Reflections UPON Mr. STEPHENS's Sermon, preached before the Honourable House of COMMONS, AT St. Margaret's Church in Westminster, January the 30th. 1699 / 700.  
By a Gentleman who took the said Sermon in Short-Hand.  
LONDON, Printed for the Use of the Calves-Head Club, in order to their Conversion.  
Price Six Pence.   

REFLECTIONS UPON Mr. STEPHENS's Sermon, preached before the Honourable House of COMMONS, January the 30th, 1699 / 700.   

Reflections UPON Mr. STEPHENS's Sermon, preached before the Honourable House of COMMONS, AT St. Margaret's Church in Westminster, January the 30th. 1699.  
AMONG all the various kinds of Seditious People, that from time to time have plagued our English Nation, there have been none so dreadfully Pernicious and troublesone to the Peace of England, as our Government Menders, who always find something that they think ought to be Altered, Amended, or Abolished, and are so fond of their own Enthusiastick Notions, which rather proceed from overheated Brains, than Solid Judgments, that they can neither be at quiet themselves, nor suffer any Societies of Men to be so, that will but harken whilst they are communicating their own fansiful Delusions, and Whims that have no other Design than to distracted the Body politic. These Practices have been formerly arraigned, as the Crimes of particular Laymen, that Courted Preferment by setting up themselves as professed Enemies to every Administration; but now to find this Course pursued by a Man that has the Reputation of Learning, a bachelor in Divinity, and Beneficed in the Church of England, is so Abominable and Amazing, that 'tis enough to startle Men of Temper and Prudence, to think the Church should harbour such a Viper in its Bosom, as is gnawing his way to a Name, by M●thods directly ●pposite to his own Oaths of Fidelity, caconical Obedience, and the Purity of the Churches Doctrine, which unhappily came to pass after this manner.  
Mr. Stephens being ambitious of getting a Name among a Party that never wished well to the Monarchy, or the Church of England, knowing the Honourable and Loyal House of Commons did Annually meet at St. Margaret's Church in Westminster, on the 30th of January, to bewail a Crime so detested by God and Man, as the Murder of a King is, he procured the Favour of Preaching before that Honourable Assembly on that Solemn Day of Humiliation, in which so black a Crime was committed, which had it not long since been publicly appointed by the Voice of the whole Nation, that we, and our Posterities after us, should Yearly bewail the Guilty Memory of it, it would have remained, an Indelible Disgrace to the present Age, and to the whole English Name; and yet the reason, as 'tis credibly reported, why h● coveted the Honour of Preaching before this August Assembly on that occasion, was, Because he thought himself able, to give that Wife and Illustrious Auditory, sufficient Reasons for the Non-observance of it any longer.  
A Bold, Saucy, and Daring undertaking, to Preach against a Law in force, before our Legislators; as if they knew not what was fit to be Retained or Abolished, without the Directions of a Pragmatical Preacher, that like a Blind, and bewildered Traveller, seems to have lost his way; and whilst he affencted to Dictate so Magisterially out of the Common Road and Duty of a Preacher, he fell into a Complication of Absurdities: Each of which was a most intolerable Blunder in his politics, and may chance raise a Storm upon him, that all the Friends he has will never be able to pacify.  
Of all Men living, Mr. Stephens, considering his own Circumstances, had the greatest reason in the World to have worn out his Days in the greatest Obscurity; and it not only accuses his own Discretion, but the Common Prudence of all his Advisers; to revive the Memory of his former( and almost butted) Crimes, by setting him up in such a Celebrated Auditory, which would carry the Discourse of them into all the Counties and Corporations of England, had he behaved himself never so cautiously in the Pulpit: And what then might he reasonable expect, when he resolved to Affront the Laws, and run counter to the Sentiments of the whole Kingdom; but that his Abominable and not to be name Crimes, with which he was accused by his Scholars, when he was School-Master of Bristol, and for which he run away from that City for fear of being Prosecuted, should be revived to his Eternal Infamy, and Hatred of all Mankind. Which if his Advisers had considered, they would never have cast such an Odium upon their own Tennets and politics, as to have published them by a Man of Mr. Stephens's Character.  
However, up he comes with his Usual Confidence into St. Margaret's Pulpit, and having name his Text out of Titus the 3d, Verse the 1st, Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers, to obey Magistrates, and to be ready to every Good Work: Which Text in its genuine Interpretation imports nothing else, but that all Christians should Peaceably submit themselves to the Government under which they live: yet he that always had the Ill luck to spy more in a Text than all the rest of his Brethren, endeavoured to prove( tho' with very ill success) the Doctrine of Disobedience to Princes, from the same Text that Preaches up Obedience to Authority, as the Indispensible Duty of every Christian.  
I do not say he urged Resistance in Express Words, for there was a vein of Crafty and Ambiguous sense and Expression, that run through his whole Sermon, which might have fitted the Mouth of a Knox, or a Mariana, but ill became one that would be thought a Minister of Jesus Christ, and a true Son of the Church of England. He has indeed a peculiar Knack at wounding with Sly, obliqne, and Paltry Suggestions; at Stabbing and looking another way, as if he were wholly Innocent and unconcerned, which might pass at a Tables end over a Bottle amongst his Cronies of the Faction; but he was mightily mistaken, to think he could Top upon a whole Parliament, or so disguise his Notions, that they could not apprehended that his Raking up the pretended faults of Afflicted Majesty, was a Base and Cowardly Assault, somewhat more than Barbarous and inhuman; and his Leveling the Supreme Authority below its just Rights, was but a trick to usher in Confusion, or which is worse, beget a misunderstanding between the Royal Head and Loyal Members, as if they would encroach upon the Sovereignty, and therefore those great Men put such a Slight upon this Confident Prevaricator, as would have broken any English Man's Heart, but Mr. Stephens's, or at least have made him follow his Bristol Brother in Iniquity Emanuel Heath, into Jamaica, who both fled from Bristol almost at the same time, and upon the very same occasion.  
It cannot be imagined I should answer every Heterodox Notion in his Sermon; I shall therefore only reflect upon the main Design, and be indebted to him for the rest, till he Prints his Sermon.  
His flirting at the Doctrine of Passive Obedience, was only putting Swords into the Hands of Madmen, who know no other use of it, but either to destroy themselves, or the Peace of the Kingdom; for no Man can have any honest Design that Preaches against it. 'Tis true, the Words were abused in the late Reign, and is at all times when employed to countenance an Insupportable Tyranny, and that has made the Words generally distasteful to English Men since the Revolution; which all Antimonarchists being sensible of, when they have a mind to inveigh against Obedience to Authority, 'tis but Tacking the Word Passive to Obedience, and their Work is done: For it creates an Aversion in unthinking People, who cannot distinguish between the Use and the Abuse of things; and because 'twas once applied to Ill Purposes, run away with that mistake ad infinitem, and think the Men that inveigh against Passive Obedience, are the only Asserters of true English Liberty: Which is a grand mistake, and instead of lulling Men asleep in an Error so pernicious to the Peace of the Kingdom, ought to alarm this Stupid Humour into a sense of Danger, or the Folly will be as unaccountable, as the Mischiefs will be insupportable, if ever this Seditious Hot-headed Crew of Republicans, be once more suffered to have the Steerage of public Affairs; who are a Proud and Ambitious sort of People, only valuable in their Conceits, and now Herd with the Jacobites only to reduce us into a State of Anarchy.  
Some Men through Ignorance might imbibe Notions of Disobedience, as others think it lawful upon extraordinary Occasions, where Sic Volo sic Jubeo is a Law, and the King's Will is made the Political Standard; but for a Man of Mr. Stephens's Learning, to Preach up the Doctrine of Resistance in a time of Peace, when there is no occasion to blow the Coals, when we have a King of our own choice, whom the Nation entirely Love and Honour, as being a Valiant and Brave Prince, undoubtedly the greatest hero of his Age, and has a Soul large enough to Animate more than three Kingdoms, was such an Ungenerous, Dastardly, and creeping Innuendo against him, and carried such a rude threatening of His Majesty, if he should happen to disoblige the Faction; that the Preacher ought to be treated with a Scorn, and Contempt, answerable to the Baseness of the enterprise: Since he cannot but know, that the Doctrines of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance in their just Latitude, and Evangelical Importance, are Truths as Sacred as any other human Duty in the Bible, and without the Belief and practise of it, the World will be no better than a Savage Wilderness, and a Habitation of Wolves and tigers in human Shape, Rending and Devouring one another.  
To accomplish this wicked End must needs be the great Design of our Popular Orator; for tho' he so fluently harangu'd about the tremendous Consequences of Passive Obedience, he studiously concealed the fatal Consequences of Rebellion, which will be ever found to be more Durable and Mischievous. This St. Paul well knew, and therefore founded this important and Inviolable Duty, upon Reasons that are perpetual and unalterable, as namely, that the supreme Magistrate is the Ordinance of God; His Power is ordained of God; He is the Minister of the great Immutable God, and not of the Giddy and Capricious Multitude: Now these Reasons hold good equally at all times, subsist under all the Alterations of the World, are the same now in England that they were heretofore at Rome, and consequently the Duty of Obedience must be the same, Yesterday, to Day, and for ever. And yet what pains has Mr. Stephens taken to lessen, if not encourage( by slant stroke) the Crying and Diabolical Sin of Rebellion, which is so Dangerous, and infinitely encroaching, that if it be not stisted in its Seed and Principle, it will when kindled bid defiance to all control, and run along like an irresistible Conflagration: And tho' the Preacher employed all his Art in Mincing and Palliating the Matter, 'twill be found a maxim of Eternal Varity, that whosoever gives Power to any Subjects to rise up against a Good King, or Preach it up as lawful so to do, gives licence to others to re-act the same doleful Tragedy which the whole Land mourns for every Thirtieth of January.  
The Preachers next Design was to assert the Liberty of the Subject, an excellent thing when Honestly used, and Peaceably intended; but to what purpose he insisted upon that topic now, when blessed be God we have a Prince that neither does, nor intends to infringe our Privileges, or Deprive us of our Rights, but has given us all the Legal Securities a Parliament could ask for our future Peace and Happiness. When there are no Complaints that our Rights are Invaded, our Properties Usurped, or our Liberties Infringed, and the whole Nation sit under their own Vines in Peace and tranquillity, I cannot imagine, unless he intended to Introduce a Belluine Liberty, for Men to say and do what they please: A Liberty of affronting the Government, and of improving and practising upon invented Fears and Possibilities, till they have brought us into Vassalage to their own Party.  
Now to Antidote this venom, and to shield ourselves from the Danger and Delusion, so artificially Insinuated by our Bifarious Predicator, is to judge of the Designs by the Men that promotes them; for all the Arts employed by our Enemies, tho' never so cunningly disguised, are but the Sly Impositions of Cunning Knaves, to advance their own Party: And therefore when we see ill Men take up a fit of pretended Zeal, and Kindness for their Country, and appear better Natured than consists with their Principles and avowed Interests, 'tis time to suspect a Fraud, and weigh their Words with their Practices, before we believe them further than consists with the safety of the Government, for the Men and their Designs can never be partend.  
Liberty is the greatest Glory of a People; yet if it be not bounded by the Laws of Reason and Religion, 'tis the greatest Makebate in the World, and tends directly to the ruin of every Community, by the known Rule, That the best things corrupted become the worst. Liberty perverted into Contention for Superiority, is but Trapaning and Deluding Men into Real Slavery; Catching them with Words, and Decoying them into Nets and Snares: 'Twas the Affectation of this, that made our first Parents Rebel against God, and prompted Seditious Men, to Rebel against his Vicegerents on Earth: 'Twas a Sin of this Complexion, that occasioned the unparallelled Murder of Charles the First, for which our Land mourns at this very Day, and which seems like the first Transgression, to continue a lasting Curse and Debt upon Posterity.  
Another Obliging Instance of his Dear Respects to Monarchy, was Investing the Sovereign and supreme Power in the People, and how that consists with his Duty as a Subject, or with his Repeated Oaths as a Clergyman, I leave him to Consider and Repent of, least he falls under an Ecclesiastical Censure also.  
Sure Mr. Stephens when he was advancing the Imaginary Power of the People, thought he was Preaching at Wootton-Under-Edge in Gloucestershire, where he used to Vend these Popular Notions by Wholesale, with now and then a Gird at the established Church, to make his Discourse more Palatable to the Carders and Spinners, and not in St. Margaret's Church at Westminster, whose Auditors were not accustomend to such Disloyal and Republican Discourses, till their Ears were Violated by this impostor, who could design nothing but mischief by it; for in a Monarchical Government, God's Vicegerency ought not to be delegated to any other Head but what is Anointed, nor unaccountably scattered among the Multitude: For as Dividing a Power which is only safe by being entire, derogates from the King's Supremacy; so it is destructive to the Peoples Liberty, as it Intoxicates them, and makes them stagger from one Form of Government to another, till their Divisions, as a Punishment for their Fickleness, sinks them at last under an Absolute Monarchy.  
This Pretence of Exalting a P●pular Power, could have no other Aim in the Preacher, than to create Jealousies between the King and his People: For as they cannot alloy the false Fears they are decoyed into, without Undutiful Resentments: So the King cannot brook Competitors in Power and Prerogative; and therefore the Preacher in playing the Inferior Members against the Head, could have no design but the Destruction of the whole Body: For this is an Infallible maxim, That they who endeavour to submit Kings, rather than themselves, are laying the Foundation of Slavery and Confusion.  
One Argument our Case-harden'd Predicant made use of, to prove the Power was in the People, was from Jethro's Advising Moses to Ease himself; by appointing inferior Magistrates to Hear and Determine lesser Differences among the People: Which is such a positive Contradiction to what he was advancing, that in the whole Book of God, he could not have found an Instance more directly Opposite to his Notion, than the Absolute Authority that Moses exercised over the Tribes of Israel: And at this no wise Man will wonder, for Scriptura is so much out of our Preachers way, as he never Blunders more, as when he thinks to support his s●aking 'cause from those Sacred Oracles; so that unless he acquit himself better for time to come, than he either did at St. Mary le Bow, Jan. 30. 1693. or at St. Margaret's Westminster, Jan. 30. 1699. he will scarce be capable of any better Preferment, than Chaplain in Ordinary to the Calves Head Club, that Feast, and Rejoice, in Memory of the most Barbarous Murder that the Sun ever saw, or M●n or Devils were capable of committing.  
Sermons generally beget or lose their Esteem, by their being suited, or running Counter to the Occasion for which they were intended, and how our Preacher acquitted himself in this particular, is apparent. It was a Day of Humiliation for the Murder of a King by Rebellious Subjects, and instead of humbly persuading his Auditors to be Zealous in the Discharge of that Duty, he Preaches up the exploded Opinions that were the Occasions of that Bloody Tragedy, a Lawless Liberty, and the pretended Power of the People began the War, Murdered the King, and brought the Nation under a Cruel and Barbarous Vassalage to the Meanest of their Fellow Subjects, and his knowing the same Causes will for ever produce the same Effects, made these the main things he insisted upon on the Thirtieth of January, whereon nothing like a Christian, or indeed a Man, besides his wretched self, could have played the Buffoon and Incendiary at so malicious a rate, upon so Solemn and Sad and Occasion, as brought together that August Assembly before whom he preached; tho' as another Specimen of his Defence, he was pleased, for Reasons best known to himself, to omit praying for the Parliament, and every Branch of the Royal Family, which I believe, was scarce omitted upon that Day by any Preacher in England besides himself.  
But it seems our Preacher's great Design, was, to Preach down the Observation of the Day; and therefore instead of Declaiming against those Black Counsels and Accursed Practices, which finished the last part of this Blessed Monarch's Tragedy, and humbly persuading his Illustrious Auditory, as the Representatives of the Nation, to be most Industriously Watchful, that the same Chimerical Designs and Antomonarchical Principles, which then Inspired so many Ill Men, Misled so many Good Men, and cost a Good King so Dear; might once more Rivive, and Insinuate themselves again, under the same, or Newer, and Craftier Disguises, and find an opportunity to attempt the like Mischiefs, he would have persuaded his Honourable Auditors, That the Observation of this Fast, which has always been Religiously observed by all Parliaments, should be utterly Abolished, and razed out of the English calendar.  
A Bold and presumptuous Undertaking, to Dictate to that Wise and Honourable Assembly; and whilst he was performing his part of the Office appointed for the Day, to declaim against the Observation of it: Least Guilty Consciences should be disturbed, by the Remembrance of this Eternal Reproach, which though an Indemplity has pardonned, no Oblivion will ever be able to Deface, is so unaccountable, that none but himself can assign a Reason for.  
What could Mr. Stephens red in the Faces of these Wise and Loyal Senators, that could tempt him to such an Extravagant Conceit, that they would harken to such an Infamous Proposal? What one thing have they ever done that might Countenance such a Presumption, that none but a Man of Mr. Stephens's Forehead durst have offered to a Parliament, without expecting to be made an Example to Posterity?  
Had our Presumptuous and saucy Holder-Forth but consulted with our English History, he might have found that a Parliament had the Memory of Charles the First in such a great Esteem, that they Voted Seventy Thousand Pound to build him a Monument, and to pay the Charge of Removing his Body from Windsor to Westminster 
* Vid. Just. Defence, p. 200.  by which it appears, that the whole Kingdom thought nothing too much for expiating the Guilt, and Honouring the Memory of that excellent Prince, which had been so Barbarously treated: And tho' the Bill did not pass for the Monument, yet the same Parliament had done another thing before, which in spite of all Mr. Stephens's Arguments against it, may out-last all of that Kind in Westminster, or elsewhere in the whole Nation, viz. Enacted, That the Day of that horrid Patricide, be observed as a solemn Fast through the whole Kingdom for ever. And doubtless could they have foreseen, that any Person would have taken the Confidence to Asperse his Memory, or to have given Reasons for the Non Observance of this Fast, it would have been Voted no less Treasonable than his Murder. But let us hear Mr. Stephens's Reasons for its Abolition. And the first was.  
Because it creates Animosities among the People; which is a very weak Argument, since the very Abolition of the Fast would have furnished them with a Subject to keep up the Popular Animosities, greater than ever the Observation of the Day can pretend to. In which no question but Mr. Stephens will have his Share, for endeavouring to obliterate the Remembrance and Detestation of a Crime, that the Wisdom of the Nation have Enacted to continue for ever, and peradventure he may live to be pointed at in the Streets saying, That is the Man that Attempted to put down the Aniversary Fast for the Murder of Charles the First, and by this means like Er●stratus may be remembered till Time shall be no more; besides, could our Pre●cher have obtained his end, an almost Twenty Years Rebellion, with the Miseries, Calamities and Desolations that accompanied Us will for ever keep up Animosities, tho' there were no such Day in the calendar as the 30th of January: And therefore with Respect to Mr. Stephens's Project, I think the best way to extinguish the Memory of that Guilty Day, Is to abhor and Utterly forsake the Principles, that prompted Ill Men to Commit so inhuman and Barbarous a Crime; for as long as Men will be Arraigning Governments. Trampling upon the Power of Kings, and making all public Distractions, concur in making way to their beloved Tyranny and Usurpation, others will upon better grounds Reply, That God is making Inquisition for Blood, and that the Murder of our late Sovereign is Required, and Visited upon this present Generation.  
Another Reason assigned by our Preacher for the Non-Observance of this Day of Humiliation, was, because all the Bloody Actors in that Fatal Stroke were Dead, and the Memory of their Crimes ought to be butted with them: Which Argument is as Weak and Feeble as the Other, unless he could prove, That the Principles by which those Regicides Acted, were as surely damned to all Eternity, as the Authors of them are Dead: For till then, the Fast ought to continue, like a Bush-stuck up by a Charitable Traveller in a Quick-Sand, to Warn Men of the Sin and Danger, which those Ill Men by espousing Ill Principles, were lead into; for, as I have said before, what has been done, may be done again, and the same Causes will for ever produce the same Effects.  
Now to show that these Accursed Principles are at present more predominant than they were 1642; which I can ascribe to nothing but the Looseness and Irreligion of the Age, I would ask Mr. Stephens, Whether the Commonwealth Party are not now more Numerous, Insolent, and since they joined with the Jacobites more formidable too, than in any King's Reign whatsoever? And also I would know, Whether they do not take the same Methods, to Undermine the Present Government under William the Third, as their Predecessors did under his Royal Grandfather Charles the First? And I hearty Wish this Evil be not so long neglected till it be grown past Redress, or Cure.  
Are not our Republican scribblers the Common Authors of all the Virulent Pamphlets against the Government? Who by Reporting what is False and Perverting what is True, are forcing Unsteady Men upon the Rock, on which their Fathers were shipwrecked.  
Has not a Bold Rennigado Irish Popish Priest Written Milton's Life who Vindicated the Murder of the Lord's Anointed, and gives that Wretch many high eulogiums, that once occasioned several Hours Debates in the House of Commons: Whether he should not be hanged for what he had Written, in Justification of that Abominable Parricide, and had some of his N●w Admired Books Burnt by the Hands of the Common Hangman.  
Are not all that Vile Man's Works now Reprinted? And for fear they should not do Mischief enough that way, Is not an abridgement of the most poisonous Passages, put all together in the Account of his Life?  
And which is no less observable than all the rest; Are not all these Collections made by a Priest in Romish Orders? And who, for ought we know, tho' h●●cts the Part of a Republican, may be a Romish Emmissary, sent hither on purpose to embroil our Affairs, and to Divide us among ourselves, that at last we may become a Prey to the Common Enemy of our Nation and Religion; for this is but the Old Game Renewed, and 'twould be a Wonder, while some are Rending our Government to pieces, if the Papists should not have their Wolves in Sheeps clothing among us, to hasten our ruin.  
Further, are not Ludlow's Letters, and Harrington's Commonwealth of Oceana, in every Hand? And is any thing so common as Calves-Head Clubs of Commonwealths Men, who Nightly Assemble to promote that Interest? Which, I think, if seriously considered, there is as much Reason now as ever, to Antidote this Infection, and not to gratify the Preacher in his Intolerable Impertinencies.  
But to turn the Tables upon Mr. Stephens, who suffered himself to be made a Property for the Service of a Faction; there can be no greater Argument, That the Republicans are very busy in setting up their Good Old Cause, than what relates to himself: For some of his Party, as soon as he had leave to Preach before the Honourable House of Commons, Industriously spreading a Report, What Wonders Master Stephens would perform, in Order to Quash the Observation of the Fast upon the Thirtieth of January.  
He sold the Copy of his Sermon to a Bookseller, before it was Preached, as I am Credibly Informed, for Five and Twenty Pounds: Far fetched and Dear bought, are only fit for Ladies and Commonwealths Men, who never stick at the Price of any thing that may be serviceable to their Faction, which if the Bookseller is not well assured of, he has certainly catched a Tartar; for never Man heard of such an Extravagant Rate given for a Single Sermon, which can only make him amends by the Badness of it. But now as Matters are Circumstantiated, and the Preacher finds himself mistaken in the Strength of his Faction, it may so sink the Value of his Sermon, that like the rest of their Republican Pamphlets, it must at last be Printed by a Contribution.  
Thus have I as Briefly as I could, Animadverted upon this Two-handed Sermon, in which I had been more particular, but for two Reasons.  
First, Because that Reverend, Pious, and Learned Prelate, His Grace the Lord Arcbishop of York, Preached the same Day, and upon the same Text, before the Righr Honourable the House of Lords, in Westminster-Abby; and the Lords having desired His Grace to Print His Sermon, you will find in that Discourse the Duty enjoined in the Text, and the Religious Observation of the Day, Rescued from the Impertinent, Clandestine, and Dangerous Surmises of Mr. Stephens.  
Secondly, Because the Honourable the House of Commons, before whom his Sermon was Preached, have shewed their Resentments of it, in a Vote and Resolve worthy of Themselves, and Eternal Remembrance. To which I refer you.  
FINIS.