THE Countries Address TO THE LORDS SPIRITVAL in PARLIAMENT.  
My LORDS,  
YOUR Preposterous Dealings, and Evident Prevarications, are not only the Wonder, but Astonishment of all Honest Men, within this Nation. And truly, as the greatest part of you hitherto, have behaved yourselves liker State-sophisters, than sound Well-meaning Divines, whose main design was God's Glory, the Prefervation of his Church, and People's Good; so now do you discover yourselves scismatics and Incendiaries, who would divide the Kingdom against itself, set the Nation on Fire, and Sacrifice both Church and State, to your seduced Appetites, and Self-interest. Were not you they, who not only Invited, but Importuned the Prince of ORANGE; (yea, prayed to God to put it in his Heart) to hazard Life and Fortune, for the Preservation of your Religion, Lives, Laws, Liberties and Estates, etc. and are you now become so ungrate Monsters of humanity, as to requite, yea, baffle him (by whom God hath wrought so great and miraculous Deliverance) thus? And is it fit this populous Nation should be led in matters of Faith, by such unsettled, jealous-pated Weathercocks, as know not their own minds, and can stand steadfast to nothing▪ but objecting against their own Overtures, oppose for Ostentation, Vainglory, and to look Big, the surest and best Proposals, which God hath laid before us for the Kingdom's Peace? as Herostratus desired to be reputed famous, by burning that wonderful Church which he himself had built. Is your Intellectual Glass a falsifying Perspective? Or is the other end turned to your Eye? Is the great Objectum Attributionis, the Opposing of Popery, and Preservation of the Church of England, turned to a Necessarium secundum quid? Is the Worthy, Valiant, Victorious, and Triumphant▪ Prince (who was the sure Remedy, and Restorer both of Church and State) become your Eyesore? And the grant of your Prayers, a scruple of Conscience? Cannot the Religious Orange down with you, nor relish your squeamish and liquorish Appetites and Stomaches now, without a Dram of the Whore's Abominable Cup? Laying aside Conscience and Religion, with his Royal Descent, Bare common Civility might prompt you to be more than thankful to so Worthy a Person, whose very Behaviour, Parts, Prudence, sober Life and Magnanimity, have extorted Love, Duty and Respect, from his greatest Enemies, and strangers of greater repute than Men of your Birth and mean Pedigree. But Nihil dat alteri, quod in see not habet. And as it was said of the base-born, beggarly Pope, Urban VI Asperious misero nihil est, qui surgit in altum; so may it be said of you. Cord stat inflato pauper honore dato. Mali Corvi malum Ouum. Patrem sequitur sua proles. But I think it no Solicism in Civility, nor Paradox in Divinity (without any reflection on those Noble Bishops, whose Divine Prudence hath proved their Zeal and Pious Care, for God and their Country) to tell those Ignoble, Inferior, Upstart, Canting, Seditious, Never Contented, Unlearned▪ Brawling, Backbiting, Church and State betraying Bishops (who would Lord it over God's Heritage, and put the heavy Yoke of Anti-christian Popery on the Kingdom's Neck; which we nor our Forefathers were able to bear) that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ, and of their own Country. And that men of their Lineage, know not how to behave themselves in State Affairs, with persons of innate Candour, and unspotted Clemency, above the rustic Sphere of a Gaffer and Gammer. And, although you pretend to be the Teachers of others, you yourselves stand in need of a Schoolmaster, to teach you the first principles of good Breeding and Religion. Pope Julius III was (as some of you were) promoted, a Rhemo ad Tribunal; and yet, as all Historians Record, he was the greatest of Tyrants, and more imperious than any of his Ancestors. Yea, it is reported by John Functius, in his Commentaries, that in seven years' space, he was the occasion of the Murdering 200000 Christians. You trace his footsteps, threatening the Nation with Division and Civil War, which (as our Saviour saith) is the surest means to overthrow both us and our Religion; especially in such a dangerous time as this. But it is a Country Proverb, Dogs make Swine agree: The Rabble let loose would be a good Scarecrow, to frighten such black Birds of prey to their right senses, and to know themselves; and not presume to transgress their Limits, nor elevate their Judgements above the low Sphere of their shallow Capacities. But why should Passion eclipse Reason? What can we expect but a preposterous Order, when by an Hyperbolic Hysteron-Proteron, the heels of the Nation are set upmost. And, to speak as freely as you act, several of you are fitter for the Plough than a House of Peers. Neither is this more than hath been foretold by Christ and his Apostles, viz. That in the latter days, should be seducing Prophets, Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, Men carnally minded, and destitute of the Spirit, Wells without Water, Clouds carried about with every Tempest, Wand'ring Stars of Apostasy, heedy, highminded, covetous, not feeding, but devouring both Flock and Pasture, following the way of Balaam, who loved the wages of Unrighteousness, and the Praise of Men, more than the Glory of the invisible God. And truly, your pride makes it evident, that you have no less Ambition for Superiority, than John of Constantinople had for Supremacy. Remember Tower-Hill, Jan. 10. 1644.  Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum. 


Farmers in Kent.  
William Ploughshear,  
Richard Wheelbarrow,     

With Allowance.   

LONDON▪ Printed in the Year 1689.