I Am commanded by the House of Commons to present to your Lordships, a Declarati­on and Impeachment against Dr. Cossens and others upon the complaint of Master Peter Smart; which Master Smart was a Protomartir or first Confessor of note in the late dayes of persecution: the whole matter is a Tree whereof the branches and fruits are manifest in the Articles of this Declaration, which being read, I shall with your Lordships favour, discover and lay open the roote.

The Declaration was read, and then hee proceeded as followeth.

My Lords,

I Am now to discover the Roote of Master Smarts persecution, your Lordships have heard of a great [Page 2] designe to bring in Popery, you have heard of Ar­mies of Souldiers, and particularly of the Popish Irish Army, the burthen and complaint of the Commons; but there is another Army not so much spoken off, and that is an Army of Priests, for since Altars came in, so they delight to be called; it is a saying of Gregory the great, that when Antichrist comes, Preparatus est exercitus Sacerdotum; there is an Army of Priests ready to receive him, this is fulfilled in our time, for certainely this Army of Priests doth many waies advance the designes and plots of Popery.

A first way is by the subversion of our Lawes and governement, our Lawes and Popery cannot stand together; but either Popery must overthrow our Lawes, or our Lawes must overthrow Popery: but to overthrow our Lawes, they must first over­throw Parliaments, and to overthrow Parliaments they must overthrow property, they must bring the Subjects goods to bee arbitrarily disposed that so there may bee no need of Parliaments: this hath beene done by Doctor Manwaring, whom we finde wanting, yet not in the seates but the Barre of the Lords house, and the like by Doctor Beale, and I thinke it was the intention of the late Ca­nons.

A second way by which this Army of Priests advanceth the Popish designe, is the way of Treaty, this hath beene acted both by writings and confe­rences Sancta Clara: himselfe saith, Doctissimi eorum quibuscunque: So it seemes they have had con­ference together, & Sancta Clara on his part labours to bring the Articles of our Church into Popery [Page 3] and some of our side strive to meete him in that way, Wee have a Testimonie that the great Arch-Priest himselfe hath said: It were no hard matter to make a reconciliation, if a wise man had the hand­ling off it; but I verily beleeve that as the state of Pa­pacy stands, a far wiser man than he, cannot reconcile us, without the losse of our Religion. For the Pope being fastned to his errours, even by his chaire of In­errability, he sits still unmooved, and so wee cannot meete, except we come wholly to him.

A man standing in a Boate tyde to a Rocke, when he draweth the rop, doth not draw the Rocke to the Boate, but the boate to the Rock. And Sa. Clara doth in this somewhat honestly confesse it; for hee saith, that he dealt in this way of Treaty, not to draw the Church to the Protestants, but the Protestants to the Church.

A third way, is a way of violence, this violence they exercise partly by secular Armes, and partly by priestly Armes, which they call spirituall, for se­cular Armes, we have their own confession; that the late Warre was Bellum Episcopale, and we have the Papists confession, that it was Bellum Papale. For in their motives they say, that the Warre concernes them not only as subjects, but as Catholiques, for so they falsly call themselves: and if it be so, then Bel­lum Episcopale is also Bellum Papale, and in the Epis­copall-Warre, the Papall cause is advanced, for the spirituall Armes thus they come to execution.

When a great man is comming, his Sumpters, his Furniture, his Provision goes before, the Popes furniture, Altars and Copes, Pictures and Images, are come before: And if wee beleeve Dr. Cossens, [Page 4] the very substance of the Masse, a certain signe that the Pope was not afarre of.

Now these fore-runners being come, if any man resist them, fire comes out of the Brambles, and de­voures the Cedars of Lebanon: the Army of the Priests falls upon him, with their Armies of Suspen­tion, Sequestration, Excommunication, Degrada­tion, and Deprivation; and by these Armies hath Master Smart been oppressed and undon [...]: He falls upon their Superstitions and Innovations, and they fall upon him with their Armies, they beate him downe: yea, they pull him up by the Rootes, taking away all his meanes of Maintenance and Living: yet they leave him life to feele his misery: Ita feriunt, ut diu se sentiat mori, there is no cruelty to Priestly cru­elty. These are they that did put our very Saviour to death, the Calling is reverend; but the corrupti­on of it is most pernicious: Corruptio optimi pessima, I know no reason of this change, except it be that of the Apostle, because when they knew God, they did not worship him as God; but made a God of the World, placing the excellency of Priest-hood in worldly pompe and greatnesse, and gave the glory of the In­vissible God, to Pictures, Images and Altars▪ There­fore God gave them up to vile affections, to bee Implaca­ble, unmercifull, and without naturall affection: But whatsoever the cause is of corruption, certainly their Armies have fallen heavily upon Mr. Smart, and Priestly cruelty hath cast him into a long misery, from which hee could get no release by any Priestly mercy.

[Page 5]And now it is pray'd, that as these Delinquints by the cruell oppressions of Mr. Smart have advanced the cause of Popery, so they may in such a degree of Justice be punished, that in them Priestly cruilty, and the very cause of Popery may appeare to bee puni­shed and suppressed, and that Mr. Smart suffering for the cause of Protestancy, may be so repayed, that in him pious constancy, and the very cause of Protest­ancy may appeare to be righted and repaired.