Stephens obtained his Master of Arts at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, in 1671, and his Bachelor of Divinity in 1678.
On 30 January 1700 he was asked to preach the traditional sermon before the House of Commons of England in memory of Charles I.
(He had delivered a sermon on the same occasion six years earlier, before the Lord Mayor.)
He omitted the prayer for the King and Royal Family, and his comments, which included a suggestion that the sermons be discontinued, resulted in a vote of censure.
A later pamphlet, "A Letter to the Author of the Memorial of the Church of England" (1707), resulted in a fine of 100 marks, and he narrowly escaped time in the pillory.