368 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. 'vogue among them. It was their sobriety and strictness of behaviour, joined with their popular talents in the pulpit, which caused them to be so much revered and esteemed. If Mr. Peters had been so vicious, so infamous for wicked- ness, and so scandalous and diabolical a villain, as he is represented, he could certainly have had no influence over the people, nor would he have been treated in the manner that he was by some of the principal men in the nation. They must have parted with him even for their own sakes, unless they wished to have been looked upon as enemies to religion. Besides, if it be recollected who were the patrons of Mr. Peters, the truth of his accusations will appear very doubtful. We have seen how he was entertained by the Earl of Warwick; Sir Thomas Fairfax, and Oliver Crom- well, and howmuch he was caressed and rewarded by the parliament. How improbable then is it that hewas infa- mous for wickedness ! His patrons, it is observed, were never accused of personal vices. They were men who at least made high pretensions to religion ; and the cause for which they fought, they avowed to be the cause of God. With what face could they havedone this, if their chaplain, their confident, their tool, had been known to be so vicious, so infamous for wickedness, and so scandalous and diabo- lical a villain ? Or, how could they have said and done so much against scandalous ministers, who employed one of the most scandalous ? In short, how could they publicly reward Mr. Peters, when they always professed great zeal for godliness, and endeavoured to promote it in the highest degree ? Men of their wisdom, courage, and zeal, can hardly be thought to have acted so inconsistent a part.. Mr. Edwards observes of Mr. Peters, that he was a great agent for the sectaries ; and that by preaching, writing, and conference, he greatly promoted the cause of independ- ency.+ In addition to the thirty thousand pounds which he collected for the persecuted protestants in Ireland, as already noticed, he was a diligent and earnest solicitor for the distressed protestants in the vallies of Piedmont, who, by the tyrannical oppressions of the Duke of Savoy, had been most inhumanly persecuted and reduced to the utmost extremity. Also, in gratitude to the Hollanders for the sanctuary he had- found among them, during his persecu- tions under Archbishop Laud, he was of signal service to Historical Account, p. 95-30. 1' Edwards's Gangrzena, part iii. p. 120.
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