Weapons of every evil-doer shall be turned against his fellow then shall the Kings of the Earth the great men and the mighty men the rich men and the chiefe Captains cry unto the Rocks and to the Mountains to fall upon them and the clefts of the Rocks to hide them from the Wrath of the Lord and of the Lamb whom your forefathers with bloody hands crucified and killed the Prince of Life and you their children are treading in the same steps by shedding the blood and persecuting the Saints and faithful followers of Jesus Christ therefore you shall have blood to drink and the cup of fury wrath and indignation must be poured forth upon you without mixture if you repent not and turn from all the evil of your ways Oh Friends why wil you dye come to the beginning of the new Creation of God and encline your ear to hear the saving Light of Christ the faithful and true Witness of God which he hath placed in your consciences which never consented to your evil and trust not in lying vanities or precepts from the false Prophets who have built you up in vain hopes and have long cryed peace unto you whilst the sword of the Lord hath reached
unto your souls and promise you life and salvation by Christ after this life be it known unto you all you have no assurance of life peace or salvation by Jesus Christ until you are led by him saved from your sins which was before-mentioned branched forth in many particulars So all come to the Witness of God in your consciences that will give you all a true and a certain evidence whether you are in the way of life or death the strait or the broad and if the witness of God in your consciences condemn you you are not saved nor justified Oh! Return return to the true Light that will discover the secrets of your evil corrupted hearts and the sin and evil which is conceived in the Womb of darkness and receive believe in and follow it's manifestation that by it you may be led out of sin death and darkness that 's the way to peace rest and assurance of eternal life for in him who is the Light of the world Life and Immortality dwells and you cannot nor shall not find it in any other way Oh! Rebel no longer against that Spirit which hath and doth reprove you in secret for your evil deeds but receive its reproof that your sins may be mortified this is the Spirit of God that is freely given unto you that you should profit by it And Friends consider if you are not led by his Spirit to true repentance love goodness godliness holiness purity soberness charity meekness you are not the children of God though you may call God your Father who is indeed the Father of the faithful and upright in heart because you have lost your first state and are enemies to God by reason of wicked works and are not reconciled by Christ and redeemed out of the fall and renewed again in his Image but are led by the spirit of Antichrist which hath reigned over all the world since the dayes of Christ and his Apostles in the dark night of Apostacy and great perversion from the right way this spirit cryes damnable Doctrine the whole world hath been deceived with shadows without the substance death hath been set up instead of life the form of godliness without the power thereof Oh! why will you alwayes go astray Will you never think upon your latter end Except you live the life of righteousness you cannot be blessed in your death Oh! seek no longer the living among the dead for that which may be known of God is manifested in you the time of this great ignorance God winked at but now he calleth all men every where to repentance because he hath appointed a day in which he wil judg the world in righteousness by that man Christ who hath convinced you of your unrighteousness oh flight not this day of his tender visitation who would have gathered your fore-fathers who perished in their disobedience the like destruction wil come upon you if you go on in rebellion against him Oh! whilest he knocks at the doors of your hard hearts with speed open unto him and receive him who is the Mediator of the New-Covenant with God that in this your day and time you may know the things that concern your peace before they be hid from your eyes and your eye utterly darkened never more to perceive and so to perish and dye with the uncircumcised Oh! bow down hear and feas the living God who created all men to the end he might be glorified in them and take delight in the work of his own hand Tremble all you who live in pride lust wantonness and fulness who eat and drink and rise up to play oh you have forgot the Lord your Maker you have greatly dishonored him and have and do spend waste and consume his good creatures upon your lusts whereby you have greatly kindled the anger of the just God against you you are like the fatted Bullock who is going to the slaughter and knoweth not whither he is going even so the day of the Lord as travel upon a woman will overtake you and when you cry to your selves peace and safety then destruction wo and misery shall come rouling in upon you like the irresistible waves of the sea Oh then shall your greatest joys be your greatest torments the songs of your Temples turned into howlings your laughter into weeping and all the glory pleasure beauty friendship that you have in the world shal then depart from you Alas alas what tongue can express the sorrow wo grief and pain that the wicked and ungodly must then partake of out of it then there will be no redemption a fire shall be kindled in your lust which will for ever burn and none shall quench it except you speedily and unfeinedly repent and forsake all your evil wayes which is the cause of Gods wrath against you which never will depart from you until you receive the only begotten Son of God whom he hath freely given to reconcile the World unto himself And Friends all this know that all they who are reconciled to God by Christ do cease from sin and can live no longer therein nor have fellowship with them that live therein and so Gods wrath comes thereby to be removed and that is the way to Eternal Life and Peace Oh England England but especially the Citty of Exon what Lamentation shall I take up or how shall I bewail the Rulers Governours Judges Magistrates Bishops Deans Doctors Chapters Curates Priests of all sorts who professe your selves Christian Rulers and Ministers of Justice oh that ever you should be so far degenerated from the just Precept and holly Ordinance of sound Judgment Friends the Ordinance of God I dearly own and my soul is subject to it as it is brought forth and executed in the power of God which is the highest power which saith do justly and love mercy passe Right and sound Judgment in every cause without respect of persons that your sword may be a terror to every evil work to suppresse and weaken vice and the hand of every evil doer and to encourage and strengthen and protect in peace all that do well which we whom you persecute and shamefully intreat reproach and scornfully call Quakers do earnestly pray for and greatly desire to see the Rulers Governours Judges and all Magistrates to come into and be established in the highest power that is the Power of God which was and is ordained to that end for the punishment of evil doers and not against the Righteous and oh Friends as you rule in this you will honour the living God in your time and be truly honourable in your Generation then the Nations round about you will hear of your fame and the Generations of the Righteous to come will call you the blessed of the Lord But oh alas alas I may say as the Prophet did True judgment is turned away backwards and justice stands afar off truth falleth in the streets and equity cannot enter And he that feareth God and departeth
from iniquity is become a prey to the men of this Generation and are afflicted persecuted and imprisoned Come Bishops Deans Doctors Chapters Curates Priests of all sorts who have long said you are Ministers of Christ Ministers of the Gospel come forth and prove your Call and practice by your Life and conversations to concurre and agree with the Life Doctrine and practice of Jesus Christ and his Ministers for the day is come that the day star is arisen and the glorious Light shineth out of the darknesse which gives us who are raised in it a true and a right discerning whereby we are come to try your spirits and have found it to be the spirit of Antichrist and false Prophet in the sheeps cloathing but in the woolvish nature making havock of the Flock of Christ and are this day found to have a hand in the persecution of the people of the Living God whom you scornfully call Quakers by stirring up the Magistrates and incensing the Rulers against us by many false Accusations as your Fore-fathers the Chief Priests did against the just one Jesus Christ and his Apostles and faithfull Servants Come where received you this Gospel who preach up blood strife banishment and persecution this doth not concurre nor agree with the Gospel and Doctrine and practice of Christ and his Disciples whose Gospel and Doctrine practice and good Examples brought and wrought in the true Christans in the Primitive dayes as it doth now amongst us who are in the same faith and worship in the same way Glory to God peace on earth and good will to all men which is the fruit and mark of a true Christian Come let us reason a little together in this particular whether you could willingly receive such measure of cruelty from us or any other in Authority to shed your blood be banish'd shut up in close Prisons spoiling of goods not sufferring your Friends to come to visit you but whip keep upon guard retain in prison them for so doing Surely Christ never teacht you this thing but this is the Doctrine of the Devil who is come in great rage to destroy the workmanship of God that the spiritual wickednesse may reign without controle neither is it agreeable with the Life Doctrine and Discipline of the Apostles whose weapons were not carnal but spiritual and mighty through God to the breaking down of the strong holds and wrestled not with flesh and blood neither went about to destroy the Creatures neither compelled any by force to hear their Gospel but in all Godlinesse gentlenesse and meeknesse of spirit wrestled with the spiritual wickednesse which hath and doth make the separation between God and the Creature And Friends think not in your mindes to bring us whom the Lord God by his power hath redeemed and gathered out of your formal dead will-worships by the strength force and cruelty by your carnal weapons swords guns clubs whips stocks and stones Banishment nay verily we can rather give up our lives until we see a thorow Reformation and Conversion wrought by the power of God in you and separated from all your abomination and the fruits of Christ and his holy Apostles brought forth in you all and verily verily you can no more bring us back to your dead Worships again you may as well stop the Sun in his line or keep back the Waves of the Sea in its course as bring us which you scornfully call Quakers into Bondage again who are raised up in the knowledge of the living God his holy wayes and worship which is in his own Spirit and Truth which makes free from sin and death we can no longer go with you to seek the Living amongst the dead which you are all in who do not believe in and follow the the Light of Jesus Christ and know not what spirit you are of though you professe your selves Christian Rulers Christian Ministers and Christian People and say If you had been in the dayes of Christ and his Apostles you would not have crucified Christ and persecuted his holy Apostles and shamefully intreated the true Christians Oh Friends seriously consider whether you are not doing the very same thing to us who are members of Christ you are at this day shedding our blood whipping stocking stoneing scourging in your Synagogues haleing before Magistrates casting into Prisons not suffering our Friends freely to come unto us but we are retained in prison and one Woman was whipt for coming to visit us whereof this City of Exon in the County of Devon may witnesse Oh hear and be instructed all you Rulers judges Governours and Magistrates Bishops Deans Doctors Chapters Priests and all People but especially the Rulers Bishop and Inhabitants of the City of Exon in fear and with understanding read Matth. 25. Oh what will you do in that day when the King of Heaven and Earth shall sit upon his Throne of Glory who will make a separation between the blessed and the cursed and will say to the cursed on his left hand I was hungry and ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink naked and ye cloathed me not a stranger and ye took me not in sick and in prison and ye visited me not therefore depart ye cursed into everlasting punishment prepared for the Devil and his Angels Oh Friends betime before your day is over and visitation past away put a stop to your cruel Persecution least you bring all the blood of the righteous from righteous Abel to this present day upon your heads the cry thereof will remain unto the third and fourth Generation Oh sit down and consider the blood-thirsty shall not escape the just judgment of the Lord neither the wicked Persecutors shall live out half their dayes remember the Sodomites Pharaoh and the rest of the Persecutors of old whom the Lord God destroyed by his Eternal power which will assuredly overtake you except you repent and take counsel of his Son who saith Touch not mine anointed nor do my Prophets no wrong he is the Fountain of all Wisdome he is our wonderfull Counsellor and the author and finisher of our Faith in which we have and shall overcome the World and outlive all our Persecutors not by carnal weapons sword spear nor bow nor strength by hoste of men or arm of flesh but by our keeping the Word of God the sword of the spirit the armour of Light and the testimony of Jesus Christ and in his faith and patience we have and shall suffer and bear all things for his names sake till he shall arise upon whom is laid for us to plead our innocent cause then shall all our Enemies and Persecutors be ashamed and condemned be droven backwards and fall into the pit which they have digged for the innocent Oh while you have time reform your wayes and glorifie God by bringing forth of fruit by a holy life or else he will be glorified in your destruction Oh consider what you are a doing oh when will you sit down and remember your latter end whiles the spirit of the Living God strives with you oh rebel no longer against it lest you perish in your gainsaying oh arise arise you that are asleep in the dust of the earth this is not your rest because it is poluted Oh the day of account draws near when the Lord God will plead with all flesh by his sword and with fire which proceeds out of his mouth by which he will slay his enemies in the valley of slaughter and the slain of the Lord shall be many Oh then the Glory the pleasure the beauty friendship and riches and delights of this World shall soon come to an end and shall be no more and this is the word of Truth an account must you all give unto the impartial just God when the ancient of dayes shall sit and judge from whose face the heavens and the earth shall fly away and all the wicked and ungodly shall be as a rolling thing before a fierce whirlwinde or as stubble fully dry for the unquenchable fire who will then without respect of persons title or name of greatnesse in the earth judge and reward every one according to their works then the righteousnesse of rhe righteous shall be upon him and the wickednesse of the wicked shall be upon him and the soul that sinneth shall surely dye Therefore yet while you have the time prize it and return to the Light of Christ which is the new and the living way that your soules may live in rest and peace which is the desire of my heart when this World shall be no more And this to you all in the motion of Gods Spirit and in bowels of tender love to your soules is written one warning more before the Decree of the Lord God is sealed against you when time shall be no longer From a Servant of the Lord and a faithfull follower of the Lamb in the tribulations and who prayes for good Governours and Government and a real Friend to Justice who now suffers in outward bonds for the Testimony of Jesus Christ and the Word of God in the high Goal at Exon known to you by the name of CHRISTOPHER BACON But I have a new Name for which you persecute me The 19th of the 9th Month. 1662. THE END