Richard Steuart

was born of a gentile family in Northamptonshire, (at Patishul I think) became a Commoner of Magd. Hall in 1608 aged 14 or thereabouts, elected Fellow of Alls. Coll. in 1613, being then Bach. of Arts, proceeded in his Faculty, studied the Civil Law for a time, and took one degree therein. In 1624 he proceeded in the said Faculty, and in 1628 he was made Preb. of Worcester on the death of Rich. Potter Bach. of Div. About the beginning of March 1629 he had the Prebendship of North Aulton in the Church of Sarum confer’d upon him, and about that time was made Chapl. in ord. to his Majesty. In 1634 he became Dean of Chichester in the place of Dr. Franc. Dee promoted to the See of Peterborough, and soon after Clerk of the Closet, in the room of Dr. Math. Wren, and Prebendary of Westminster in his place, an. 1638. In which year he resigned his Prebendship of Worcester, and was succeeded therein by Will. Smith D. D. Warden of Wadham Coll. About the same time he was made Dean of S. Pauls Cathedral, and in Dec. or Jan. 1639 Provost of Eaton Coll. in the room of Sir Hen. Wotton deceased. He was also at the same time Dean of the Chappel Royal, and when Dr Williams Bishop of Linc. (who kept the Deanery of Westminster in commendam with that See) was translated to York, he was made Dean of that Collegiat Church, not in 164 [•] , but in 1645. While he remained in the University, he was accounted a good Poet and Orator, and after he had left it a noted Divine, eloquent Preacher, and a person of a smart fluent stile. In the beginning of the Rebellion he suffer’d much for the Kings cause, lost all, and at length retiring to France, became a great Champion for the Protestant cause at Paris, where, at le Hostle de Blinville, he preached an excellent sermon of the English case, or Hezekiahs reformation, in vindication of ours. So that whereas Mr. Rich. Baxter in several of his publick Writings doth most uncharitably ((*))((*)) See in Tho. Pierce his Appendix to the New discoverer discovered, &c. §. 44. suggest as if he, (Dr. Steuart) when at Paris, had a design to introduce the French Popery by preaching, it appears to the contrary not only in that, but in another sermon preached in defence of the Protestants against the Papists in an Auditory of Prelatists there. Besides also, he, with that publick spirited man Sir George Ratcliff, did go very far in making an accommodation between the Jansenists and the reformed Party, our Author being then Chaplain to his Maj. K. Ch. 2. His works are these.

An answer to a letter written at Oxford and superscribed to Dr. Sam. Turner concerning the Church and Revenues thereof—Printed 1647 in 5 sheets and an half in qu. This afterwards came out under this title, A discourse of Episcopacy and Sacrilege by way of letter, written 1646. Lond. 1683. qu. The said letter was written not at Oxon, but rather at Ailesbury by Joh. Fountaine lately a Royalist, but then a Turn-coat.

Three Sermons (1) On 1 Cor. 10.30. (2) On Mat. 28.6. (3) On 1 Cor. 15.29. Lond. 1656 and 58. in twelv.

Trias sacra: A second Ternary of sermons. Lond. 1659 in tw.

Catholique Divinity: or, the most solid and sententious expressions of the primitive Doctors of the Church, with other ecclesiastical and civil Authors, &c. Lond. 1657. oct.

Other sermons, as (1) The English case exactly set down by Hezekiahs reformation, in a Court sermon at Paris on 2 Kings 18.22. Lond. 1659. oct. and before: published for the full vindication of the Church of England from the Romanists charge of Schism, and commended to the consideration of the late Author of The Grotian Religion discovered. The picture of K. Ch. 2. is set before the title. (2) Golden remains, or three sermons, the first on Phil. 4.17. the second on Mark 6.20. and the third on Heb. 10.1, 2. Lond. 1661. in tw. &c.

The old Puritan detected and defeated: or, a brief treatise shewing how by the artifice of pulpit Prayers, our Dissenters at all times have endeavoured to undermine the Liturgy of the reformed Church of England. Together with the fault and danger of such Prayers, whether vented ex tempore, or forethought by a speaker. Lond. 1682, in one sh. in qu. said by the Bookseller, who printed it, that Dr. Rich. Steuart was the Author. See more in Rich. Sherlock, an. 1689. The design of this small treatise is, (as also another of the same subject, viz. about the meaning of the 55 Canon published by Dr. Heylyn) to make out and evidence that the 55 of K. Jam. 1. enjoyns only an exhortation to, or bidding of Prayer, and that that Canon contains an express and precise form of Prayer, not in the least to be deviated from by Ministers, and that the primary design and scope of this Canon, was not barely to lay down and prescribe matter, heads, and contents of Prayer, which were to be left to be worded and expressed according to the discretion of the Minister; which last is owned to be the more general practice of our Divines, tho he saith it is directly against the intendment of the Canon. These are all the things that Dr. Steuart hath written, as I conceive, and therefore I shall only say, that when he lay upon his Death-bed at Paris in Nov. in sixteen hundred fifty and one, K. Ch. 2. gave him two visits,1651. being then newly arrived there from his escape from Worcester Fight, and his concealment in England, and that he was interred in an open burying place in the suburbs of S. German, walled in, and some time before granted to those of the reformed Religion to bury the bodies of their deceased. His Epitaph over his grave, made some years after his decease, tells us that he died on the 14 of Nov. 1652, but false, for it should be 1651, for every one of the English Nation that was then at Paris, saith that he died shortly after K. Ch. 2. came into France after his Escape from Worcester Fight, which was in the month of Octob. 1651. See his Epitaph in Hist. & Antiq. Univ. Oxon. lib. 2. p. 182.