348 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. are selected and transcribed, too evidently with a view to reproach his memory, we shall give them in the words of nur author. In his sermon before the house ofcommons, November 26,, 1645, speaking of the discomfiture of the royal forces, he adds, " What ailed you, ye mighty armies, at Keinton, Newbury, York, Naseby, that ye fled, and were driven backwards ? What ailed you, ye strong treasons, close conspiracies, that ye trembled and fell, and your foundations were discovered before you could take effect ? They saw thee, 0 Jesus ! They saw thee opening in the Midst of us; so they fled before us. You sit at the right hand of the Lord Jesus in this commonwealth ; as the Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of his Father, in that kingdom which is over all. The Lord Jesus hath his concubines, his queens, his virgins; saints in remoter forms ; saints in higher forms ; saints unmarried to any forms, who keep themselves single for the immediate embraces of their Lord.". The impartial reader is left to judge for himself what degree of reproach is attached to these sentiments. Mr. Sterry was author of a number of tracts, the titles of which have not reached us. He appears to have been deeply tinctured with mysticism. Mr. Baxter observes that he was intimate with Sir Henry Vane, and thought to have been of his opinion in matters of religion ; and that "vanity and sterilitywere never more happily conjoined."-f He was so famous for obscurity in preaching, that Sir Ben- jamin Rudyard said, he was " too high for this world, and too low for the other."-f: Mr. Erbery includes him in the list of divines " who had the knowledge of Christ in the L'Estrange's Dissenters' Sayings, part ii. p. 10-13. Sir Henry Vane, a principal leader in the house of commons, was one of those singular characters that are seen hut once in an age, and such an age as that of Charles I. It is hard to say whether he was a more fantastic visionary or profound politician. He did not, like the generality of enthusiasts, rely supinely on heaven, as if he expected every thing from thence; but exerted himself as if he entirely depended on his own activity. His enthusiasm seems never to have precipitated him into injudicious measures, but to have added new poivers to his natural sagacity. He mistook his deep penetration for a prophetic spirit, and the light of his genius for divine irradiation. The solemn league and covenant was the fruit of his prolific brain, which teemed with new systems of politics and religion. He deserves to be ranked in the first class of mystics ; yet he had a genius far above the level of mankind ; and he spoke like a philosopher upon every subject except religion. He preserved a uniformity of charac- ter to the last, and died in expectation of the crown of martyrdom. He was beheaded June 14, 1562.-Sylvester's Life of Baxter, part i. p. 75.- Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. ii. p. 213. iii. 109. Sylvester's Life of Baxter, part i. p. 75.
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