Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	parliament_n	void_a	3,949	5	9.2539	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91205	A legal resolution of two important quæres of general present concernment. Clearly demonstrating from our statute, common and canon laws, the bounden duty of ministers, & vicars of parish churches, to administer the sacraments, as well as preach to their parishioners; with the legal remedies to reclaim them from, or punish and remove them for their wilfull obstinacy in denying the sacraments to them. / By William Prynne Esq; a bencher of Lincolns Inne; to whom these quæres were newly propounded by some clients.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1656 (1656)	Wing P3994; Thomason E495_1; ESTC R203242	21,355	30

24 25 26. Giving receiving being ●olata all those Texts Laws that prove it the peoples duty to receive the Sacraments ●●o Nomine oblige the Minister to admit and deliver to them Posi●●o relatoru● po●i●●● alterum M● ●o● H●●●●ey A Second V●●cation of Fr● admission to the Lords Super p. 1●5 c. thrice every year in person as well as to preach Catechise and read Divine Service to them Memorable is that Passage in that Pathetical exhortation prescribed by the Church of England in the Book of Common Prayer to be used by all Ministers when they shall see the people negligent to come to the holy Communion viz. When God calleth you be you not ashamed to say ● will not come c. I for my part am here present and according to mine office I bid you in the name of God I call you in Christs behalf I exhort you as you love your own Salvation that ye will be partakers of this holy Communion c. And whereas you offend God so sore in refusing this holy banquet I admonish exhort and beseech you that unto this unkindnesse you will not adde any more which thing ye shall doe if ye stand by as Gazers and Lookers on them that do communicate and be not partakers of the same your self c. How many Ministers now a days preach direct dehortations from the Sacrament pointblanke against this Exhortation and their duties prescribed by God himself and no lesse than 6 Acts of Parliament which thus back the premises The Statute of 1 E. 6. c. 1. in the very beginning of Reformation and yet in force enacts That the blessed Sacrament be hereafter commonly delivered and ministred unto the people within the Church of England and Ireland other the Kings Dominions under both the kinds of bread and wine That the people present shall receive the same with the Priest which shall administer th● same who shall at least one day before exhort all persons which shall be present likewise to resort and prepare themselves to receive the same and when the day prefixed commeth after a godly exhortation by the Minister made the said Minister shall not without a lawfull cause deny the same to any person that will deboutly and humbly desire it any Law Statute Ordinance or custom to the contrary hereunto in any wise notwithanding The Statutes of 2 and 3 Ed. 6. c. 1. 5. and 6. E. 6. c. 1. and 1 Fliz. c. 2. enact and ordain That all and singular Ministers in any Cathedral or Parish-Church shall be bound to say and use the celebration of the Lords Supper and administration of the Sacraments of Baptisme and of the Lords Supper in such Order and form as is mentioned in the Book of Common Nota. Prayer And if any manner of Person Vicar or other whatsoever Minister that ought to minster the Sacraments shall refuse to minister the Sacraments in such Cathedral or Parish-Church or other places as he should use to minister the same in such Order and form as they be mentioned and set forth in the said Book or shall wilfully and obstinately standing in the same use any other Rite Ceremony order form or manner of administration of the Sacraments then is mentioned and s●t forth in the same Book That upon his lawfull conviction thereof by verdict of 12 men or by his own confession or by notorious evidence of the fact he shall lose and forfeit to the King his Heirs and Successors for his first offence one whole years profit of his benefice or Spiritual promotion and also suffer imprisonment for 6 months without Bayle or Mainprise and for his second Offence be ipso facto deprived of all his spiritual promotions and likewise suffer one whole years imprisonment and for his third offence suffer imprisonment during life The Statute of 13 Eliz. c. 12. enacts That none shall be made Minister or admitted to preach or minister the Sacraments being under the age of 24 years That every person admitted to any benefice with Cure shall publikely read the Articles of Religion in the same Church whereof he shall have the cure in the time of the Common Prayer there with Declaration of his unfeigned assent thereto and be admitted to minister the Sacraments within one year after his Induction or else upon every such default he shall be ipso facto immediately deprived and thereupon the Patron present a New Incumbent By all which Acts it is clearly resolved that every Parson Viccar Minister of a Porochial Church is admitted thereunto as well to administer the Sacraments as to preach and peremptorily obliged frequently constantly to do it in person as a principal duty of his Function and Pastoral cure under pain of forfeiting of the profits of his Benefice Imprisonment and Deprivation for his contempt and neglect thereof by these expresse Statutes of our Protestant Parliaments as well as by our Canons Convocations Divines and the whole Church of England If any object that these Statutes are now abrogated Object 1. repealed by the Ordinances of both Houses prescribing the use of the Directory in place of the Book of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments Therrfore Ministers are not now obliged by them to administer the Sacraments to their Parishioners To this I answer 1. That no Ordinance of Parliament Object whatsoever especially to repeal or alter former Acts of Parliament can be made without the threefold consent of King Lords and Commons in Parliament an Act and Ordinance of Parliament being all one and requiring the self-same treble consent in Law as I have irrefragably proved at large in my Irenarches Redivivus printed An. 1648. against Sir Edward Cooks mistake and others in this point which threefold assent the objected Ordinances wanting are meer Nullities in Law and can no ways repeal these forecited Statutes remaining still in their Legal power 2ly Admit these Statutes repealed or suspended by these Ordinances which I deny in point of Law yet these very objected Ordinances and the Directory it self positively enjoyn all Ministers and Vicars duly to administer the Sacraments of the Lords Supper and Baptisme to all their Parishioners duly prepared and qualified according to these Ordinances as well as these Statutes and the Books of Common Prayer Therefore if these Ordinances or the Directory be still in force they are bound by them to administer the Sacraments to their Parishioners But if they be grown out of date and absolete as the Objectors and those of the Congregational way beleeve who will not submit unto them then the Statutes pretended to be repealed by them are again revived by their expiration and so oblige them as firmly now as heretofore 3ly The administration of the Sacraments being an * S●e Fox Acts and M●●uments vol. 2. p. 87 388 392 ●9● essential inseparable part of every Ministers duty who hath a parochial cure or charge of Souls both by the Law of God and constitutions of our own and

all other Christian Churches as I have proved admit these Statutes all repealed yet they are still obliged by their very Office and Pastoral Function to administer the Sacraments to their Parishioners and therefore liable to divine and humane punishments for contempt or neglect thereof If any object in the 2 place That they are now admitted Object 2. to Parochial cures only to preach the Gosple in their Parish Churches but not to administer the Sacraments to their Parishioners as formerly I answer 1. That if there be any such new formes of Answer admissions and Institutions used they are meerly void in Law by the expresse resolution of the Statute of 13 Eliz 6. 12. and the other forecited Acts And Ministers thus admitted are but only bare Lecturers not Parsons Vicars or Incumbents by our Laws so the Church still void notwithstanding such admissions which are only to one part of their ministerial function not to all their spiritual cure 2ly Such admissions to Cures are strange monstrous Impostures Hypocritical Delusions yea grosse Absurdities execrable to God and all honest Christian men enabling Ministers to receive the whole Tithes Dues of their Parishioners yet exempting them from the moity at least of those Pastoral Duties to which the Lawes of God and the Land oblige them We lately decryed it as an impious Solecism excuse in our old lazie non-preaching Parsons and Vicars that they alledged they were instituted only to read Common Prayers Homilies and administer the Sacraments but not to preach to their Parishioners In the Bishop of * Fox Acts and Monuments Vol. 2. p 614. Dunkelden and other Lordly Prelats that they were Ordained Bishops only to Govern the Church confirm and ordain Ministers but not to preach or administer the Sacraments And shall we now after all our late pretences of Reforming their abuses and declamations against their Idlenesse admit our New Parochial Incumbents to plead they are only half-Ministers bound solely to Preach but not to Baptize administer the Lords Supper Catechise visit the Sick Marry Bury as all their Predecessors did If any Gentlemans hired Shepherd should neglect to fold his sheep or look them out when strayed and then plead he was only bound by his Office to feed keep them in their Pasture Or if his hired Cook should tell him that as his Cook he is bound only to boyl but not to rost his meat or bake his Venison Or should his Laundresse affirm she was hired only to make his Bed and sweep his chamber but not to wash his Linnen or starch his bands or cuffs Or his Groom maintain he was by his place obliged only to dress his horses give them hay but not to water or carry them their provender Would not all deride these their absurd irrational allegations and their Master cudgel them to the performance of all the parts of their respective duties or else turn them presently out of Service And will God or Men then indure that their Ministers of the Gospel especially when pretending extraordinary eminency Diligence and Saintship above others of their Brethren should thus juggle with them to their faces as openly to affirm they took the sole cure of their souls only to reap all their Dues Tithes and to feed them with Gods word in the Pulpit of which the * Mat. 28. 19 20. Acts 26. ●8 c. 15. 3. c. 21. 22. 2 Tim. 4. 17. unconverted unbaptized Heathens are capable as wel as Christians but not with Christs Sacramental body or bloud at the Lords Table whereto professed Christians only have a right 1 Cor. 10. 16. to 20. c. 11. 22. to the end To instruct their aged but not baptize their infant or cat●chize their younger Parishioners Yea that they took upon them their Pastoral Cure only to shear their ●leeces but not to own them as any part of their Church or Flock or discharge the duty of a Pastor towards them unlesse they will unmodle themselves from a Parochial Church into a private Congregational conventicle Those who have hearts of * Eze. 3. 9. Zech. 7. 22. Adamant or faces of Brasse publikely to make such an untheological irrational illegal unministerial Plea as this so diametrically contrary to the very essence of their Pastoral Function duty and to their painfull Predecessors practises in all ages Churches to our blessed Saviours own practise precepts and his description of a true and good Shepherd John 10. yea to the definition of a true * See Dr. John White and Dr. Fei●d of the Church visible Church wherein the Word of God is truly preached and the Sacraments duly administred may justly fear they are no true Shepherds but rather theeves robbers hirelings because they withhold from their flocks the Sacrament of their Spiritual Regeneration yea the Body Bloud Cup of our Lord Jesus Christ the g 1 Pet. 2. 3. Hebr. 13. 20. chief Shepherd of the Sheep who bequeathed it to them as their chiefest Legacy at his death though themselves stile and confesse them to be the very seals of the Covenant of Grace which they hold forth unto them only as a Blank without a Seal refusing to set these Seals unto it when importuned by their people upon any terms but conformity to their own new Church-ways thereby making the very * 1 Cor. 11. 26. to 33 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. Sacrament ●f Christian love and union a meer Seminary of Scisme contention division seperation And because they entered not by the door into the Sheepfold that is by any legal form of admission to their whole pastoral cure but climbed up some other new way only to preach unto their people rather as to a company of unconverted Heatheus than a Christian Church till new minted into a segregated Congregations collected out of sundry Parishes though never so remote but not to give the Sacraments to them upon any terms h Mat. 23. 23. Lu. 11. 42. which they ought to do yet not to leave their preaching undone which though it be the first and chiefest part of their Ministry yet is not the quarter part of their Pastoral function as Scriptures and our Laws resolve If A. object that he hires another to baptize and Object 3. give the Lords Supper sometimes to his Parishoners though he do it not himself his judgement and conscience being to the contrary I answer 1. This is a clear confession that it is a part Answer of his own duty else why should he hire another to discharge it in his stead 2. This proves the former Objection that he was admited only to preach a meer fiction 3ly If he refuse to do it himself out of conscience as a thing utterly unlawfull in his Iudgement for him to administer to his Parishioners whiles in a Parrochial way with what conscience can he hire another to doe that in his behalf and right which himself holds sinfull unlawfull for himself to doe Doubtlesse a sincere purely tender