Religion or the salvation of your own souls I beseech you all in the name of him that made you that whensoever you come hither to pray unto him you do it in that awful lowly and solemn manner which our Church commandeth and as becometh creatures when you speak to your great and almighty Creator that so you may give true worship and honour unto him and also receive that benefit and edification to your selves which he hath promised and you expect from your Publick Prayers This being certainly the most edifying posture that you can possibly use upon such occasions From what we have hitherto discoursed concerning the Language the Matter the Method and the Manner of Performing Divine Service as contained and prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer we may positively conclude that it agrees exactly with the Rule in my Text even that All things in it are done to edifying Which was the thing I undertook to prove I know that many other Arguments might be brought to shew the Excellency and Usefulness of the Common Prayer But these already produced are sufficient to convince any sober and considering Christian of it And if there be any here present who are not yet convinced by what they have heard of it I desire onely one thing of them and that is That they would but make tryal of it for a while For my Charity prompts me to believe that all the Zeal that some express against the Common Prayer and all that indifferency that is in others for it proceeds only from their ignorance of what it is or at least from their want of an experimental knowledg of it For let any Man that seriously minds the Worship of God and the Salvation of his Soul before all things else let such a one I say set himself in good earnest to use the Common Prayer as he ought to do for some considerable time and I do not doubt but that by the blessing of God he will find that benefit and edification by it that his own experience shall convince him of all that I have now said more than all the Arguments that I have or any man in the World can ever produce to him Some perhaps may think this to be a Paradox But I do not question but that many here present can attest it upon their own knowledge Having found themselves more confirmed in their Faith more settled in their Religion more humbled for their sins more supported under their troubles more enflamed with Love to God and desires of Heaven every way more Edifyed by the constant use of the Common Prayer than they could ever have believed it possible to have been except they had found it to have been so by their own experience Now these things being thus briefly considered I shall observe only two things from them The first is the extraordinary prudence as well as piety of our first Reformers who first compiled the Book of Common Prayer so exactly Conformable to the Word of God and that Apostolical Canon in my Text which I cannot but ascribe to the same extraordinary aid and assistance from God whereby they were afterwards enabled to suffer persecution yea Martyrdome it self for his sake and so to confirm what they have done with their own Blood Which certainly is no small commendation of it The other thing I would observe unto you is the reason why the Devil hath had such a spight against the Common Prayer ever since it was first made For the more edifying it is to Gods People the more destructive it must needs be of the Devils Kingdom And therefore it is no wonder that he hath all along employed the utmost of his power and policy to blast its Reputation and so to discourage and disswade Men from the use of it And by the permission of God for the punishment of this ungrateful Nation he hath so far prevailed in his design that the Liturgy hath been twice cast out of the Church since it was first brought into it once in the Reign of Queen Mary and then again in the days of King Charles the First In the Reign of Queen Mary you all know who were his Instruments in the doing of it even the Papists For they cleerly and truly fore-saw that their Erroneous Opinions could never be believed nor their superstitious Practices observed in the Nation so long as the Common Prayer was used Forasmuch as there is nothing in that but what is sound and agreeable to the Doctrine of the Gospel and so contrary to the groundless Opinions which the Church of Rome would obtrude upon the World for Articles of Faith And besides that there are many expressions purposely inserted in it to arm us against the Popes Supremacy Indulgences Invocation of Sainâ—s Transubstantiation and other Popish Errors So that it would have been impossible for the Romish Religion to be ever restored in the Nation unless the Common Prayer was first removed Which therefore they took care to have done as soon as possible But within a few years after even the first of Queen Elizabeth it was brought in again And as the Reformation was begun before so from that time forward it was carried on and perfected chiefly by means of the Common Prayer For it is very observable that in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth and for several years too of Queen Elizabeth there was little or no preaching in most parts of the Kingdom and few then could read English and yet by the constant and general use of the Liturgy and Gods Blessing upon it the whole Nation was so edified in the True Religion that there was scarce one in an hundred but forsook and abhorred all Popish Doctrines and Superstitions Which is an undeniable Argument that in this respect also it is as edifying as it is possible for a thing of that nature to be In so much that so long as the Common Prayer is used and frequented as it ought to be it is morally impossible for Popery to get any ground amongst us But if this Bulwark was once removed which God forbid our grand Adversary would soon accomplish his malicious designs upon us one way or other This he knows well enough and therefore hath left no stone unturned to effect it But what he had done before by the Papists he afterwards brought about again by other means in the Reign of King Charles the First For by what kind of Spirit the Common Prayer was then cast out you all know and some of you found by woful experience All that I shall say of it is only this That the same Spirit that then stirred up people so violently against the Common Prayer stirr'd them up at the same time to Rebel against their King to take away Mens Estates and Lives contrary to all Law and Justice and at last to Murther one of the most pious Princes that ever lived And whether that was the Spirit of Christ or Antichrist God or the Devil judge you
A SERMON Concerning the Excellency and Usefulness OF THE Common Prayer PREACHED BY WILLIAM BEVERIDGE D. D. Rector of St. PETERS Cornhill LONDON AT THE Opening of the said Parish Church 27th of NOVEMBER 1681. LONDON Printed by T. James for Richard Northcott adjoyning to St. Peters Alley in Cornhill and at the Mariner and Anchor upon Fish-street-hill near London-Bridge MDCLXXXII To the Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON One of His MAJESTY's Most Honourable PRIVY COUNCIL MY LORD YOVR Lordship having signified your pleasure that the Sermon which you heard when you did us the honour to be present at the Opening of our Parish Church should be made publick notwithstanding my averseness to print any thing in English yet out of a just sense both of that Obedience which I owe to You as my Bishop and of that Kindness which I have received from You as my Patron I have now done it and herewith make bold to present it to You. What Effect a Discourse of this Nature will have upon the Minds of those who shall have so much patience as to read it I know not But must leave that to him who hath the hearts of all men in his hand My Subject I am sure is good and necessary And as for my plain and practical way of handling it it is that which my Text requireth in that it commandeth that in our Christian Congregations All things be done to edifying So that unless I had endeavoured to suit it to the Capacities of all there present and to make it as edifying as I could unto them my Sermon had been a Contradiction to my Text And besides that I had lost my Design in Preaching it Which was to convince those especially whose Souls under your Lordship are committed to my care and conduct of the Excellency and Usefulness of the Common Prayer and so to perswade them to the constant and consciencioususe of it not only because it is conformable to the Doctrine Discipline and Practice of the Vniversal Church nor only because it is established by the Laws both of our Church and State though they also be very great Reasons but likewise because of that extraordinary benefit and advantage which they would receive from it for the edifying of their Souls in whatsoever is necessary to their Eternal Salvation I am very sensible that much more might have been said upon this Excellent Subject But intending no more than a plain Sermon upon the occasion I was forced to omit many things and to confine my self to such only which were most obvious and seemed the most necessary for people to know and practice in order to their being reconciled unto and edified by our Publick Prayers And if upon your perusal of that little which I have said you shall find any thing not agreeable to the Doctrine of our Church I humbly submit it to Your Lordships Judgment and Censure only desiring that You would be as ready to pardon as I am to retract it My Lord I have one request more to make unto You which is that as You was the occasion of my printing this Sermon so You would be pleased to accept of it now it is printed And if by the Blessing of Almighty God it may contribute any thing to those great Ends which You continually prosecute with so great Wisdom and Prudence with such exemplary Care and Diligence in the Management of that high Office which he hath called you to even to the Glory of his great Name the Good of his Church and the Salvation of the Souls of Men it is all that is desired by My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and most obedient Servant WILLIAM BEVERIDGE A SERMON Concerning the Excellency and Usefulness OF THE Common Prayer 1 COR. XIV 26. Let all things be done to edifying WHEN Judas Maccabeus had new built the Altar and repaired the Temple at Hierusalem after it had been polluted and laid waste for Three years together the Church of God at that time and place rejoyced so much at it that they kept the Dedication of it Eight days and ordered that the same should be observed every year 1 Maccab. 4. 59. And so we find it was in our Saviours time for he himself was pleased to honour that Festival though onely of Ecclesiastical Institution with his own presence Joh. 10. 22. In the like manner we of this Parish have cause to be transported with joy and gladness and to spend this day in praising and adoring the most high God for that our Church which hath lain waste for above five times Three years is now at last rebuilt and fitted again for his Worship and Service For what the Altar and Temple were to the Jews then the same will our Church be unto us now Did they there offer up their Sacrifices to God as Types of the Death of Christ We shall here commemorate the said Death of Christ typified by those Sacrifices Did they come from all parts of Judea to worship God there So shall we I hope come from all parts of his Parish to worship God here Was the Temple an House of Prayer to them So is the Church to us Was that the Place where God according to his Promise came unto his people to bless them I do not doubt but he will do the same to us in this place if we come unto it and carry our selves in it as we ought to do In short was the Temple the place where all things were performed that could any way conduce to the Edifying of Gods people as things then stood The same may be said of our Church as things now stand For whatsoever is or can be necessary to the Edifying of our Souls here and so to their Eternal Salvation hereafter is clearly and fully comprehended in those several Offices which according to the Laws of the Land are now to be performed in this place Neither is there any thing contained in any of them but what doth really conduce to those great Ends and Purposes But this being a thing which is denied by some and understood but by few amongst us I shall endeavour to explain and demonstrate it unto all Which I chuse to do at this time because it is the most proper Subject I could think of for this Occasion For unless what is to be now done in this place will answer the ends wherefore it is erected all the Costs and Charges that have been laid out upon it will be to no purpose at all But if it can be fully made out That the Service which is here to be performed doth highly conduce to the Advancement of Gods Glory and your Happiness the great Ends wherefore such Places are erected then you cannot but acknowledg that whatsoever any of you have contributed towards it is the best Money that you ever spent and that this day wherein the said Service is begun to be performed in it is one of the most joyful days that this
Be sure the consequents of its being laid aside at that time were very sad For people being deprived of that whereby they should have been edified were immediately tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine until at length many of them fell into the most pernicious and damnable Heresies that were ever heard of in the Church Yea together with the Liturgy they laid aside all distinction betwixt sacred and common things by which means the whole Nation was in danger of being over-spread with profaneness and irreligion But blessed be the Name of the most high God for it he was once more pleased to appear for us and in a miraculous manner to restore our Common Prayer to his Church together with our Gracious Soveraign to his Kingdoms But what shall we render to the Lord for so great a Blessing as this is All that he expects or we can give him for it is only to make the best use of it that we can This therefore is that which I now pray and beseech you all for the future to do Do not think it enough to be for the Common Prayer and to come now and then to hear it This you may do as many do and yet receive no more benefit by it than as if there was none at all to be received Which therefore can by no means be imputed to the Common Prayer its self but to the negligence of those that use it Neither must you think it enough to talk high for it or to rail at those who are not so happy as to be rightly informed about it But rather take all opportunities to inform them and by all means possible to convince them of the Excellency and Usefulness of it Which you can never do so effectually as by your out-stripping and exceeding them in Vertue and Good Works For this is and ever will be a plain demonstration that the Common Prayer is indeed far more edifying than those new Modes of Religion which they are so unhappily seduced into That therefore you may do this and so both experience in your selves and demonstrate unto others the truth and certainty of what you have now heard concerning the Common Prayer I desire you to observe these few Rules in the using of it First Come not to our Publick Prayers only out of Custom or for Fashion sake as the manner of some is but out of a sincere obedience to Gods Commands and with a sure trust and confidence in his Promises for his Blessing upon what you do For which end it will be very good as you go to Church to bethink your selves whither you are going and what you are to do there that so laying aside all other business you may put your selves into a right temper for so great a work Secondly Frequent our Publick Prayers as often as conveniently you can The oftner you are at them the better you will like them and the more edified you will be by them And therefore do not satisfie your selves with hearing them once a Week In this City as also in many other places of the Kingdom especially where there are Cathedrals or Collegiate Churches you may enjoy the benefit of them publickly every day and so keep your hearts continually in an holy and heavenly frame and always live as becometh Christians And if you neglect such opportunities as are now put into your hands you will one day wish you had not but then wishing will do no good Thirdly If possible come always at the beginning of Divine Service Otherwise you will certainly miss of something that would have been edifying to you and perhaps of that which at that time might have done you more good than all the rest Neither will you lose the benefit only of part of it but in some measure of the whole too All the parts of it being linked together in so excellent a manner and method that they influence and assist each other So that nothing can be omitted either by Minister or People but the whole will suffer by it and lose something of that Vertue and Efficacy which otherwise you would find in it Fourthly All the while that you are in Gods House carry your selves as in his special presence and suitably to the work you are about standing while you praise God and kneeling while you pray unto him as our Church hath directed you For though these may seem but little things in themselves yet they are of great consequence both to our Worshipping of God aright and also to our being edified by what we do as I have shewed before Lastly Take special care all along to keep your minds intent upon the matter in hand When you confess your sins to God do it with an hearty and sincere Repentance for all the Errors of your life past When the Absolution is pronounced receive it with a firm and stedfast Faith in Christ your Saviour When you repeat or sing the Hymns and Psalms raise up your Spirits as high as you can to joyn with those above in praising and magnifying the Eternal God When the Word of God is read hearken diligently unto it and consider seriously what he that made you saith to you and requireth of you and resolve by his Blessing to believe and live accordingly And all the while that you are upon your knees putting up your Petitions to the most high God let your whole Souls be employed in it earnestly desiring the good things you pray for at his Gracious hands and humbly confiding on his faithful Promises for the granting of them By this means you will perform reasonable service unto God and by consequence that which will be very acceptable unto him and as profitable and edifying to your selves Whereas they that do not observe this Rule cannot be properly said to pray or serve God at all And therefore it is no wonder that they come to Church and hear the Common Prayer read and yet are no way edified by it Indeed it is impossible that they should For as much as all the benefit and edification that we can possibly receive from any of our Devotions depends very much upon the due intention of our minds in the performance of them To which as I have shewn both a Form of Prayer in general and ours in particular is a very great help Do but observe these plain and necessary Rules in using of the Common Prayer without which you cannot be truly said to use but rather to abuse it and you will soon find what I have said about it to be true even that All things in it are done to Edifying And therefore I would to God that not only you that hear me at this time but all the people of the Nation could be once perswaded to do so What an holy Nation what a peculiar People should we then become How Pious towards God How Loyal to our Soveraign How Just and Charitable to one another For by our constant Worshipping Almighty God in so solemn and devout a manner as this is our hearts would be over-awed with so great a fear of his Divine Majesty that we should never dare willingly to offend him Our minds would be filled and impregnated with such a sense of his power and soveraignty that we should honour and revere it in those also whom he hath set over us Our whole Souls would be raised up so much above the World that we should not do an ill act to gain it wholly to our selves In short we should be every day edified more and more in Faith in Love in Humility in Self-denial in Temperance in Patience in all true Grace and Vertue And so we should go from strength to strength from one degree of grace unto another until at length we arrive at Glory and Perfection in the highest Heavens where we shall spend Eternity its self in Praising and Adoring the most high God as for all the other Mercies which he hath vouchsafed to us so in a particular manner for our being Members of such an Apostolical Church wherein all things are done to edifying Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant we may all do in and through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen FINIS