[568] Opera, iii. 466.
[569] Life and Times, part i. 53-56.
[570] Owen's Works, edited by Russell, xv. 96.
[571] I find the following reference to Peters in the State Papers:—
"Dec. 10.—The fifteen articles and covenant of Hugh Peters, minister of the English congregation in Rotterdam, stated in an indorsement, which is in the handwriting of Sir William Boswell, to have been proposed to that congregation before their admission to the communion. The following are examples of these articles: '1. Be contented with meet trial for our fitness to be members. 2. Cleave in heart to the truth and pure worship of God, and oppose all ways of innovation and corruption. 3. Suffer the Word to be the guider of all controversies. 10. Meditate the furthering of the Gospel at home and abroad, as well in our persons as with our purses. 11. Take nearly to heart our brethren's condition, and conform ourselves to these troublesome times in our diet and apparel, that they be without excess in necessity. 14. Put one another in mind of this covenant, and as occasion is offered, to take an account of what is done in the premises.'"—Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1633-4, p. 318.
[572] The imputations on Peters's moral character were no doubt malicious falsehoods.—Brook's Lives, iii. 350.
[573] Abridged from Life of Colonel Hutchinson, 151.
[574] Ath. Oxon., ii. 287.
The Westminster Assembly condemned certain positions in Saltmarsh's writings, as well as in the writings of Dr. Crisp, and Mr. John Eaton, for their Antinomian tendencies.—See Neal, iii. 68. Neal does not say what the passages were. Edwards, in his Gangræna, part i., 25, 26, gives a list of their tenets, but we place little dependence on his accusations. It is very likely, however, that Saltmarsh might lay himself open to the charge of Antinomianism. We have not seen his book on Free-grace, in which perhaps the dangerous tenets he was charged with are to be looked for.
[575] As an example of the kind of preaching by these officers we may mention a tract entitled "Orders given out—the word Stand fast, as it was lately delivered in a farewell sermon, by Major Samuel Kem, to the officers and soldiers of his regiment in Bristol, November 8th, 1646." The discourse is full of military allusions.