Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/79

 He published, with a preface of his own, a vindication of the practices of the independents of New England, written by Richard Mather [q. v.], but frequently attributed to Peters himself (‘Church Government and Church Covenant discussed in an Answer of the Elders of the several Churches in New England to Two-and-thirty Questions,’ 4to, 1643). In September 1643 the committee of safety employed Peters on a mission to Holland, there to borrow money on behalf of the parliament, and to explain the justice of its cause to the Dutch (Cal. Clarendon Papers, i. 244). As a preacher, however, he was more valuable than as a diplomatist, and his sermons were very effective in winning recruits to the parliamentary army (, Gangræna, iii. 77). He also became famous as an exhorter at the executions of state criminals, attended Richard Challoner on the scaffold, and improved the opportunity when Sir John Hotham was beheaded (, v. 328, 804). But it was as an army chaplain that Peters exerted the widest influence. In May 1644 he accompanied the Earl of Warwick in his naval expedition for the relief of Lyme, preached a thanksgiving sermon in the church there after its accomplishment, and was commissioned by Warwick to represent the state of the west and the needs of the forces there to the attention of parliament (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1644, pp. 266, 271). This was the prelude to greater services of the same nature rendered to Fairfax and the new model. As chaplain, Peters took a prominent part in the campaigns of that army during 1645 and 1646. Whenever a town was to be assaulted, it was his business to preach a preparatory sermon to the storming parties; and at Bridgwater, Bristol, and Dartmouth his eloquence was credited with a share in inspiring the soldiers (, Anglia Rediviva, pp. 77, 102, 180;, Burning Bush, 1646, p. 198). After a victory he was equally effective in persuading the populace of the justice of the parliamentary arms, and converting neutrals into supporters. During the siege of Bristol he made converts of five thousand clubmen; and when Fairfax's army entered Cornwall, his despatches specially mentioned the usefulness of Peters in persuading his countrymen to submission (, p. 229; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1645–7, p. 128; Master Peter's Message from Sir Thomas Fairfax, 4to, 1645).

In addition to his duties as a chaplain, Peters exercised the functions of a confidential agent of the general and of a war correspondent. Fairfax habitually employed him to represent to the parliament the condition of his army, the motives which determined his movements, and the details of his successes. His relations of battles and sieges were eagerly read, and formed a semi-official supplement to the general's own reports. Cromwell followed the example of Fairfax, and on his behalf Peters delivered to the House of Commons narratives of the capture of Winchester and the sack of Basing House (, Anglia Rediviva, pp. 141–4, 150–3). It was a fitting tribute to his position and his services that he was selected to preach, on 2 April 1646, the thanksgiving sermon for the recovery of the west before the two houses of parliament (‘God's Doings and Man's Duty,’ 4to, 1646).

Here, as elsewhere in his sermons, he handled the political and social questions of the moment with an outspoken courage and sometimes a rough eloquence which explain his popularity as a preacher. He pleaded for more charity between the sects, for less bitterness in theological controversy, and for more energy in the reform of abuses and social evils. Among the independents his influence was great, and he was styled by one of his opponents ‘the vicar-general and metropolitan of the independents both in Old and New England’ (, Gangræna, ii. 61). But moderate men among his old friends in New England held that he gave too much countenance to the extremer sects (Massachusetts Hist. Soc. Coll. 4th ser. viii. 277). The presbyterians generally regarded him with the strongest aversion. ‘All here,’ wrote Baillie in 1644, ‘take him for a very imprudent and temerarious man’ (Letters, ed. Laing, ii. 165). Thomas Edwards eagerly scrutinised his sermons for proofs of heresy, and proved without difficulty that they contained expressions against the Scots, the covenant, and the king; and even independents like St. John were shocked by some specimens of his pulpit humour (Gangræna, iii. 120–7; Thurloe Papers, i. 75). No one advocated toleration more strongly than Peters, but his arguments were rather those of a social reformer than a divine. He regarded doctrinal differences as of slight importance, suggested that if ministers of different views dined oftener together their mutual animosities would disappear, and that if the state would punish every one who spoke against either presbytery or independency, till they could define the terms aright, a lasting religious peace might be established (, Last Report of the English Wars, 1646, 4to, pp. 7–8). In the same pamphlet, which was derisively termed ‘Mr. Peter's Politics,’ he set forth his political views. Now that the war was over, a close alliance should be made with foreign protestants, and at home the reformation of the law, the development of trade,