Norris of Petworth. After early instruction from his parents he was sent to Cranborne grammar school, under Thomas Garden, and in 1648 to Ringwood, that he might procure one of the Lynne exhibitions. At Michaelmas 1649 he was admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, and obtained a scholarship there on the Earl of Salisbury's nomination on 8 Nov. Immediately after graduating B.A. he was elected to a fellowship on 31 March 1653. He proceeded M.A. in 1656, and was incorporated at Oxford on 17 June 1677. In 1654 he went to reside with Sir Roger Burgoyne at Wroxhall, Warwickshire, and then became tutor to Mr. Pierrepoint at Nottingham. During this period he was ordained by Ralph Brownrig [q. v.], deprived bishop of Exeter, and wrote his first book, ‘The Irenicum’ (1659; 2nd ed. 1662), suggesting a compromise between the church and the presbyterians. This work, from which its author in later years dissented, took a prominent place among the writings of the ‘Latitude-men’ of the time. It regards the form of church government as immaterial, and as left undecided by the Apostles; but the argument is directed against nonconformity, which is regarded as indefensible. It shows clear traces of the influence of Hobbes. Burnet says that ‘it took with many, but was cried out upon by others as an attempt against the church. Yet the argument was managed with so much learning and skill that none of either side ever undertook to answer it.’
In 1657 Stillingfleet received from Sir Robert Burgoyne the rectory of Sutton, and in 1659 he married Andrea, daughter of William Dobyns of Dumbleton (agreement dated 22 Feb. 1659, Stillingfleet MSS.) While at Sutton he wrote his ‘Origines Sacræ’ (1662), which would ‘have been deservedly esteemed a most complete performance for one of more than twice his age’ (Bentley's ‘Life’ in vol. i. of Stillingfleet's Works, 1710). This was an apologetic work on an historical basis, asserting the divine authority of the Scriptures. Bishop Robert Sanderson [q. v.] of Lincoln was greatly struck by it. When he saw Stillingfleet at a visitation he was astonished at his youth, and gave him a general license as preacher in his diocese on 16 Oct. 1662.
Similarly impressed by the learning of the ‘Origines,’ Bishop Humphrey Henchman [q. v.] requested the author to answer the jesuit account of the controversy between Laud and Fisher (Laud, Labyrinth). This he did in ‘A Rational Account of the Grounds of the Protestant Religion; being a Vindication of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury's “Relation of a Conference between him and John Fisher the Jesuit,” from the Pretended Answer of T. C.,’ London, 1664. This performance, of considerable acuteness and learning, gave him still wider fame, and shortly afterwards he was appointed preacher at the Rolls Chapel. In January 1665 he was appointed to the rectory of St. Andrew's, Holborn, which he held till 1689 (instituted 21 March 1665). He retained his preachership at the Rolls Chapel, and was also made reader of the Temple.
He now made the acquaintance of many eminent lawyers, and became the friend of Sir Matthew Hale and of Chief-justice Vaughan, whose funeral sermon he afterwards preached. On 9 Feb. 1667 he was collated to the prebend of Islington in St. Paul's Cathedral, which he exchanged for that of Newington on 11 Oct. 1672. On 21 April 1669 he became a ‘canon in the twelfth prebend’ in Canterbury Cathedral (Le Neve, Fasti, 1854, i. 61, ii. 402, 419); and he graduated B.D. at Cambridge in 1663, D.D. 1668. He soon became a popular London preacher. A petition to Bishop Henchman of London from the parishioners of St. Andrew's, Holborn (Stillingfleet MSS.), complains that he only ‘vouchsafes’ to preach, coming in late, when the reading of prayers is over. A sermon on the courageous text, ‘Fools make a mock of sin,’ preached before Charles II on 13 March 1667, was printed by the king's command. Having been made a royal chaplain (see Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1667–8, p. 335), Stillingfleet was once asked by Charles why he always read his sermon when preaching before him and used no notes elsewhere. He told the king that ‘the awe of so noble an audience, where he saw nothing that was not greatly superior to him, but chiefly the seeing before him so great and wise a prince, made him afraid to trust himself.’ Stillingfleet in his turn asked Charles why he always read his speeches ‘when you can have none of the same reasons.’ The king replied, ‘I have asked them so often and for so much money that I am ashamed to look them in the face’ (Richardsoniana, p. 89).
Pepys, who had known Stillingfleet at Cambridge, says, when he heard him preach at Whitehall on 23 April 1665, that ‘he did make a most plain, honest, good, grave sermon, in the most unconcerned and easy, yet substantial manner that ever I heard in my life,’ and that when he was presented to St. Andrew's, Holborn, ‘the “bishops” of Canterbury, London, and another believed he is the ablest young man to preach the Gospel of any since the Apostles.’ In 1666, on the fast day for the fire, he notes that when Stilling-
