Having received a presentation to the parish of Rhynd, Perthshire, from Charles I, he was ordained by Archbishop Spotiswood in July 1632, and inducted to the charge by the presbytery of Perth.

Petrie joined heartily in the covenanting movement, and was in 1638 a member of the general assembly held at Glasgow which overthrew episcopacy.

The introduction of puritan innovations in the church at Rotterdam soon afterwards caused much discord, as many of the members were warmly attached to the old forms prescribed in Knox's Liturgy.

In 1644 Petrie published at Rotterdam a pamphlet entitled Chiliasto Mastix, or the Prophecies in the Old and New Testament concerning the Kingdom of our Saviour Jesus Christ vindicated from the Misinterpretations of the Millenaries, and specially of Mr. Maton, in his book called “Israel's Redemption.’ Maton's book had been taken up by the independents and baptists, and had been widely circulated among Petrie's flock, and this pamphlet was written as an antidote.

The chief interest of the work, which displays considerable learning and research, lies in the fact that it contains copious extracts from the records of the early general assemblies of the church of Scotland, which were destroyed by fire in Edinburgh in 1701.