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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	form_n	prayer_n	use_v	4,815	5	5.9954	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41019	Virtumnus romanus, or, A discovrse penned by a Romish priest wherein he endevours to prove that it is lawfull for a papist in England to goe to the Protestant church, to receive the communion, and to take the oathes, both of allegiance and supremacie : to which are adjoyned animadversions in the in the [sic] margin by way of antidote against those places where the rankest poyson is couched / by Daniel Featley ...	Featley, Daniel, 1582-1645.	1642 (1642)	Wing F597; ESTC R2100	140,574	186

they can alleadge some speciall priviledge to the contrary but divers generall Councels have erred A generall Councel of Prophets 1 Kings 22.12 erred saying The Lord shall deliver Ramoth Gilead into the Kings hand a generall Councel of Priests Matthew 26.65 erred damnably in condemning Christ for a blasphemer guiltie of death The generall Councel held at Arminum erred denying the Sonnes equalitie with the Father at Ephesus confounding the two natures in Christ at Nice under Irene decreeing that Angels are to be painted because they are of a corporeall nature at Constance denying the Laitie to be bound to receive the communion in both kindes against the expresse precept of Christ Matth. 26.28 and Iohn 6.53 And of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.28 At Florence and after at Trent defining that the effect of the Sacrament depends upon the intention of the Priest or Bishop who administreth it Which if it were true no man in the Roman Church could ever be assured either of his baptisme or of his confirmation or of his absolution or of his ordination or of the validitie of his matrimonie or of his safe adoration of the Host or of the vertue of his extreme unction For how can he certainly know the intention of the Bishop or Priest who administred unto him these rites all which they account sacraments Neither can they evade by saying that these Councels might erre because they were not confirmed by the Pope for the Popes were present at all these later either in person or by their Legates and it is for certain that their second Councel at Nice was confirmed by Pope Adrian at Constance by Pope Martine at Florence by Pope Eugenius at Trent by divers Popes Lastly if Councels had an immunitie from error the prayer which they made at their Councels registred by Gregory the Great l. 7. Epist. were a meere mockerie The prayer was conceived in this forme Quia conscientià remordente tabescimus ne aut ignorattia nos traxerit in errorem aut praeceps forsitan voluntas impulerit a iustitia declinare ob hoc te poscimus te rogamus ut si quid offensionis in hac concilii celebritate attraximus condonare et remissibile facere digneris Because we pine away through remorse of conscience fearing lest either ignorance have drawn us into error or a headie will driven us to swerve from justice for this we pray thee we beseech thee that if we have done any thing amisse in this great and famous assembly thou wouldest vouchsafe to pardon it I conclude therefore with the words of Leo in his Epistle to Anatolius who lightly phillips off the authoritie of the generall Councel held at Ephesus in which there were above 600. Fathers In one word Tanquam refutari nequeat quod illicitè voluerit multitudo as if that could not be refuted which a multitude hath unlawfully determined giving withall most wholesome conusell to all Councels nulla sibi de multiplicitate congregationis concilia blandiantur Let no Councels flatter themselves with the great multitude of persons assembled in them as if that might priviledge them from errour n Here least the Reader should before he be aware be bitten by a snake lying under the grasse I hold it necessary to distinguish between two questions which may seem to be a like but indeed are very different The first whether Papists may goe to Protestant Churches The second whether a Protestant may goe to a Popish Church He that shall give the same solution to both these questions shall give a greater wound to the Protestant cause in the latter then his plaister will salve in the former The Protestants and Papists in this stand not upon even tearmes for there is nothing in the Protestant Liturgie or Service which the Romanists doe or by their own Rules can except at The Confession forme of Absolution Prayers Hymnes Collects Lessons Epistles and Gospels are either such as the Papists themselves use or at least such as they dislike not whereas it is farre otherwise in the Romane Missall For there is sprinkling exorcised water censing books and pictures worshipping images invocation of Saints prayers for the dead intercession by the prayers and merits of souls departed and which is the height of all idolatry adoration of their Host or breaden God and all this service performed in an unknowne tongue contrary to the expresse order of the Apostle 1 Cor. 14. all which the Reformed Churches condemne and abhorre and whereas this Author alleadgeth there can be no text of Scripture brought forbidding Papists to come to our Church I beleeve him but on the other side there are many expresse Texts of holy Scripture from whence it may be strongly inferred that no Protestant whose conscience is convinced of the manifold idolatries and superstitions wherewith the Romish Liturgie is polluted can with a safe conscience goe to Masse as namely Psal. 26.4 I have not sate with vaine persons neither will I goe in with dissemblers I have hated the congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked 1 Cor. 10.7 Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them vers 14. Wherefore my dearely beloved flee from idolatrie 1 Ioh. 5.21 Keepe your selves from idols 2. Cor. 6.14 What fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse or what communion hath light with darknesse vers 16 What agreement hath the Temple of God with idols vers 17. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the uncleane thing and I will receive you o Although I have no meaning to drive away Papists from our Churches nor purpose to enervate the kindly and right arguments which this Priest bringeth to perswade them thereunto yet I cannot let passe this wherwith true Professours may be very much scandalized For what religious heart doth not tremble to thinke of going in and bowing in the temple of an ●doll in which as the Apostle teacheth the service that is done and the sacrifice that is offered is to devils 1 Cor. 10.20 and no better was this Rimmon the Syrian idoll I answer therefore 1 that the case of conscience Naaman put was not whether he might goe with his Master into the house of Rimm●n and offer sacrifice with him unto the idoll but whether he might not waite upon his Master thither and performe a civill for the bowing spoken of was as C●i●tan well noteth genuflexio obsequii non imitativa a bowing to the King not to the Idoll o●●ice to him or make an obeysance whilest the King leaned on his hand and yet his heart smote him for this and his conscience misgave him that the Lord would be displeased with him for it for so much his prayer importeth The Lord pardon thy servant in this thing Secondly the words of the Prophet Elisha Goe in peace doe not necessarily import an approbation or permission of that which Naaman pro●ounded but either a meere forme of valediction as if he had said in our

moral cap. 11. 27 punct● 2.4 5. who saith It is lawfull for Catholiques to pr●y together with Protestants to heare their Service and goe to their Sermons And for this opinion he citeth Navarr lib. 5. Con. 10. 12. de haeret who as all men know was a pious Divine and a man of a tender conscience Againe the said Azorius saith in the said cap. 27. puncto 5. That if an hereticall Prince commands his Subjects that are Catholiques to goe to Church upon paine of death or losse of goods if he doe this only because he will have his lawes obeyed and not to make it Symbolum hereticae pravitatis nor have a purpose to discern thereby Catholiques from Hereticks they may obey it Gregory Martin one of the translators of the Bible into English cited by the said R. P. in his book aforesaid pag. 101. 109. Diana 5. part tract de scandal pag. 191. resol 33. where he saith a man may use the habit and ceremonies of a false law being in danger of death See Hurtado de Mendoza and others by him cited And Paulus Comitolius Resp. moral lib. 1. q. 47. when he comes to handle the question whether a Professour of the Romane faith being sent into those parts where the Greeke Church observes other rites may goe to their service he allows it and builds upon this reason That by the Law of God and nature it is lawfull and the precepts of the Church if any there were that forbid this doe not binde Christians in cases of great detriment to the life or soule or honour or fame or outward things See Azor. above cited for going to the Schismaticall Church of the Greeks where he saith that a Catholique hearing Masse in a Schismaticall Church there on a Sunday fulfilleth the precept of the Church commanding the same See further the Decree of the Councell of Constans and Martin the 5. which beginneth In super ad evitanda scandala c. for the communicating with hereticks as well in service as otherwaies Which Decree extends it selfe further then to our purpose For by the same we may communicate with Hereticks fallen in a Catholike countrey if it be not in point of heresie Yea receive the Sacraments of Priests excommunicated either by law or any sentence of man so they be tolerated and not by name excommunicated See Diana pag. 175. col 1. and the said Hurtado whom he cit●th If then we may communicate with such men where there may be some danger of sin why should we not communicate with Protestants where there can be no danger of sinne as shall be hereafter prooved It is fourthly proved by the practice of all Catholikes in forreigne Countries for Germany See for Germany and France Navarr lib. 5. Consil. 12. de Heret and see the foresaid Author of the answer his words are these cap. 9. pag. 216. And indeed if the German Catholiques had beene so restrained persecuted and put to death as the English have beene these yeers and had not gone by halfes with the Protestants as in some places the have done they had had perhaps farre more Catholiques at this day and them more zealous and their whole Nation perchance reduced ere this Thus he Where is to be noted that his perhaps and perchance are nothing worth For by their going to Church as he termeth it by halfes with the Protestants their countrey became Catholike long since whereas his zeale of persecution hath not converted ours yet neither is yet like to doe For Scotland it is confessed by the said R. P. pag. 69. with his judgement of their miserie ins●ing thereby but the truth of the miserie I shall shew hereafter who yet in plaine termes doth not deny my assertion but here and there granteth that some learned discreete man where there is no scandall and in whom there is no danger of subversion may goe to the Church of heretiques and heare their Sermons Much more say I then to the Church of Protestants most of whom are not to be called properly formall hereticks for to heresie as it is a sinne against faith and maketh a formall hereticke is required obstinacie or pertinacie against the doctrine declaration and sence of the Church See Saint Thomas of Aquin. 2● ●ae q. 11. ar 2o. Cajetan Bannes idem Aragona art 1o. Suares disput 19. de fide sect 3. Now what obstinacie can Protestants be said to have in their opinions with relation to a Church they know not for they know none other but their owne so that although they beleeve amisse whereby they may suffer in the next world and speake hereticall propositions yet because they proceed not from an hereticall mind or consent they are not perfectly heretiques Adde that I my selfe in Germany with other Catholiques of the same countrey have gone to a Synagogue of Iewes without any scandall or having beene judged to have done amisse Ergo I and others may go to a Church of Protestants without any scandall or being judged in reason to have done amisse And I can assure my selfe whatsoever others may thinke of my assurance that the lawfulnesse of going to Church is the common opinion of all forreign Divines that ever I conversed with in any Vniversitie Which in part may be proved by the fact of a certaine Catholique Lady who going to Church in England sent her Priest to Paris to have this case resolved by the Sorbon Doctors who all Subscribed That a Catholique in England might lawfully goe to the Protestant Church That this is true it may be justified by some persons of great qualitie yet alive If any English Scholler shall answer that we went to the Synagogue of Iewes out of curiositie and when they did not exercise their rites and ceremonies I reply that to choose we would have gone if we might have had private conveniencie unknowne to them to have seene their rites and ceremonies neither doe we set downe our intention of going for if it may be done with any intention lawfully especially where the whole matter of all their rites and ceremonies is alwaies conserved to wit a burning lampe with oyle for the soules departed now as they conceive in Limbo patrum a place where the oblation of oyle to that purpose is alwaies kept the tenne Commandements placed in veneration a number of linnen rolles or bands wrote with Hebrew letters wherwith they binde the tenne Commandements according to their distinction of feasts the knife of Circumcision and the like Which may be stumbling blocks to some weake Christians although the men to performe these rites should not be present why should wee not goe to the Protestant Church with some intention lawfully where there are onely men within bare wals saying some Catholique service by them pieced up together without any Catholique forme not to the possible hurt of any but themselves and whether I went to the said Synagogue out of curiositie or out of the love of science to reason