AMONG all the various kinds of Seditious People, that from time to time have Plagn'd our English Nation, there have been none so dreadfully Per­nicious and Troublesome to the Peace of England, as our Government Menders, who always find something that they think ought to Altered, Amended, or Abolished, and are so fond of their own Enthusiastick Notions, which rather proceed from Over-heated Brains, than Solid Judg­ments, that they can neither be at quiet themselves, nor suffer any Societies of Men to be so, that will but hearken whilst they are communicating their own fansiful Delusi­ons, and Whims that have no other Design than to distract the Body Politick. These Practices have been formerly Arraign'd, as the Crimes of particular Laymen that Courted Preferment by setting up themselves as profest Enemies to every Administration; but now to find this Course pursued by a Man that has the Reputation of Learning, a Batchelor 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 Methods directly opposite to his own Oaths of Fidelity, Canonical Obedience, and the purity of the Churches Doctrin [...], which unhappily came to pass after this manner.

[Page 3] Mr. Stephens being ambitious of getting a Name among a Party that never wish'd 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 publickly 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 remain'd an Indelible Disgrace to the present Age, and to the whole English Name, and yet the reason, as 'tis credibly reported, why he coveted the Honour of Preach­ing before this August Assembly on that occasion, was, Be­cause he thought himself able, to give that Wise and Illustrious Auditory, sustcient Reasons for 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 Bewildred Traveller, seems to have lost his way; and whilst he affected to Dictate so magisterially out of the Common Road and Duty of a Preacher, he fell in a Complication of Absurdities: Each of which was a most intolerable Blunder in his Politicks, 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 [Page 4] his former (and almost buried) Crimes, by setting him up in such a Celebrated Auditory, which would carry the Discourse of them into all the Countries 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 Ahominable and not to be named Crimes, with which he was accused by his Scholars, when he was School-Master of Bristol, and for which he run away from the 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 up on their Tennets and Politicks, as to have publish'd them by a Man of Mr. Stephens's Character.

However, up he comes with his Ʋsual Confidence into St. Margaret's Pulpit, and having named 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 Peaceablv 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 Breathren, indeavoured to prove (tho' with very ill snccess) the Do­ctrin of Disobedience to Princes, from the same Text that Preaches up Obedience to Authority, as the Indispen [...]sble Duty of every Christan.

I do not say he urg'd Resistance in Express Words, for there was a vein of Crasty and Ambiguous Sence and Expres­sion, that run through the 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 true Son of the Church of England. He has indeed a pecu­liar Knack at wounding with Sly, Oblique, and Paltry [Page 5] Suggestions; at Stabbing and looking another way, as if he were wholly Innocent a [...] Unconcern'd, 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 Parilament, or so dis­guise his Notions, that they could not apprehend that his Raking up the pretended faults of Afficted Majesty, was a Base and Cowardly Assault, somewhat more than Barbarous and Inhumane; and his Leveling the Supreme Authority below its just Rights, was but a trick to usher in Confusion, or which is worse, beget a misunderstrnding between the Royal Head and Loyal Members, as if they would incruach 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 last have made him follow his Bristol Brother in Iniquity Emanuel Heath, into Jamaica, who both fled form Bristol almost at the same time, and upon the very same accasion.

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 Flurting at the Doctrine of Passive Obedience, was only putting Swords into the Hands of Madmen, who know on other use of it, but either to destrov 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 employ'd to countenance an Insupportable Tyranny, and that has made the Words generally distast­sal to English Men since the Revolution; which all Anti­monatchists 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 d [...]ne: For [Page 6] it creates an Aversion in unthinking People, who cannot distinguish between the [...]e and the Abuse of things; and because 'twas once appled to ill Purposes, run away with that mistaken 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 Allarm this Stupid Humour into a sense of Danger, or the Folly will be as unaccountable, as the Mischiefs will be insuportable, if ever this Seditious Hot-headed Crew of Republicans, be once more suffered to have the Steerage of Publick Affairs; who are a Proud and Ambitious sort of People, only va­luable in their Conceits, and now Herd with the Jacobits only to reduce us into a State of Anarcy.

Some Men through Ignorance might imbibe Notions of Disobedience, as others think it lawful upon extraor­dinary Occasions, where Sic Volo sic Juber 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 intirely Love and Ho­nour, as being a Valiant and Brave Prince, undoubtedly the greatest Heroe of his Age, and has a Soul large enough to Animate more than theree Kingdoms, was such an Un­generous, Dastardly, and creeping Innuendo against him, and carried such a rude threatning 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 Enterprize: 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 Humane Duty in the Bible, and without the Belief and Practice of it, the [Page 7] World will be no better than a Savage Wilderness, and a Habitation of Wolves and Tygers in Humane Shape, Rending and Devouri [...] [...]ne 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 conceal'd the fatal Consequences of Rebellion, which will be ever found to be more Dura­able 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 Supream Magistrate is the Ordinance of God; His Power is ordain'd 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 incou­rage (by slant Strokes) the Crying and Diabolical Sin of Reb [...]l [...]ion, which is so Dangerous, and infinitely encroach­ing, that if it be not stifled in its Seed and Principle, it will when kind­led bid defiance to all Controul, and run along like an irresistible Con­flagration: And tho' the Preacher employ'd all his Art in Mi [...]cing and, Palliating the Matter, 'twill be found a Maxime 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 License 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 Subjects, an excellent thing when Honestly used, and Peaceably intended; but to what purpose he insisted upon that Topick 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 [Page 8] in Peace and Tranquility, 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 [...] of improving and practising upon invented Fears and Possibilities, [...] [...]ey have brought us into Vas­salage to their own Party.

Now to Antidote this Venome, and to shield our selves from the Danger and Delusion, so artificially Insinuated by our Bisarious Predi­cator, is to judge of the Designs by the Men that promotes them; for all the Arts imployed 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 parted.

Liberty is the greatest Glory of a People yet if it be not bounded by the Laws of Reasons and Religion, 'tis the greatest Makebate in the World: and tends directly to the Ruine of every Community, by the known Rule, That the best things corrupted become the morst. Liberty perver­ted into Contention for Superiority, is but Trapanning and Deluding Men into Slavery; Catching them with Words, and decoying them in­to Nets and Snates: '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 Complection, that occasion'd the Unparallel'd Murther of Charles 'the First, for which our Land mourns at this very Day, and which feems 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 Supream 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 us'd to Vend these Popular Notions by Wholesale, [Page 9] with now and then a Gird at the Establish'd Church, to make his Discourse more Palatable to the Carders and Spiners, and not in St. Margaret 's Church at Westminster, whose Auditors were not accustomed to such Disloyal and Republican Discourses, till their Ears were Violated by this Imposter, who could de­sign nothing but mischeif 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 Intire, 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 [...]nder an Absolute Monarchy.

This Pretence of Exalting a Popular Power, could have no other Aim in the Preacher, than to create Jealousies between the King and his People: For as they cannot allay the false [...]ears they are decoyed [...]nto, without Undutiful Resentments: So the King cannot brook Competitors in Power and Prerogative; and therefore the Preacher in paying the Inserior Members against the Head, could have no design but the Destruction of the whole Body: For this is an Infalliable Maxime, 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 [Page 10] from Jethro's Advising Moses to Ease himself; by ap­pointing Inferiour Magistrates to Hear and Deter­mine lesser Differences among the People: Which is such a positive Contradiction to what he was ad­va [...]ng, 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 exer­cis'd over the Tribes of Israel: And at this no wise Man will wonder, for Scripture is so much out of our Preachers way, as he never Blunders more, as when he thinks to support his sinking 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, han Chaplain in Ordinary to the Galves-Head Club, that Feast, and Rejoice, in Memory of the most Barbarous Murder that the Sun ever saw or Men or Devils were capable of commit­ting.

Sermons generally beget or lose their Esteem, by their being suted, or running Counter to the Occasi­on for which they were intended, & 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, & instead of humbly per­swading 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 [Page 11] 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 plaid the Buffoon and Incendiary at so malicious a rate, upon so Solemn and Sad an Occasion, as brought together that August Assembly before whom he Preach'd; 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 omited 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 finish'd the last part of this Blessed Monarchi's Tragedy, and humbly per­swading his Illustrious Auditory, as the Representati­ves of the Nation, to be most Industrously 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 perswad­ed his Honourable Auditors, That the Observation of this Fast, which has always been Religiously ob­served [Page 12] by all Parliaments, should be utterly Aholi­shed and Raced out of the English Calender.

A Bold & Presumptious 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 disturb'd, by the Remembrance of this Eternal Reproach, which though an Indempnity has Pardoned, no Oblivion will ever be able to Deface, is so unaccountable, that none but himself can assign a Reason for!

What could Mr. Stephens read 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 offer'd 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. 202. by which it appears, that the whole Kingdom thought nothing too much for expiating the Guilt, and Honouring the Memory of that [...]x­cellent [Page 13] 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 spight of all Mr. Stephens's Arguments against it, may out-last all of that Kind in Westminster, or elsewhere in the whole Nation, viz. Enated, That the Day of that horrid Particide. be observed as a solenm 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 that 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 furnish'd 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 Erostratus may be remembred till Time shall be no more; be­sides, could our Preacher have obtain'd his end, an almost Twenty Years Rebellion, with the Miseries, [Page 14] Calamities and Desolations that accompanied Us, will for ever keep up Animosities, tho' there were no such Day in the Calender 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 publick 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 sor 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 Buried 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 Damn'd 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 os the Sin and Danger, which those Ill Men by espousing Ill Principles, were led 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.

[Page 15] Now to shew 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 joyn'd with the Jacobites mor 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 Gouernment under William the Third, as their Predecessors did under his Royal Grandfather Charles the First? And I heartily Wish this Evil be not so long neglected tell it be grown past Redress, or Cure.

Are not our Republican Scriblers the Common Authors of all the Virulent Pamphlets against the Government? Who by Reporting what is False, and Preverting what is True, are forcing Unsteady Men upon the Rock, on which their Fathers were Shipwrackt.

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 Elogiums, that once occasion'd several Hours De­bates in the House of Commons: Whether he should not be Hang'd for what he had Written, in Justification of that Abominable Parricide, and had some of his Now 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 Abridgment of the most Poysonous Passage, 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' he Acts the Part of a Republican, may be a Romish Em­missary, sent hither on purpose to Embroyl our Affairs, and to Divide us among our Selves, 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 Cloathing among us, to hasten our Ruine.

[Page 16] Further are not Ludlow's Letters, and Harrington's Commonwealth [...] Oceana, in every Hand? And is any thing so common as Calve [...] 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 Gratifie the Preacher in his Intolerable Impertinencies.

But to turn the Tables upon Mr. Stephens, who suffer'd himself to be made a Property for the Service of a Faction; there can be no greater Argument, That the Republicans are very busie 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 fetch'd 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 certainl [...] catch'd 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 Republ [...]can Pamphlets, it must at last-be Printed by a Contribution.

Thus have I as Briefly as I could, Animadverted upon this Two­handed Sermon, in which I had bèen more particular, but for two Reasons.

First, Because that Reverend, Pious, and Learned Prelate, His Grace the Lord Archbishop of York, Preached the same Day, and upon the same Text, before the Right 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 enjoyn'd 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.