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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A27562 A sermon concerning the excellency and usefulness of the common prayer preached by William Beveridge ... 27th of November. 1681. Beveridge, William, 1637-1708. 1682 (1682) Wing B2100; ESTC R974 27,675 46

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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 Sain●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