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pray to God for him , who hath the hearts of kings in his hands , and may turn them when he sees fit . ' The writings of Salmasius , Sir Robert Filmer , Symmous , and of a thousand inferior authors , abounded for half a century with such violent declamation , until the practice was checked by the House of Lords , who ,
in the year 1701 , passed a severe censure on a sermon of this kind , preached on the 80 th of January in that year , by Dr . Dinks , before the Lower House of Convocation , and which they called , a « ' just scandal and offence to all Christian people . " Powerful antidotes to these
arbitrary and slavish doctrines were , howfcver , carefully disseminated by a host of contemporary worthies , whose works are now highly esteemed by the wise and the good , and whose ranks were adorned with the names
of Locke , Milton , * Sydney t and Goodwin ^ the latter of whom had the boldness to publish a work upon the death of Charles , which he entitled , " A Defence of the Honourable Sentence . " He was a strenuous
republican , and had the honour of having one of his political works burnt by the hands of the common hangman , in the same fire which consumed Milton ' s ' Defence of the People of England /* When the violence of these
contending parties is considered , we cantiot wonder that the Court of Charles the Second should have employed itself in inflicting the severest punishments upon all those who had been active in procuring the death of the late king , and also in traducing the characters of such as were connected
with the parliament which sat in judgment upon him . In the business of systematic calurriny the royal party has so far succeeded , that it is difficult at this distance of time to ascertain the true
characters of those who suffered with the regicides ; and as one document perishes after another , this will become still more and more difficult . Whatever may be thought of the
? See Milton ' s Prose Works , I . 302 . -f MeMley ' s Meuiy ' irs of S ^ dq ^ y ^ 8 vo 1813 . p . &k '* " ! 7 ¦ ** . , r .
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merit of demerit of taking the life of the king ** no one who is fond of historical researches , but must take an interest in all the transactions of the eventful period in which Charles suffered , and in the characters of those who were concerned in them . Hence it may not be altogether a useless attempt , to endeavour to clear away the mass of obloquy which has been heaped upon these men , and to place the personal qualities of each in their true light .
From this list I have selected Hugh Peters , as he was the person whoir * the Royalists seem to have pursued with the greatest hatredvt In order * however , to examine the character of this individual with impartiality , I shall first notice the prominent charges
which his personal enemies , and those other persons who had an in . terest in vilifying Crorn well ' s adherents , have brought against him -y an 4 then shall relate the principal incidents of his life , with such observations thereon as the facts seem to
justif y * It was given out generally , that Hugh Peters was very instrumental in procuring the king ' s death . 1 $ was said , that when he addressed the ruling powers , he styled the king- a
tyrant , and insisted upon it , " that the office itself was dangerous , chargeable and usefless . "> J Walker , in his History of Independency , when speaking of the subject of this paper , calls him , that carnal prophet and Jesuitical chaplain toths trayterous high court /* §
JM r . John Evelyn , in his Diary , lately published , writes thus : on the 17 th January , 1648 , " I heard , " fa ys he , " the rebel Peters invite the rebel powers , met in the painted chamber , to destroy his Majesties" 1 . 28 S . He tells us , however * in a subsequent pnrt of his Journal , that when Peters and some of the regicides were
car-X On this $ ubj (! Ct consult Walpole ^ s Royal and Noble Authors , II . 69 3 a" < f tlie Introduction to Fox ^ s James II ; 4 to . }> . 17 . -jv-. Iti-confirmation of this , see the Hur-Ifsqire Sermon in the Ilaileian Miscellany VII . 73 . J TVyals of the Reg-icicles , p . 159 . § Part iv . p . 115 .
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526 TAe Nonconformist . No . XIV .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 526, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/2/
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