358 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. 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 dryers 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 King- ston in that county ; when Mr. Peters said to hinn, " Hath thy friend any money ?"e A slender proof is this of so severe an accusation ! Theywho are acquainted with the jocose temper and conversation of Mr. Peters, will not in the least wonder atsuch 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."t In the year 1658, Mr. Peters went to Dunkirk, where he laboured in the capacity of preacher to the English garri- son.s In a letter from Colonel Lockhart to Secretary Thur- loe, dated from Dunkirk, July 18, 1658, we have the following account ofhim : " 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 hMh 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 sin- " gular talent God bath, bestowed upon him to the chief " ends proper for our auditory. For he bath not only " shewed the soldiers their duty to God, and pressed it " home upon them, I hope to good advantage, but, bath " likewise acquainted them with their obligations ofobedi- " ence to his highness's government, and affection to his "person. He hath laboured amongstus here with much Tlturloe's State Papers, vol. i. p. 330. + Walker's Attempt, part i. p. 172, 174. 4." Peters's Dying Legacy, p. 109. Whitlocke's Mein. p. 674. Edit. 1732.
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