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sermon on the Lord's day before, encouraged the soldiers. to the work." It would certainly have looked much better, and have been much more consistent with his office as a minister of the gospel of peace and love, if, instead of this, he had excited them as much as possible to spare the effusion of human blood. His conduct in this, however, was not singular. This was too much the spirit and infatuation of the times.

During the above year, Mr. Peters was called before the house of commons; when he gave a particular account of the siege of Bristol, and the cause of sitting down before it, to prevent the plunder and cruelties of Prince Rupert in that part of the country. On this occasion, he pressed the desire of Sir Thomas Fairfax to have more recruits sent him. He afterwards brought letters from Lieutenantgeneral Cromwell, concerning the taking of Winchestercastle; after which, being called before the house, he gave a circumstantial account of it, when the house voted him to receive fifty pounds. In this year he returned from the army, and gave an account to the house of the storming and taking of Dartmouth; when he spoke of the valour, unity, and affection of the army, and presented letters, papers, and crucifixes, with other popish relics taken in the place. During his stay on this occasion in London, says Mr. Edwards, ❝he improved the whole of his time in preaching against the presbyterian government, the assembly, uniformity, common council, and the city of London, and FOR A TOLERATION OF ALL SECTS!" About the same time, having preached in the market-place at Torrington, and convinced many, it is said, of their errors in adhering to the king's party, he was sent, with Lieutenant-colonel Berry, to Plymouth, to treat with the governor. Towards the close of this year, he was again called before the house of commons, and, after giving a particular relation of the proceedings of Sir Thomas Fairfax, he signified, that Lord Hopton's army of five thousand men was disbanded; that Hopton was not gone to Oxford, but had taken shipping for France; that many of the commanders had accompanied him, and others were gone to their own homes; that Pendennis-castle was closely besieged; and that the general intended to return towards Exeter. An order, at the same time, passed the house, for one hundred pounds a year to be settled upon Mr. Peters and his heirs, out of the Earl of

Whitlocke's Memorials, p. 88, 156.

+ Edwards's Gangræna, part i. p. 214. Second edit.

Worcester's estates. And shortly after, an ordinance passed for settling upon him two hundred pounds a year.

Mr. Peters, about this time, became a kind intercessor in behalf of a lady of quality who was under confinement. This appears from a letter written with his own hand, dated June, 1646, and now before me. It begins as follows:"To my worthy friend Mr. Rushworth, secretary to the general.

"Honoured friend, I understand that the Lady Harlaw is ❝out, and the Lady. You may remember that I had promise for my Lady Newport, when you know my "Lord Newport is here with you. I pray therefore let me "entreat you in favour of her enlargement," &c.+

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In the year 1649, Mr. Peters accompanied the parliament's army to Ireland, when he is said to have had the command of a brigade against the rebels, and came off with honour and victory. In a letter dated Dublin, September 15, 1649, he gives an account of the bloody slaughter in the taking of Drogheda, which was as follows:

"Sir,

"The truth is, Drogheda is taken: 3552 of the 66 enemy slain, and sixty-four of ours. Colonel Castles and "Colonel Symonds of note. Ashton the governor killed: 66 none spared. We have also proceeded to Trym and “Dundalk, and are marching to Kilkenny. I come now "from giving thanks in the great church. We have all "our army well landed.

"I am yours,

"HUGH PETERS."

It was the common expression in those days, "that the saints should have the praises of God in their mouths, and a twoedged sword in their hands." This was a principle evidently too prominent in the life of Mr. Peters. However, from the above detail, it appears how much he was in favour with the generals and the parliament, and that he must have made a distinguished figure in the transactions of those times. Nor is it improbable that the distinction with which he was treated by them, attached him so firmly to their interest, that in the end it cost him his life. From Ireland, says Dr. Walker, he was sent into Wales, with the commission of a colonel,

411.

Whitlocke's Memorials, p. 157, 165, 169, 195, 200, 203, 204, 223, 228, 410. Whitlocke's Memorials, p. Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 314. Edit. 1810. Historical Account, p. 11.

+ Sloane's MSS. No. 1519.

to raise a regiment: but having misspent his time, and raised only three companies, Cromwell's wife drew up articles against him. Mr. Peters, hearing of this, contrived, with Colonel Philip Jones and one Mr. Sampson Lort, "to settle a congregational church of their own invention;" hoping by this means to make it appear, that, instead of being idle, he had been all the time very well employed. Afterwards he went to London; and, says our author, being asked his advice, "How to drive on the great design of propagating the gospel in Wales," he briefly delivered it to this effect: "That they must sequester all ministers without exception, and bring the revenues of the church into the public treasury; out of which must be allowed one hundred pounds a year to six itinerant ministers to preach in every county."*

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During the wars he had several interviews and conferences with the king; when, says Mr. Peters, " He used me civilly; and I offered my poor thoughts three times for his safety.”+ Mr. Peters assisted Mr. Challoner in his last moments, being executed for his concern in Waller's plot. He also assisted Sir John Hotham, whom he attended upon the scaffold, and from whom he received public thanks.§

When Archbishop Laud was under confinement, it was moved in the house of commons to send him to New England; but the motion was rejected. "The plot," says Laud, "was laid by Peters, and others of that crew, that they might insult over me." The archbishop, at the commencement of his trial, deliyered a speech in his own defence, in the conclusion of which, he challenged any clergyman to come forth, and give a better account of his zeal for the church, and his conversion of papists to the protestant religion; when Mr. Peters, standing near his lordship, asked him whether he was not ashamed of making so bold a challenge in so honourable an assembly? adding, that he himself, the unworthiest of many hundred ministers in England, was ready to answer his challenge; and to

* Walker's Attempt, part i. p. 147.

+ Whitlocke's Memorials, p. 257, 364.-Peters's Dying Legacy, p. 103. This was a plot of considerable magnitude, with Mr. Waller, a member of the house of commons, at the head. It was the design of the king, and those concerned in this conspiracy, to compel the parliament to a peace: but the confederacy was soon discovered, and several leading persons were apprehended. Challoner and three others were executed: but Waller saved his life by paying a fine of ten thousand pounds, and was banished? from the kingdom.-Rapin's Hist. of Eng. vol. ii. p. 487, 488.

Whitlocke's Memorials, p. 117.

Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. 203.

produce a catalogue, not of twenty-two papists, but of above one hundred and twenty, whom he, through the blessing of God, had converted and brought home to God, making them other kind of converts than any he had recited, who were made neither good protestants nor good christians. He further added, that he, and many other ministers in England, were able to produce hundreds of true converts to Christ, for every one of his pretended ones; some of whom, by his own confession, soon turned apostates, and the rest were little better.* Whatever truth there might be in this reply, it certainly discovered Mr. Peters's too great forwardness, while it very much offended the archbishop.

During the archbishop's trial, his library at Lambeth, it is said, was given to Mr. Peters, as a reward for his remarkable services. The truth of this, however, is rendered rather doubtful, and appears, even from the very words of Laud himself, to have been founded merely on report. "All my books at Lambeth," says he, "were, by order of the house of commons, taken away, and carried I know not whither; but are, as it is commonly said, for the use of Mr. Peters. Before this time," his lordship adds, "some good number of my books were delivered to the use of the synod," meaning the assembly of divines.

In the year 1651, Mr. Peters was one of the committee appointed by the parliament to take into consideration what inconveniencies were in the law, and how the mischiefs that arose from delays, and other irregularities in the proceedings of the law, might be best and soonest prevented, In this committee were Mr. Rushworth and Sir Anthony Ashly Cooper, afterwards the Earl of Shaftsbury and lord chancellor; besides many others of high rank. "But none of them," says Whitlocke," was more active in this business than Mr. Hugh Peters, who understood little of the law, and was very opinionative." Mr. Peters, speaking of these transactions, says, "When I was called about mending laws, I was there to pray, rather than to mend laws. But in this, I confess, I might as well have been spared."{ Here, in his own words, his ignorance and inability, in things of this nature, are as frankly acknowledged as they are plainly described by the learned historian. But it is

* Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 56.

+ Walton's Life of Hooker, Pref,-Wood's Athenæ, vol. i. p. 263. Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. 365.

Whitlocke's Memorials, p. 496, 497. || Peters's Dying Legacy, p. 109.

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difficult to reconcile his being very opinionative and his activity in the cause, with his attending the committee to pray, rather than to mend laws.

It is observed of Mr. Peters, that in the year 1653, he prayed and preached for peace, and exhorted the people to peace, and zealously warned them against the sins of the times. The year following, he was appointed one of the tryers of ministers. Dr. Walker intimates that he and Mr. Philip Nye were the most active and busy among them. He brings a foul accusation against Mr. Peters, as if he were guilty of simony. The charge is founded on no other evidence than that one Mr. Camplin, a clergyman in Somersetshire, applied to Mr. Peters, by means of some other person, to obtain a settlement in the rectory of Kingston in that county; when Mr. Peters said to him," Hath thy friend any money?"+ A slender proof is this of so severe an accusation! They who are acquainted with the jocose temper and conversation of Mr. Peters, will not in the least wonder at such an expression from his mouth. Mr. Peters, speaking of himself in the above capacity, makes use of very modest and humble language. "When I was a tryer of others," says he, "I went to hear and gain experience, rather than to judge."

In the year 1658, Mr. Peters went to Dunkirk, where he laboured in the capacity of preacher to the English garrison. In a letter from Colonel Lockhart to Secretary Thurloe, dated from Dunkirk, July 18, 1658, we have the following account of him: "I could not suffer our worthy "friend, Mr. Peters, to come away from Dunkirk without "a testimony of the great benefits we have all received from "him in this place, where he hath laid himself forth, in "great charity and goodness, in sermons, prayers, and "exhortations, in visiting and relieving the sick and "wounded; and, in all these, profitably applying the singular talent God hath bestowed upon him to the chief "ends proper for our auditory. For he hath not only "shewed the soldiers their duty to God, and pressed it "home upon them, I hope to good advantage, but hath "likewise acquainted them with their obligations of obedi"ence to his highness's government, and affection to his person. He hath laboured amongst us here with much

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* Thurloe's State Papers, vol. i. p. 330.
+ Walker's Attempt, part i. p. 172, 174.
Peters's Dying Legacy, p. 109.

Whitlocke's Mem. p. 674. Edit. 1732.

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