A27006:610
Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his…
Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times faithfully published from his own original manuscript by Matthew Sylvester.Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, or, Mr. Richard Baxters narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times faithfully publish'd from his own original manuscript by Matthew Sylvester.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1696
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
His Unhappiness lay in this, that his Doctrines were so cloudily formed and expressed, that few could understand them, and therefore he had but few true Disciples: The Lord Brook was slain before he had brought him to Maturity: Mr. Sterry is thought to be of his Mind, as he was his Intimate; but he hath not opened himself in writing1, and was so famous for Obscurity in Preaching (being, said Sir Benj. Rudiard, too high for this World, and too low for the other) that he thereby proved almost Barren also, and Vanity and Sterility were never more happily conjoined: Mr. Sprig is the chief of his more open Disciples (too well known by a Book of his Sermons.)
His Unhappiness lay in this, that his Doctrines were so clowdily formed and expressed, that few could understand them, and therefore he had but few true Disciples: The Lord Brook was slain before he had brought him to Maturity: Mr. Sterry is thought to be of his Mind, as he was his Intimate; but he hath not opened himself in writing1, and was so famous for Obscurity in Preaching (being, said Sir Benj. Rudiard, too high for this World, and too low for the other) that he thereby proved almost Barren also, and Vanity and Sterility were never more happily conjoined: Mr. Sprig is the chief of his more open Disciples (too well known by a Book of his Sermons.)
- 1A post humous Book of Mr. Sterry's is since Published.
This Obscurity by some was imputed to his not understanding himself; but by others to design, because he could speak plainly when he listed: the two Courses, in which he had most Success, and spake most plainly were, His earnest Plea for universal Liberty of Conscience, and against the Magistrates intermeddling with Religion, and his teaching his Followers to revile the Ministry, calling them ordinarily Blackcoats, Priests, and other Names which then savoured of Reproach; and those Gentlemen that adhered to the Ministry, they said, were Priest-ridden.