Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	believe_v	faith_n	revelation_n	1,466	5	9.8611	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63872	Testimonium Jesu, or, The demonstration of the spirit for the confirmation of Christian faith, and conviction of all infidelity a sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city of London, at the Guild Hall-Chappel / by Bryan Turner.	Turner, Bryan, 1634 or 5-1698.	1681 (1681)	Wing T3271; ESTC R24645	24,766	38

Divinity itself and happy were it would men consider the grounds of their Faith that they might with the Apostle amidst all the oppositions of the World stand firm with a Nevertheless I am not ashamed for I 2 Tim. 1. 12. know whom I have believed And that Mankind might have rational and satisfactory grounds for Faith in Jesus The Divine Spirit which ever gave Testimony to him exerted it self both as a Spirit of Omnipotency in Miracles and of Omniscience in Prophecy to the end Men might believe the great concerns of Revelation upon the demonstrative grounds of Divine perfection This I take to be St. Paul's meaning when he says My preaching was not with enticing words of man's 1 Cor 2. v. 4 wisdom but in Demonstration of the Spirit and of power i. e. of Miracles wrought by the Spirit of Omnipotency and of Demonstrative conviction out of the Prophets who appear to have been acted by the Spirit of Omniscience and Truth itself by the Events answering their Predictions That your Faith saies he should Verse 5. not stand in the wisdom of men either the Authority of the Civil State with the Leviathan or strong Probability with Others but in the Power of God i. e. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 4. the Divinity itself which when it gives Testimony Natural light unquestionably concludes it true And if it be demanded which way the Apostle made his Demonstrations in the Spirit I suppose he tells us v. 13. We speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth i. e. according to the studied Rules of Arts now in Greece but which the Holy Ghost teacheth Comparing spiritual things with spiritual i. e. comparing the Doctrine and Transactions of the New Testament with the Prophecies of the Old and hereby the Faith of Jesus is Demonstrated to be Divine because attested by the Spirit of Prophecy for in the 9th verse he had quoted the Prophet Isaiah and so in all his preaching as Acts 17. 2 3. and for studying this Demonstration or comparing the New Testament with the Old the Bereans are so much commended v. 11. and nothing is plainer than that all the Evangelists and Apostles and even Christ himself did thus argue or convince out of the Old Testament Prophets The force therefore of the Testimony depends solely upon the Spirit of Prophecy or that 't is the Testimony of the Prime and Omniscient Verity I must not stay to clear my hand of the Tractatus Theologico-politicus who has resolv'd the Spirit of Prophecy not as St. Peter did into being Moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet 1. 21. but into the Crasis of the Imaginative faculty that so you may know him the First-born of the Leviathan and by their Hypotheses whose Scholars Tract p. 7 c. both were even his who resolv'd the Creation of the Universe into the fortuitous concurs of Atoms Neither may I reflect upon that Moral Probability which some seem to think a sufficient foundation for Faith further than to say That matters reveal'd and confirm'd by the Spirit of Prophecy are and ought to be so far as reveal'd as certain Truths as any Demonstrations in the World besides I fear not after St. Paul to say that matters of a Moral and Spiritual nature may be demonstrated taking Demonstration not in the confin'd signification which the School of Heathen Philosophy affixt to it but in the reality of the thing and with respect to the end for which Demonstration serves viz. a Proof that creates a knowledge certain and indubitable and this the Spirit of Prophecy not as revealing but as confirming Revelation by Prediction doth Which brings me to the Third and chief design'd Particular Thirdly That of all other Testimonies of Jesus the Spirit of Prophecy is The Testimony My meaning is There is no such standing satisfactory and demonstrative proof of the Divinity of JESVS's Transactions Faith and Doctrine as the Spirit of Prophecy is There are indeed many other Testimonies of Jesus better than most or any other cause beside his can produce First The Testimony of Angels both good and bad the good in obsequious attendancies upon his Birth his Luke 2. 13. 22. 43 c. Agonies his Resurrection and Ascension The bad in flying Fears concluding at least strongly suspecting by Luke 8. 28. Mark 1. 24. the Predictions of the Old Prophets who it was they now had to deal with in Humane Nature even the Holy One of God or the Seed promised to break the Serpent's head Secondly The Testimony of Men both his Friends and Enemies His Friends extol adore him die for him his Enemies of all sorts confess him an extraordinary Person though a deceiver as Celsus Jalian Mahomed the Jew the Philosopher the Apostate the Impostor the Infidel Mahomed is kindest of all the rest for he will allow him to be his Pew-fellow in Prophecy upon condition he may but sit above him Nay Thirdly There are more venerable Witnesses than either Angels or Men I mean those Three in Heaven 1 Joh. 5. 7 8. and those Three on Earth where though the Divine Spirit make One in either Three yet which I wonder is no more observed and insisted on the Spirit as 't is in this sence explain'd The Spirit of Prophecy is however to my apprehension The Testimony Not in preference to the Others consider'd in themselves but consider'd with reference to Mankind who are to be Judges of their Evidence and whose Judging faculties are more susceptive of satisfaction from the Spirit as a Spirit of Prophecy or infinite Science in truth than from the same Spirit in any other way of Evidence the reason of which I conceive to be this That the convictions of the Spirit in the way of Prophecy or in the display of Omniscience is more directly accommodate to humane Intellect our faculty of Science than any other operation of the Spirit is For the strongest tendencies of Intellect are to the Science of Truth and therefore acts of Omniscient Truth are more accommodate to Humane understanding than acts of Power Wisdom being that it is more delighted in than Strength If any Revelation be from God by the foresaid Rule of Natural knowledge it ought to be accepted and submitted to But whether that which pretends Revelation be from God or no is the only Question Now the Argument from Miracles is prest by all this of Prediction by few or none but without depreciating the former I must confess ever since I consider'd it the latter is weightier and more convictive with me for I am more fully satisfied That the whole Series of Scriptural Revelation is Divine because I find all along the Spirit of Prediction interwoven than because I read such and such Miracles done For I find the Alcharon pretending Miracles but not daring to pretend Prediction So that of all the innate Characters of Divinity pretended to in any written Law this of Prediction is peculiar to the Scriptures This

therefore is the Proposition I shall insist upon That the Spirit of Prophecy not as revealing God's mind only for that 's the Question but as predicting to confirm what is revealed is primarily The Testimony The Reasons I shall at present offer are these Two First Because this Spirit of Prophecy is that Tally cannot be counterfeited but may easily be discovered by certain Rules of tryal Secondly Because all Ages are equally under its conviction which they are not as to any other Testimony abstracting from this nay succeeding Ages have the advantage in this and may rely upon it as that which gives credit to all the rest First Because the Spirit of Prophecy is that Tally cannot be counterfeited but may easily be discovered and therefore God gave it to the World to prevent delusion in matters of Revelation The intentions of his Mercy to recover Mankind from the Fall God held forth the faith and hope of to Adam and all his Posterity in the Promise of a Seed that should break the Serpent's head i. e. in the Gospel style should Gen. 3. 15. 1 Joh. 3. 8. destroy the works of the Devil But lest the subtil Serpent should set up one of his own party under the specious pretences of redeeming Mankind when the conceal'd intention was to enslave them more God did by the Spirit of Prophecy in several Ages so individualize that Redeemer so precisely foretel his Time so notifie all his Transactions that in common reason he might be known from all others and this want of reason is that our Saviour wonders at in the Pharisees who sought a Sign of him Ye can discern the Matt. 16. 1. face of the sky but can ye not discern the signs of the times i. e. that these are the Times of your expected Messiah presignified by the Spirit of Prophecy in the Old Testament and that ye need no Sign from me to prove it but the correspondency of my time and actions to their Predictions That the Spirit of Prophecy had thus characteriz'd the Person the Time the Actions and Sufferings of the Messiah that this Jesus of Nazareth must needs be him of whom Moses and the Prophets did write Joh. 1. 45. I shall not go about to clear In this I refer to the Evangelists especially St. Matthew who still appeals * As Matt. 18. 17. and elsewhere even in Christ's Miracles to what was written in the Prophets Taking then this for granted I say that this Spirit of Prophecy was that Tally could not be counterfeited given therefore by God to prevent delusion in matters pretending to Revelation and so 't is emphatically The Testimony Not that a lying Spirit could not pretend a Divination as well as a Revelation but that it could not predict a future contingent Event especially remote so as to adventure on the tryal of Prophecy and all Heathen Divination boggled here For 't is as infallible a Rule That none but the Divine Spirit can be the Spirit of Prophecy as 't is That remote future contingencies can be clearly foreseen and certainly foretold by none but Omniscient Veracity And therefore setting aside the Works of Creation which found Natural Religion there 's no effect that argues an immediate Divinity for its cause so clearly as the Prophetical Predictions do because there are more easie and certain Rules of Tryal to discern which is the true Spirit of Prophecy than any Divine operation after the creation of things For wonderful Works may be said to be the products of that energy which the Creator at first enricht Nature with and so a * Quare absolutè concludimus omnia quae in Scripturis Verè narrantur contigisse ea secundum leges Naturae ut omnia necessario contigisse Et si quid reperiatur legibus Naturae repugnare aut ex iis consequi non potuisse planè credendum id à Sacrilegis hominibus sacris Literis adjectum esse Tract Theo. pol. c. 6. p 71. late Off-spring of the Leviathan affirms But Prediction is Self-evidently an immediate issue from the Divinity de novo which if so and prest home upon the Leviathan and his First-born now mentioned will shew them other grounds for Christian Faith and Scriptures than only the Authority of God's † Leviath cap. 36 37. Lieutenants Now the Rules to try the Spirit of Prophecy by as I take it are but these Two First That the thing pretended to be a Revelation from God which was alwaies an Injuction or Prohibition with their annexes had no intrinsecal Evil in it or necessarily derivative from it peccant against the Laws of Morality settled in the first Creation i. e. against Natural Religion or a former Law reveal'd and on good grounds accepted as Divine for God's Laws never contradict one another neither is his Wisdom so short-sighted as to set up contrary Institutions of life and therefore the Christian Law destroys not the Mosaical but compleats its imperfections I came not to destroy but to fulfil i. e. to fill up This is the primary and grand Rule of Tryal To which mens non-attendance has at last debaucht all Religion made it a wild and unaccountable thing and let in that Spirit of Giddiness that exposes men to every wind of Doctrine The Second Rule of Tryal is this That the Revelation pretending from God and not peccant as aforesaid should be confirm'd with a Sign i. e. Prediction fulfill'd These two Rules brought the whole Spirit of Prophecy under trial let the Rabbies and they that in this admire them multiply never so many I apprehend not that the Scriptures have given us any more or that reason requires them Only Two things are here to be observ'd First That in whatever matter it consisted whether Miracle or not yet being a contingency the formality of a Sign consisted in Prediction fulfill'd Secondly That the Rule of Tryal by Signs was but Secondary and subordinate to that of tryal by Natural Religion i. e. a former Law whether that of Creation or Revelation after confirmed and accepted And all this is plain from Deut. 18. and the 13th Chapters First When a Prophet speaketh in the Name of the Chap. 18. 22. Lord i. e. pretends a Revelation if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken The defect of Prediction fulfill'd overthrows the pretences of Inspiration or Revelation which necessarily argues whatever the materiality of a Sign be its * Jer. 28. 9. Ezek. 33. 33. formality consists in Prediction fulfill'd Though I allow 't was often but not alwaies in a matter or work miraculous that what Omniscience had said Omnipotence might back and awaken the Understanding by the impressions on sense Secondly If a Sign or Prediction should be fulfill'd to promote Idolatry or any thing destructive to Natural Religion or a former Divine Law reveal'd Thou shalt not hearken to the voice of that Prophet for the Lord Deut. 13. 3

WARD Mayor Martis XXV to die Januarii 1680. Annoque Regni Regis CAROLI Secundi Angl ' c. xxxii do UPon the motion of Sir John Lawrence Kt. and Alderman This Court doth desire Mr. Turner to print his Sermon sometime since Preached at the Guildhall-Chappel before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen Wagstaffe TESTIMONIVM JESV Or THE Demonstration of the Spirit FOR The Confirmation of Christian Faith and Conviction of all Infidelity A SERMON Preached before the Right Honourable THE LORD MAYOR and ALDERMEN OF THE City of LONDON AT THE GUILDHALL-CHAPPEL By BRYAN TVRNER B. D. Rector of Solderne Oxon and Chaplain to the Right Honourable CHARLES Earl of Carlisle LONDON Printed by S. Roycroft for Walter Kettleby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1681. REVEL XIX 10. And I fell at his feet to worship him and he said unto me See thou do it not I am thy fellow Servant and of thy Brethren that have the Testimony of Jesus Worship God For the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy WHether St. John here was through Joy transported into too submiss a Reverence or he mistook the Person for Christ as the Angels telling him who he was seems rather to insinuate is not needful to determine If transported into too submiss a Reverence such as was usually appropriate to Divine Worship then it reads us this Lecture That on the one hand Bodily Adoration is within the list of Divine Worship and necessarily due by the Commandment Worship God and on the other hand to transfer it to Saints or Angels is Sacrilegious and Idolatrous See thou do it not Now what bodily gestures are appropriate to Divine Worship must not be measured from the gestures themselves for one may fall at the feet of their Superiour without a crime as Abigail did to David but from the circumstances of Customary 1 Sam 25. 24. time place and matter in hand as when they are tendred upon an Holy-day in a Temple or Oratory and when Religion Prayer and Devotion is the matter pretended But if the Crime the Apostle was here incurring was through mistake of the person thinking him to be Christ Then it us reads this Lecture That bodily adoration intended Right but mistaken in the object is yet peccant against the Commandment of Worship And both these would affright a considerative mind at the peril of Idolatry in the Church of Rome where if the Host be not mistaken the Sense of Mankind must and if all the Canoniz'd Saints be truly what they are esteemed yet doubtless no better than the Angel in the Text. Neither will the distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 salve the Crime objected in this latter case seeing there was no room for it in this of the Apostle and the Angel here For why could not this Angel have applied the distinction to salve the breach of the Commandment as well as the Angelical Doctor can But that when the Circumstances speak Religion there is indeed no distinction at all But 't is the importance of the last words I design to consider For the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy Which words are a reason why the Angel was the Apostles fellow Servant c. For whosoever by the Spirit of Prophecy revealed the Divine will was concerned in the common Testimony of Jesus because all Prophecy truly so called had Jesus and his Interests for its grand Subject therefore whosoever was employed therein whether Angel to Man or one Man to another whether before or after the exhibition of Jesus were as to that employment fellow Servants and had the Testimony of Jesus though subpaena'd to it as Balaam was by that Power that could give the man the Spirit of Prophecy as well as his Ass the Gift of Speaking And so Numb 24. 2. c. much may serve to account for the words as they are a reason why the Angel was the Apostle's fellow Servant and of Brethren I shall now consider them as a distinct proposition The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy which in logical order is to be placed thus The Spirit of Prophecy is the Testimony of Jesus Not discussing the variety either the word Prophecy After Christ's Exhibition the Prophetical light shone clearer even to discover the obscurity of its own former shades so that in this illustration of the former ancient Prophets did the latter Spirit of Prophecy very much consist and hence in Apostolical days to Prophecy is to explain the intended or Evangelical meaning of the Old Testament 1 Cor. 14. 1 2 3 4 5 13 19 c. hence the phrase Liberty of Prophecying c. or Testimony may admit in their significations elsewhere I shall take them here as I judge they ought to be in their most obvious and primary sense A Testimony is a declarative proof to make good his cause for whom it is produc'd Prophecy most properly implies two things First Revelation of the Divine will or mind and Secondly Prediction which latter is annex'd to the former as a sign or rational evidence of the Truth and Divinity of the Revelation For God offers no Revelation to Mankind but upon grounds of rational satisfaction that it is from himself i. e. under some convictive Characters of Divinity and Truth Now Prediction is this Character annex'd to the Revelation as a Seal for humane Satisfaction that 't is Divine or from God himself This being a presumptive Rule with Humane Nature That what Gody saies is indubitably true and what he commands ought instantly to be obeyed And 't is upon these grounds of Natures allowance that all divine Revelation is founded But that which convictively proves the Word or Revelation to be Divine is the determinate prediction of things future not necessary in their causes Thus that Pharaoh should let Israel go was the Revelation Exod. 7. 16 17 18 c. and that Moses would at such a time work such a Wonder was the Prediction i. e. the Sign given to prove the Revelation from God Therefore his Wonders 1 Kin. 22. 25 28. 1 Sam. 10. 2 3 4 5 7. are called Signs not only because Wonders or Miracles for all Prophetical Signs were not so but because presignified and therein when fulfilled Significators of Divinity in the Revelation Seeing then that the Revelation which I conceive is alwaies a Precept or Prohibition with Promises or Threatnings annext in its acceptance with men depends upon Prediction as the Commission doth upon the Seal The Spirit of Prophecy is most properly the Spirit of Prediction or that Spirit which can confirm the Revelation by foretelling Futurities of a contingent nature i. e. things only within the sphere of Omniscience For I judge the weight of this Text lies here and not in the abstract notion of Revelation as the late Tract upon it seems to apprehend And this being premised for the sense I take the words in every word in the