In addition to various sermons, Sterry’s published works consist of The Spirit Convincing of Sin, London, 1645 ; Discourse of the Freedom of the Will, London, 1675—the preface to which, one writer has said ” will bear a comparison with Cudworth’s famous sermon on the same subject”; The Rise, Race and Royalty of the Kingdom of God in the Soul of Man (with preface by Cromwell’s chaplain, Jeremiah White), London, 1683 ; and The Appearance of God to Man in the Gospel and the Gospel Change, London, 1710. This latter contained an Explication of the Trinity, and a Short Catechism. In 1785 there was published Prayers selected from Thomas a Kempis, Everard, Law, and (chiefly) Peter Sterry.
As a prose writer, Sterry has unusual distinction of style, and it has been affirmed that some of his prose is “worthy of comparison with Milton’s.” But all his works, which are indeed splendid specimens of the literary efflorescence of Christian mysticism, proclaim him to be a follower of the inward light and a pilgrim along “the interior way.” It is certainly not to be wondered at that ” he was characterised by Sir Benjamin Rudyerd and others as mystical and obscure.” On the other hand, it is recorded that on one occasion when Whichcote and Sterry were discussing together intricate theological questions, after Sterry had displayed such extraordinary grasp and knowledge of the wide issues involved, Whichcote rising from his seat, delivered himself thus: ” Peter, thou hast overcome me, thou art all pure intellect.” As one careful student of his writings observed, Sterry soared into the pure empyrean of theology with unfailing pinions” ; and as another remarks, it is indeed ” strange that the tinsel of the English mystics should have been given to the world, and the ‘fine gold’ of the greatest of them all suppressed.”