and their whole characters. They were sometimes ready to exclaim, "Who hath told him all this?" His conversation among his people was serious and instructive. He took great pains in the religious instruction of the youth, especially those who had been recommended to him by their dying parents. He was a tree of knowledge richly laden with fruit, from which even children could pluck and eat. He was remarkable for healing breaches, and making peace among contending parties; and so great was his ability and influence, that, when any contentions arose among his people, he sent for the parties, examined the grounds of their complaints, and commonly quenched the sparks of discord before they burst into an open flame. His labours proving eminently useful, it was thought improper, after some years, that a minister of his splendid talents should confine his efforts to one small congregation. He was, therefore, induced to commence public lectures, particularly for the benefit of the adjacent towns, upon which the people attended with great satisfaction. On account of the increase of his labours, an excellent young man was obtained as his assistant. This, however, proved the means of exciting an unhappy jealousy among the people, that Mr. Rogers was not sufficiently zealous for his settlement; and, at length, produced that alienation of affection which was never entirely healed.* The latter part of this worthy man's life was a dreary winter of trials and sufferings. It was during this period that he buried his wife and all his children. A second wife, together with her little one, was soon snatched from his arms. The very night of his third marriage, his house was burnt down, with all his furniture, and his excellent library which he took with him from England. After having rebuilt his house, he had a fall from his horse, which so bruised his right arm that it became entirely useless, and he afterwards wrote with his left. Under these painful trials, he was cheerfully resigned to the will of God, and enabled to rejoice amidst all his tribulations. Writing to a minister at Charlestown, a short time before his death, he very much lamented that the younger part of his people were so little affected with the things of God, and that many of them strengthened each other in the ways of sin. In this letter he says, "I tremble to think what will become of this glorious work which we have begun, when the ancients Mather's New England, b. iii. p. 103. shall be gathered to their fathers. I fear grace and blessings will die with them. All is hurry for the world: every one is for himself, and not for the public good. It hath been God's way not to send sweeping judgments, when the chief magistrates are godly. I beseech all the Bay ministers to call earnestly upon the magistrates, and tell them their godliness is our protection. I am hastening home. Oh! that I might see some signs of good in the generation following, to send me away rejoicing. I thank God I am near home; and you, too, are not far off. Oh! the weight of glory that is ready waiting for us, God's poor exiles. We shall sit next to the martyrs and confessors. Cheer up your spirits with these thoughts; and let us be zealous for God and for Christ, and make a good conclusion." Mr. Rogers closed his labours and his life, January 23, 1660, aged seventy years. He gave his new library to Harvard college, and his house and lands to the town of Rowley for the support of the gospel. A part of the land is said to have been bequeathed on consideration of the people's supporting a pastor and teacher, according to the principles of the original settlers in the country; but this having been long since neglected, the corporation of Harvard college, to whom the land was forfeited, made their rightful claim and obtained it; so that Mr. Rogers is numbered among the distinguished benefactors of that university. But still, in the first parish of Rowley, the rent of the lands left them by Mr. Rogers amounts to more than the salary of their minister.t WILLIAM STYLES, A. M.-This divine was born at Doncaster in Yorkshire, and educated in Trinity college, Cambridge. On his entrance upon the work of the ministry, he was ordained both deacon and priest in the year 1620, when he was presented by Richard Harebread, esq. to the vicarage of Ledsham or Ledston, to the parsonage-house of which he was a considerable benefactor; and, March 3, 1624, he was presented by the king to the vicarage of Pontefract. He was a divine of puritan principles, was disaffected to ecclesiastical ceremonies, and was prosecuted by the high commission of York for the enormous crime of baptizing a child without the sign of the cross; but Alexander Cooke, by his powerful mediation * Mather's New England, b. iii. p. 103, 104. + Morse and Parish's Hist. of New Eng. p. 108. with the archbishop, got the prosecution to be withdrawn. About the year 1642 he succeeded the famous Mr. Marvel in the vicarage of Hessel cum Hull, whence he was afterwards ejected for refusing the engagement. Dr. Walker says Mr. Styles was turned out about the year 1647, for preaching against the intended murder of the king; and was succeeded by one Hibbert, who, it was "I am thought, was not in orders till after the restoration. further informed," says he, "that Mr. Styles was once of the parliament's party, and was in Hull when Sir John Hotham excluded the king, and was present when, upon his majesty's demand of his town and garrison of Hull, Sir John denied him admittance: at which, as I was told by a drummajor who stood by, Mr. Styles clapped Sir John upon his shoulder, and said, Honour should sit upon his shoulders for that day's work.' I am also informed," says he, "that he never appeared in the commission against scandalous ministers, but for the safety and deliverance of some persons that were loyal and episcopal; and this I am sure of, that he died a very great penitent, and openly declared, in his last sermon, in favour of loyalty and conformity."+ But this account, transmitted in the "Sufferings of the parochial . Clergy," says Mr. Thoresby, is full of mistakes.‡ Mr. Styles having refused the engagement, as intimated above, President Bradshaw wrote to Lieutenant-colonel Salmon, deputy-governor of Hull, to turn him by force out of the church and secure his person. Upon this a petition and testimonial was subscribed by the inhabitants, certifying-"That he was a very orthodox and laborious preacher, of a most blameless conversation; and, by his constant and unwearied pains in the gospel, he had won many souls to God; and consequently their loss of him would be exceed-. ing great; that he was a very old man, unfit to travel, and had not a house in the world to put his head in, offering to be bound for his peaceable demeanour; and that if he could not in conscience comply, before the latter end of March, he should then yield to the law." The president was by this means prevailed upon to allow his continuance till the winter was over, when he was finally turned out and driven from the place. Upon his ejectment he removed to London, and preached nearly a year in Ironmonger'slane; but his health very much declining, he returned into Thoresby's Vicaria Leodiensis, p. 95. + Walker's Attempt, part ii. p. 373. his native county, and was preferred to the vicarage of Leeds, with the free consent of Mr. Robinson, the legal vicar, who had been driven away during the national confusions. Here he met with kind reception, and was highly honoured by the magistrates and people, for his excellent practical preaching. Though he was a puritan, he was a person of great loyalty, and had the courage to pray publicly for the king, then in a state of exile. He died a little before the restoration, and, March 16, 1660, his remains were interred in his own church. Mr. Christopher Nesse, afterwards one of the ejected ministers, was his lecturer; and Dr. Lake, afterwards bishop of Chichester, was his successor. Mr. Thoresby says, he had in MS. his " Catechism preparatory to receiving the Lord's Supper," which he styles, "solid and judicious." He had also some of his sermons in MS. and had seen several volumes of them, written by the aldermen and others, his devout hearers. He had likewise in his possession his judgment concerning several matters in religion, attested by Mr. Hill of Rotherham, who, in the presence of Mr. Wales and Alderman Maxon, wrote it from his own mouth a little before his death.+ PETER STERRY, B. D.-This zealous minister was born in the county of Surrey, and educated in Emanuel college, Cambridge, where, in the year 1636, he was chosen fellow. In 1643 he was appointed one of the assembly of divines for the city of London, and gave constant attendance during the session. He was afterwards one of Cromwell's chaplains, and is styled "a high-flown mystical divine." He lived till after the restoration of King Charles, when he is said to have held a conventicle in London. It is further observed, that he and one Sadler were the first who were observed to make a public profession of Platonism in the university of Cambridge.t During the national confusions Mr. Sterry appears to have been a zealous and firm advocate in the cause of the parliament. He frequently preached at Whitehall and before the parliament, on which occasions he declared his sentiments without the least reserve. As these sentiments * Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. iii. p. 441. are selected and transcribed, too evidently with a view to reproach his memory, we shall give them in the words of our author. In his sermon before the house of commons, 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, O 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 sterility were never more happily conjoined."+ He was so famous for obscurity in preaching, that Sir Benjamin Rudyard said, he was "too high for this world, and too low for the other." 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 but 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 powers 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 character to the last, and died in expectation of the crown of martyrdom. He was beheaded June 14, 1662.-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. |