Christs coming opened in a sermon before the honourable house of commons in Margaret's…

I would h••e therefore exhort and beseech ye in the Lord, to consider the grounds ye stand upon, the principles ye work by, the cause ye manage; and I appeal to you, whether do ye not think that God is in all these wars, that the event of battles is only in the hand of God? Some of you, no friends to Parliament, nor the cause of God in their hands, have tried many ways (as once Balaam,) to curse Israel; sometimes ye have got upon one hill, and there ye have built an altar, thinking from thence to curse Gods people; when that would not do, then ye got upon a second; when ye could not do it from thence, then ye got to a third mountain: one while ye thought to have done it by the strength of your old skilful soldiery; when that would not do, then ye came home, and sought to make divisions among us, and to raise jealousies between brethren; seeing that would not do it sufficiently, you have now gotten to a third mountain, labouring to stir up the Countries to make insurrection, and yet you cannot curse them from thence. Wherefore now after all, do ye not think that God is against you? can ye believe that God is with you, after all these successive victories that have ⟨p. 13⟩fallen against you? Have ye not read that Scripture, The Lord is known by the judgement which he executeth, the wicked are snared in the works of their own hands? and have ye not been snared in the works of your own hands? have ye not risen to fall? have not your own doings, been your undoing? and will ye yet go on to plot, consult, design? what? will ye never have done? well then, go on, consult, plot, devise, associate, confederate together, try the conclusion, work to the utmost; yet know, that when ye have done all, and as you think have the better, and all is your own, then will Christ come upon you at midnight, in an hour and time, when ye do least expect him, and it will be a darker night then ever yet you saw; for our Lord and Saviour Christ, he doth come as at the last, so now in these his precedaneous comings, still at midnight, he doth come at midnight. Be wise now therefore, O ye Princes, Nobles, Rulers, Judges, Gentlemen, and others: Kiss the Son, lest ye perish in the way, for Christ is upon his way unto his Kingdom.

I would h••e therfore exhort and beseech ye in the Lord, to consider the grounds ye stand upon, the principles ye worke by, the cause ye mannage; and I appeale to you, whether do ye not thinke that God is in all these warres, that the event of battels is only in the hand of God? Some of you, no friends to Parliament, nor the cause of God in their hands, have tryed many wayes (as once Balaam,) to curse Israel; sometimes ye have got upon one hill, and there ye have built an altar, thinking from thence to curse Gods people; when that would not do, then ye got upon a second; when ye could not do it from thence, then ye got to a third mountaine: one while ye thought to have done it by the strength of your old skilfull soldiery; when that would not do, then ye came home, and sought to make divisions among us, and to raise jealousies between brethren; seeing that would not do it sufficiently, you have now gotten to a third mountain, labouring to stir up the Countreys to make insurrection, and yet you cannot curse them from thence. Wherefore now after all, do ye not thinke that God is against you? can ye beleeve that God is with you, after all these successive victories that have