The Scottish Presbyterians And Covenanters: A Continuationist Experience In A Cessationist Theology

by Dean R. Smith

Dean R. Smith is Chair of the Department of Biblical Studies, Christian Ministries, and Philosophy at Geneva College.

I. Introduction

An object of continuing discussion among evangelicals and within the Reformed community is the continuation today of the spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament. The discussion has been evidenced in recent years in the debates at the Evangelical Theological Society regarding the continuation of prophecy between Wayne Grudem of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Richard Gaffin of Westminster Theological Seminary, as well as the publication in 1996 of Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views.

Generally, Pentecostals and charismatics have argued for the continuation of all the spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament. (Unfortunately, the term “charismatic” has been used in a broad sense to include not only doctrinal beliefs, but also particular worship and ministry styles. In order to narrow the focus to the theological/doctrinal issues of the discussion, the term continuationist will be used in this paper.) Cessationists have argued that certain miraculous spiritual gifts ceased when the apostles and their immediate associates died and the canon of the Scripture was complete.

Cessationists include those from the Reformed perspective and the dispensationalists. Among the Reformed, B. B. Warfield’s classic work Counterfeit Miracles has been viewed as setting forth not only a Reformed perspective, but the Reformed perspective. Warfield states his position very clearly:

These gifts were not the possession of the primitive Christian as such; nor for that matter of the Apostolic Church or the Apostolic age for themselves; they were distinctively the authentication of the Apostles as the authoritative agents of God in founding the church. Their function thus confined them to distinctively the Apostolic Church, and they necessarily passed away with it. Of this we may make sure on the ground of both principle and fact; that is to say both under the guidance of the New Testament teaching as to their origin and nature, and on the credit of the testimony of later ages as to their cessation. … In the process of this examination occasion will offer for noting whatever is needful to convince us that the possession of the charismata was confined to the Apostolic age.[1]

It is important to note for this discussion that Warfield’s argument for the cessation of the charismata is really a historical survey rather than an analysis of biblical texts. Grudem[2] also notes that Warfield was not responding to the use of charismatic gifts among evangelicals, but rather the false claims of miracles from some Roman Catholics and various heretical sects.

Many Reformed people have assumed that Warfield adequately summarized the history of the church in regard to the continuation of charismata. Generally both cessationists and continuationists have until recently either ignored or overlooked the history and the testimony of the Scottish Presbyterians and Covenanters in regard to the continuation of both prophecy and healing.

Iain Murray reflects the general cessationist assumption about the demise of the gifts:

What I would point out is the fact that not since the time of the apostolic church has there been any group of Christians whose claim to be in possession of the extraordinary gifts of the New Testament age has deserved credibility. These gifts were unknown in the time of Chrysostom (c. 347–407) and Augustine (c. 354–430). Nor have they ever been possessed by any evangelical leaders in any of the revivals from the Reformation to the present century. Against the claim of the Roman Church that she is authenticated by the continuance of the miraculous, the reformers appealed solely to the Scripture. The same was true in the Puritan period, through the Great Awakening in the time of Edwards, Whitefield, and the Wesleys, and down to Spurgeon. All agreed with Whitefield that “the miraculous gifts conferred on the primitive church have long since ceased.” If such leaders were filled with the Spirit, as they were, in order to do such a mighty work, it is strange that they knew no miraculous gifts—supposing they were intended to be permanent. The more so as the Scripture teaches that gifts are sovereignly given by the Holy Spirit ‘who works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills’ (1 Cor 12:11). 

This is not to say that miraculous gifts have not been claimed among Protestants at any time. They have been repeatedly claimed by those whose ultimate history proved them to be fanatics whose hopes were delusions. This happened at the time of the Reformation and again in the following century when numbers were misled by those claiming to possess the spirit of prophecy…. Theoretical discussion of the possibility of the continuance of miraculous gifts may continue, but the historical facts are clear: great revivals have occurred without the presence of any such gifts, while excitement and interest in them may abound where there is no revival.[3]

Murray contrasts false claims for the gifts and concludes “revival may occur without the presence of these gifts.” However, the revival and the survival of the church in Scotland was accompanied by the gifts of both prophecy and healing.

The Scottish Presbyterians were those early Protestants of Scotland who struggled for religious reformation in Scotland. The first Scottish Confession of Faith was signed in 1557, subscribed again in 1581, 1590, 1596, and 1638. The Covenanters were those who signed the Solemn League and Covenant in 1638 and lived from 1638–1688, a period during which some 18,000 people suffered death or other penalties of hardship for their faith. This same period, however, experienced a remarkable outpouring of the Spirit of God on his suffering church. Some of the experiences were recorded in a series of books: John Knox’s History of the Reformation in Scotland; Robert Fleming’s The Fulfilling of the Scriptures, first published in Rotterdam in 1671; Patrick Walker’s Six Saints of the Covenant, originally published in 1724; and John Howie’s The Scots Worthies, first published in 1775. Howie’s work, based on the earlier accounts, is primarily inspirational biographical sketches of the Scottish martyrs, arranged chronologically according to the date they died for their faith. Howie’s work is also more popular, written to encourage later generations of believers. The 1870 edition was reprinted in 1995 by the Banner of Truth Trust, thus making it readily available today.

The use of the terms “prophecy,” “prophets,” etc., has been a source of confusion in cessationist and continuationist debates. Some extreme continuationists either explicitly or implicitly affirm that their “prophecies” are equal to apostolic or canonical truth, and are therefore authoritative and binding. The Scots believed that the canon was closed and that the offices of apostle and prophet had ceased. For the Scots, “prophecy” was extraordinary revelation resulting either in predictions of future events or special insight into immediate circumstances. Nevertheless, their revelation was non-apostolic, non-canonical, and non-binding. More will be said about this topic later.

One question that needs to be addressed is reliability. Many of the things recorded in these books are so remarkable that they naturally produce a response of skepticism, if not outright disbelief. Are the records reliable or are the events merely reflective of myth and Scottish folklore?

Knox was present at George Wishart’s martyrdom and heard Wishart’s prophecy of Cardinal Beaton’s death. Knox himself gives indication of his own experience of prophecy in writing “A Godly Letter to the Faithful in London, etc.” in which he clearly identifies the judgments of God coming through a variety of plagues. How does Knox know this?

But ye wald knaw the groundis of my certitude; God grant that hearing thame ye may understand and stedfastlie believe the same. My assurances are not the Mervallis of Merline, nor yit the dark sentences of prophane Prophesies; But (1) the plane treuth of Godis Word; (2) the invincibill justice of the everlasting God; and (3) the ordinarie course of his punishmentis and plagues from the begynning, ar my asurance and groundis. Godis Word threateneth distructioun to all inobedient; his immuntabill justice require the same. The ordinary punishmentis and plagues schawis exempillis. What man then can ceis to prophesie?[4]

It might be argued by some that Knox is here referring to prophecy only in the sense of the proper exposition and application of the Scriptures. However, in the same letter Knox cites several ministers who prophesied specific coming judgments:

Almost thair wes none that occupyit the place, but he did prophesie and planelie speake the plagues that ar begun and assuredlie sall end. 

MAISTER GRINDALL 

planelie spak the death of the Kingis Majestie; complaynyng on his houshald servandis and officeris, who neither exchameit nor feirit to raill aganis Godis trew Word, and aganis the Preacheris of the same. The godlie and fervent man, 

MAISTER LEVER 

, planelie spak the desolatioun of the commoun weill, and the plagues whik suld follow schortlie. 

MAISTER BRADFURDE 

(whome God for Chrystis his Sonis sake comfort to the end!) spared not the proudest, but boldlie declareit that Godis vengeance suld schortlie stryke thame that then wer in autoritie, becaus thay abhorrit and loathed the trew Word of the everlasting God. And, amangis many uthir, willit thame to tak exempill be the lait Duck of Somerset, who became so cold in hearing Godis Word, that the year befoir his last apprehensioun, he wald ga visit his masonis, and wald not dainyie himself to ga frome his gallerie to his hall for ehring of a sermone. “God punissit him (said the godlie Preacher) and that suddanelie, and sall He spair yow that be dowbill mair wickit? No, He sall not!”[5]

This letter was written in 1554. Can there be certainty that Knox really believed that God was giving special insights into the future to these men? Writing on September 19, 1565, a prefix to a sermon preached on August 19, 1565, in Edinburgh, Knox says:

For considering my selfe rather cald of my God to instruct the ignorant, comfort the sorowfull, confirme the weake, and rebuke the proud, by tong and livelye voyce in these most corrupt dayes, than to compose bokes for the age to come, seeing that so much is written (and that by men of most singular condition), and yet so little well observed; I decreed to containe my selfe within the bondes of that vocation, wherunto I founde my selfe especially called. I dare not denie (lest that in so doing I should be inhurious to the giver), but that God hath revealed unto me secretes unknowne to the worlde; and also that he made my tong a trumpet, to forwarne realmes and nations, yea, certaine great personages, of translations and chaunges, when no such thinges were feared, nor yet was appearing, a portion wherof cannot the world denie (be it ever so blind) to be fulfilled; and the rest, alas! I feare, shall follow with greater expedition, and in more full perfection, than my sorrowfull heart desireth. These revelations and assurances notwithstanding, I did ever absteyne to commit anye thing to writ, contented onely to have obeyed the charge of Him who commanded me to cry.[6]

This is perhaps the clearest of Knox’s statements about God revealing events to him in advance so that he could warn kingdoms and rulers of things about to come. Some of these he had seen come to pass, and some would yet come. Knox is recording things out of his own experience and awareness.

What about Robert Fleming? Deere notes:

Fleming and his contemporaries should be considered credible because they saw many of these things with their own eyes. Fleming’s spiritual fathers and other witnesses had passed on accounts of miracles before his time or the events were a matter of public record.[7]

The events recorded in The Fulfilling of the Scripture are carefully documented. Dates are frequently indicated and often the names of people present are given, with frequent notes that the observers are still alive. Steven notes the high regard in which Fleming is held:

Annexed to the folio edition is an extremely favourable attestation by Dr. Isaac Watts, Mr Jabez Earle, Mr. Daniel Neal, the historian of the Dissenters, and other eighteen distinguished ministers in London. The writer, they observe, “is universally known to have been a person of singular worth and piety, and his works declare him a diligent and careful observer of the provides [sic] of God towards his church and people. Many such instances, which no other author has taken notice of, and which, were they not well attested, would appear almost incredible, are to be met in his book called The Fulfilling of the Scripture; a performance which has so far entitled itself to the esteem of all serious Christians, as not to need our recommendation.” The work was originally published in Holland, where, as throughout the British Empire, Mr. Fleming acquired a lasting reputation. It is designed to shew the workings of particular providence, and, in our opinion, is a production which does much honour to the piety and sound professional learning of its author. Few Christians more habitually recognised the overruling hand of the Almighty than did Mr. Fleming; and indeed in every object and event, he devoutly traced the divine operations. From the history of all nations, and especially from that of his native, as well as of Holland, his adopted country, he has gratefully recorded several ever memorable instances of a public and private kind, which afforded evident proofs of the merciful interference of heaven in the hour of extremity.[8]

Similar statements are made about Patrick Walker. Even though Walker traveled over 1000 miles in Scotland and Ireland, while collecting reports and historical facts, his accuracy was attacked from the beginning and he was accused of inadequate documentation. However, D. C. Lachman notes: “In so far as his work can now be verified, his quotations are substantially accurate and his facts and dates correct.”[9]

D. H. Fleming, editor of the 1901 edition of Walker’s Six Saints of the Covenant, states:

Many of Patrick’s [sic] statements can now be neither verified nor disproved; but, in going carefully over his printed works, I have been agreeably surprised to find that a number of his marvellous stories can be corroborated from other works, some of which he never saw. His quotations are fairly accurate, and his dates are on the whole amazingly correct. When he records what he had personally seen or heard, his statements, may, I think, be taken as absolutely truthful, subject of course to some allowance in details for lapse of memory, seeing that some of his stories seem to have floated in his mind for forty years before they were committed to paper. Although he appealed at the close of each pamphlet for additional information, it must not be supposed that he was credulous enough to believe everything and to insert anything. Credulous in some (ways he undoubtedly was), he was not destitute of the critical faculty, as some learned to their cost who tried to trip him up.[10]

The conclusion to be drawn is that the unique and amazing accounts from this history are reliable accounts of actual events. This is how they were understood at the time and by later historians and scholars who have evaluated the records.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the strict cessationist perspective of Warfield and others is a limited perspective on what the Reformers and their descendants have believed and practiced. If Knox, the Scottish Presbyterians, and the Covenanters were living today and ministering in the same manner that they did in the 1500s and 1600s, we would be forced to classify them more with the continuationists than the cessationists.

While the Scottish Presbyterians and Covenanters did not practice all the miraculous spiritual gifts, two that would ordinarily be considered both miraculous and extraordinary are prophecy and healing.

II. Prophecy as Understood Among the Reformers

Most cessationists view the continuation of prophecy as necessarily demanding that it be equal in authority with Scripture. It is true that prophecy as new authoritative revelation from God was viewed by the Reformers as an extraordinary gift belonging to the apostolic era. There is a uniform agreement that the Scriptures were the unique revelation of God. This is seen in the Westminster Confession of Faith 1:6:

The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.

The phrase “whether by new revelations of the Spirit” is most significant. There appears to be a recognition of the existence of extraordinary revelation, or God’s miraculously communicating to people apart from ordinary means, that might be experienced. The term “extraordinary revelation” first appears in the writings of George Gillespie.[11] The phrase “whether by new revelations of the Spirit” in the Westminster Confession 1:6 is a recognition within the Westminster Assembly that such extraordinary revelation may have existed, but that it was not equal in authority with the Scriptures.[12] In other words, there may be new revelations of the Spirit, but the only infallible rule of faith and life is the Word of God in the Scriptures. Is there support for such an interpretation?

III. Prophecy among the Scottish Presbyterians and Covenanters

George Gillespie was one of the four ministers who were sent as commissioners from the Church of Scotland to the Westminster Assembly and was considered unequaled in clarity of thinking and strength of argument. Gillespie makes some significant observations about prophecy as it was experienced by the Scottish Presbyterians and Covenanters of previous generations as well as by those he would have known as contemporaries.

And now, having the occasion, I must say it, to the glory of God, there were in the church of Scotland, both in the time of our first reformation, and after the reformation, such extraordinary men as were more than ordinary pastors and teachers, even holy prophets receiving extraordinary revelations from God, and foretelling divers strange and remarkable things, which did accordingly come to pass punctually, to the great admiration of all who knew the particulars. Such were Mr. Wishart the martyr, Mr. Knox the reformer, also Mr. John Welsh, Mr. John Davidson, Mr. Robert Bruce, Mr. Alexander Simpson, Mr. Furgusson, and others. It were too long to make a narrative here of all such particulars, and there are so many of them stupendous, that to give instance in some few, might seem to derogate from the rest, but if God give me opportunity, I shall think it worth the while to make a collection of these things; meanwhile, although such prophets be extraordinary, and but seldom raised up in the church, yet such there have been, I dare say, not only in the primitive times but amongst our first reformers and others; and upon what scripture can we pitch for such extraordinary prophets, if not upon those scriptures which are applied by some to the prophesying brethren, or gifted church members?[13]

Gillespie’s use of the words “holy prophets receiving extraordinary revelations from God” is most important. As a signer of the Confession, he was committed to the uniqueness and completeness of the Scriptures, yet he sees in these men extraordinary revelations from God.

Samuel Rutherford was another Scottish commissioner to the Westminster Assembly. In writing about the nature of subjective (internal) revelation Rutherford says:

There is a revelation of some particular men, who have foretold things to come even since the ceasing of the Canon of the word as John Husse, Wickeliefe, Luther, have foretold things to come, and they certainely fell out, and in our nation of Scotland, M. George Wishart foretold that Cardinall Beaton should not come out alive at the Gates of the Castle of St. Andrewes, but that he should dye a shamefull death, and he was hanged over the window that he did look out at, when he saw the man of God burnt, M. Knox prophecied of the hanging of the Lord of Grange, M. Ioh. Davidson uttered prophecies knowne to many of the kingdome, divers Holy and mortified preachers in England have done the like… .[14]

Rutherford notes that these men did not require others to believe their prophecies as Scripture and did not denounce those who did not believe their predictions of particular events and facts. It is significant to note that Rutherford, along with Gillespie, recognized the unique extraordinary revelation that was given to those who had preceded them, and uses the term prophecy to describe such revelation. Robert Blair, a contemporary of Gillespie and Rutherford, also makes reference to Wishart, Knox, Davidson, and Welch as men who had received extraordinary revelations concerning the times in which they lived.

The force of the Gillespie, Rutherford, and Blair references is that these men who either were commissioners to the Westminster Assembly, or lived during its time, recognized the extraordinary revelation that God had given to their predecessors and did not see it as inconsistent with their understanding of the Scriptures as the only infallible rule of faith and life. In other words, their understanding of the uniqueness of the Scriptures did not lead them to conclude that God could not continue to reveal himself through extraordinary revelation. What was the nature of the extraordinary revelation experienced by these Scottish Presbyterians and Covenanters? Illustrations will be given from the lives of the Scots from George Wishart to Alexander Peden. The information included comes mainly from Howie’s biographies which were based on the earlier works of Knox, Fleming and Walker. The examples chosen are but a few selections from many examples in the lives of these men.

1. George Wishart (1513–1546)

George Wishart was one of the early Scottish Reformers and martyrs. Cardinal David Beaton was Wishart’s nemesis. Beaton made several unsuccessful attempts on Wishart’s life. Eventually Beaton had Wishart arrested, tried, and condemned to be burned at the stake for heresy on March 1, 1546. Howie notes:

… Two executioners came to him, and arraying him in a black linen coat, they fastened some bags of gunpowder about him, put a rope about his neck, a chain about his waist, and bound his hands behind his back, and in this dress they led him to the stake, near the Cardinal’s palace … the fore-tower, which was immediately opposite to the fire was hung with tapestry, and rich cushions were laid in the windows, for the ease of the Cardinal and prelates, while they beheld the sad spectacle.[15]

When they kindled the fire, the gunpowder blew up, but did not kill Wishart. Right before the executioner drew the cord about his neck to end his life, Wishart uttered these words:

This flame hath scorched my body, yet it hath not daunted my spirit; but he who, from yonder place, beholdeth us with such pride, shall within a few days lie in the same, as ignominiously as he is now seen proudly to rest himself.[16]

Deere notes that:

On May 28, 1546, less than three months after Wishart’s death, at about fifty-two years of age, Cardinal Beaton was murdered in the very palace from which he watched the prophetic martyr’s execution, fulfilling Wishart’s last prophecy.[17]

Howie notes that Wishart “possessed the spirit of prophecy to an extraordinary degree.”[18]

2. John Knox (1514–1572)

John Knox is perhaps the most famous of the Scottish Reformers and played a leading role in the Reformation in Scotland.

John Knox was an eminent wrestler with God in prayer, and like a prince prevailed. The Queen Regent herself had given him this testimony, when upon a particular occasion she said that she was more afraid of his prayers than of an army of ten thousand men. He was likewise warm and pathetic in his preaching, in which such prophetical expressions as dropped from him had the most remarkable accomplishment.

(1) As an instance of this, when he was confined in the castle of St. Andrews, he foretold both the manner of their surrender, and their deliverance from the French galleys; and when the Lords of the Congregation were twice discomfited by the French army, he assured them that the Lord would ultimately prosper the work of Reformation.

(2) Again, when Queen Mary refused to come and hear sermon, he bade them tell her that she would yet be obliged to hear the Word of God whether she would or not; which came to pass at her arraignment in England.

(3) At another time, he thus addressed himself to her husband, Henry, Lord Darnley, while in the king’s seat in the High Church of Edinburgh: “Have you, for the pleasure of that dainty dame, cast the psalm-book into the fire? The Lord shall strike both head and tail.” Both King and Queen died violent deaths.

(4) He likewise said, when the Castle of Edinburgh held out for the Queen against the Regent, that “the Castle should spue out the captain (meaning Sir William Kircaldy of Grange) with shame, that he should not come out at the gate, but over the wall, and that the tower called Davis Tower, should run like a sand-glass; which was fulfilled a few years after—Kircaldy being obliged to come over the wall on a ladder, with a staff in his hand, and the said fore-work of the Castle running down like a sand-brae.”

(5) On the 24th of January 1570, John Knox being in the pulpit, a paper was put into his hands, among others containing the names of sick people to be prayed for; the paper contained these words, “Take up the man whom you accounted another God,” alluding to the Earl of Moray, who was slain the day before. Having read it, he put it into his pocket, without showing the least discomposure. After sermon, he lamented the loss which both the Church and the State had met with in the death of that worthy nobleman, showing that God takes away good and wise rulers from a people in His wrath; and at last said, “There is one in the company who maketh that horrible murder, at which all good men have occasion to be sorrowful, the subject of his mirth. I tell him, he shall die in a strange land, where he shall not have a friend near him to hold up his head.” Thomas Maitland, the author of that insulting paper, hearing what Knox said, confessed the whole to his sister, the Lady Trabrown, but said, that John Knox was raving, to speak of he knew not whom; she replied with tears, that none of John Knox’s threatenings fell to the ground. This gentleman afterwards went abroad and died in Italy, on his way to Rome, having no man to comfort him.[19]

(6) At his execution in June 1581, [the Earl of Morton] called to mind John Knox’s words and acknowledged, that in what he had said to him he had been a true prophet.[20]

John Knox not only made such prophecies consciously, his hearers regarded them as prophecy.

3. John Davidson (d. 1595)

John Davidson was a minister who suffered for over ten years beginning in 1584 with the Raid of Ruthven. Like a number of others, he received extraordinary revelations.

He likewise, in some instances, showed that he was possessed, in a considerable measure, of the spirit of prophecy. While in Preston, he was very anxious about the building of a church in that parish, and had from his own private means contributed liberally to it. Lord Newbattle, having considerable interest in that parish, likewise promised his assistance, but afterwards receded from his engagements upon which Davidson told him, that these walls there begun should stand as a witness against him, and that ere long God should root him out of that parish, so that he should not have one bit of land in the same; which was afterwards accomplished.

Robert Fleming, in his Fulfilling of the Scriptures, relates another remarkable instance of this kind. A gentleman nearly related to a great family in the parish of Preston, but a most violent hater of true piety, did on that account, beat a poor man who had lived there, although he had no manner of provocation. Among other strokes which he gave him, he gave him one on the back, saying, “Take that for Mr. Davidson’s sake.” This maltreatment obliged the poor man to take to his bed, complaining most of the blow which he had received on his back. In the close of the sermon on the Sabbath following, Davidson, speaking of the oppression of the godly, and the enmity which the wicked had to such, in a particular manner mentioned this last instance, saying, “It was a sad time, when a profane man would thus openly adventure to vent his rage against such as were seekers of God in the place, whilst he could have no cause but the appearance of His image;” and then said with great boldness, “He who hath done this, were he the laird or the laird’s brother, ere a few days pass, God shall give him a stroke, that all the monarchs on earth dare not challenge.” Which accordingly came to pass in the close of that very same week; for this gentleman, while standing before his own door, was struck dead with lightning, and had all his bones crushed to pieces.[21]

4. John Welch (1570–1622)

John Welch was very much the prodigal son in his early years, leaving home and living as a thief. He then decided to return home where he was reconciled to his father, entered college, and then went into the ministry. He was diligent not only in preaching and studying, but also in prayer. Welch had many extraordinary experiences in his ministry according to Howie:

(1) While Welch was at Ayr, the Lord’s day was greatly profaned at a gentleman’s house about eight miles distant, by reason of a great confluence of people playing at the football, and other pastimes. After writing several times to him, to suppress the profanation of the Lord’s day at his house, which he slighted, not loving to be called a puritan, Welch came one day to his gate, and, calling him out, told him that he had a message from God to show him; because he had slighted the advice given him from the Lord, and would not restrain the profanation of the Lord’s day committed in his bounds, therefore the Lord would cast him out of his house, and none of his posterity should enjoy it. This accordingly came to pass; for although he was in a good external situation at the time, yet henceforth all things went against him, until he was obliged to sell his estate; and when giving the purchaser possession thereof, he told his wife and children that he had found Welch a true prophet.[22]

(2) But though John Welch, on account of his holiness, abilities, and success, had acquired among his subdued people a very great respect, yet was he never in such admiration as after the great plague which raged in Scotland in his time. And one cause was this: The magistrates of Ayr, for as much as this town alone was free, and the country around infected, thought fit to guard the ports with sentinels and watchmen. One day two travelling merchants, each with a pack of cloth upon a horse, came to the town desiring entrance, that they might sell their goods, producing a pass from the magistrates of the town from whence they came, which was at that time sound and free. Notwithstanding all this, the sentinels stopped them till the magistrates were called, and when they came they would do nothing without their minister’s advice; so John Welch was called, and his opinion asked. He demurred, and putting off his hat, with his eyes towards heaven for a pretty space, though he uttered no audible words, yet he continued in a praying posture, and after a little space told the magistrates that they would do well to discharge these travellers their town, affirming with great asservation, that the plague was in these packs. So the magistrates commanded them to be gone, and they went to Cumnock, a town about twenty miles distant, and there sold their goods, which kindled such an infection in that place, that the living were hardly able to bury their dead. This made the people begin to think of Mr. Welch as an oracle.[23]

(3) John Welch was some time prisoner in Edinburgh Castle before he went into exile. One night sitting at supper with Lord Ochiltree, he entertained the company with godly and edifying discourse, as his manner was, which was well received by them all, except a debauched Popish young gentleman, who sometimes laughed, and sometimes mocked and made wry faces. Thereupon Mr. Welch brake out into a sad abrupt charge upon all the company to be silent, and observe the work of the Lord upon that mocker, which they should presently behold; upon which the profane wretch sunk down and died beneath the table, to the great astonishment of all the company.[24]

5. John Semple (d. 1677)

John Semple was among the faithful “Protesters” who was arrested in August 1660. Howie notes:

Mr. Semple was a man who knew much of his Master’s mind, as evidently appears by his discovering of several future events.

(1) When news came that Cromwell and those with him were engaged in the trial of Charles I, some persons asked him, what he thought would become of the king. He went to his closet a little, and coming back, he said to them, “the king is gone, he will neither do us good nor ill any more;” which of a truth came to pass.

(2) At another time, passing by the house of Kenmuir, as the masons were making some additions thereunto, he said, “Lads, ye are busy, enlarging and repairing the house, but it will be burnt like a crow’s nest in a misty morning,” which accordingly came to pass, for it was burnt in a dark misty morning by the English.

(3) Upon a certain time, when a neighboring minister was distributing tokens before the Sacrament, and was reaching a token to a certain woman, Mr. Semple (standing by) said, “Hold your hand, she hath gotten too many tokens already; she is a witch;” which though none suspected her then, she confessed to be true, and was deservedly put to death for the same.

(4) At another time, a minister in the shire of Galloway sent one of his elders to Mr. Semple with a letter, earnestly desiring his help at the Sacrament, which was to be in three weeks after. He read the letter, went to his closet, and coming back, he said to the elder, “I am sorry you have come so far on a needless errand; go home, and tell your minister, he hath had all the communions that ever he will have, for he is guilty of fornication, and God will bring it to light ere that time.” This likewise came to pass.[25]

6. James Wood (163?-167?)

James Wood ministered in the 1650s. He was made the principal of the Old College of St. Andrews sometime after 1651. He also experienced extraordinary revelation.

On one occasion, in company with Mr. Veitch, he went into one James Glen’s shop, in Edinburgh, to see Sharp, whom he had not seen since he became archbishop, and who was expected to pass in the Commissioner’s coach. Sharp coming first out of the coach, and uncovering his head to receive the Commissioner, they had a full view of his face, at which Mr. Wood looked very seriously, and then, being much affected, uttered these words: “O, thou Judas and apostatised traitor, thou hast betrayed the famous Presbyterian Church of Scotland to its total ruin, as far as thou canst; if I know anything of the mind of God, thou shalt not die the ordinary and common death of men.” This, though spoken eighteen years before, was exactly accomplished in 1679.[26]

7. Richard Cameron (1655?-1680)

Richard Cameron preached in the 1670s. We find in his life several references to extraordinary revelation.

When Richard Cameron came to preach in and about Cumnock, he was much opposed by the lairds of Logan and Horsecleugh, who represented him as a Jesuit, and a vile, naughty person. But yet some of the Lord’s people, who had retained their former faithfulness, gave him a call to preach in that parish. When he began, he exhorted the people to mind that they were in the sight and presence of a holy God, and that all of them were hastening to an endless state of either weal or woe. Andrew Dalziel, a debauchee (a cocker or fowler), who was in the house, it being a stormy day, cried out, “Sir we neither know you nor your God.” Mr. Cameron, musing a little, said, “You, and all who do not know my God in mercy, shall know Him in His judgments, which shall be sudden and surprising in a few days upon you; and I, as a sent servant of Jesus Christ, whose commission I bear, and whose badge I wear upon my breast, give you warning, and leave you to the justice of God.” Accordingly, in a few days after, the said Andrew, being in perfect health, took his breakfast plentifully, but before he rose he fell a-vomiting, and died in a most frightful manner. This admonishing passage, together with the power and presence of the Lord going along with the Gospel, as dispensed by him during the little time he was there, made the foresaid two lairds desire a conference with him, to which he readily assented; after which they were obliged to acknowledge that they had been in the wrong, and desired his forgiveness. He said, from his heart he forgave them what wrongs they had done to him; but for what wrongs they had done to the interest of Christ, it was not his part to forgive them; but he was persuaded that they would be remarkably punished for it. To the laird of Logan he said, that he should be written childless; and the Horsecleugh, that he should suffer by burning—both of which afterwards came to pass.”[27]

8. Alexander Peden (1626–1686)

Perhaps the most famous of the recipients of extraordinary revelation was Alexander Peden. Howie does not note his date of birth, but we can determine the approximate time of his ministry by the fact that a proclamation against him was issued in 1666. Howie lists some eleven different prophecies by Peden that were fulfilled. Some of these were:

(1) [I]n the year 1680, being near Mauchline, in the shire of Ayr, Robert Brown, at Corsehouse, in Loudon parish, and Hugh Pinaneve, factor to the Earl of Loudon, stabling their horses where he (Peden) was, went to a fair at Mauchline. In the afternoon, when they came to take their horses, they got some drink; in the taking of which, the said Hugh broke out into railing against our sufferers, particularly against Richard Cameron, who was lately before that slain at Airsmoss. Peden, being in another room, overhearing all, was so grieved, that he came to the chamber door, and said to him, “Sir, hold your peace; ere twelve o’clock you shall know what a man Richard Cameron was; God shall punish that blasphemous mouth of yours in such a manner, that you shall be set up for a beacon to all such railing Rabshakehs.” Robert Brown, knowing Mr. Peden, hastened to his horse, being persuaded that his word would not fall to the ground; and fearing also that some mischief might befall him in Hugh’s company, he hastened home to his own house, and the said Hugh to the Earl’s; where, casting off his boots, he was struck with a sudden sickness and pain through his body, with his mouth wide open, and his tongue hanging out in a fearful manner. They sent for Brown to take some blood from him, but all in vain, for he died before midnight.[28]

(2) After this, in the year 1682, Mr. Peden married that singular Christian, John Brown, at his house in Priesthill, in the parish of Muirkirk, in Kyle, to Isabel Weir. After marriage, he said to the bride, Isabel, “You have got a good man to be your husband, but you will not enjoy him long; prize his company, and keep linen by you to be his winding sheet, for you will need it when ye are not looking for it, and it will be a bloody one.” This sadly came to pass in the beginning of May 1685.[29]

A final prophecy by Peden is found in Smellie’s Men of the Covenant. It is a prophecy uttered in regard to the death of John Brown.

Again, on one of the last days of April in 1685, Alexander Peden came to the carrier’s house at Priesthill. He was always an honored friend, and he remained overnight—this gaunt and gracious seer of the Covenant, who for the most part, had nowhere to lay his head. Early on May-day morning (i.e., May 1, the morning of Brown’s death) he said his farewells; but passing out from the door, he was heard repeating to himself, ‘Poor woman, a fearful morning!’ These words twice over, and then—’A dark misty morning!’[30]

The murder was committed between six and seven in the morning. Alexander Peden was then ten or eleven miles distant. Before eight o’clock he found himself at the gate of a friend’s house, and lifted the latch, and entered the kitchen, craving permission to pray with the family. ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘when wilt Thou avenge Brown’s blood? O, let Brown’s blood be precious in Thy sight!’ When the voice of yearning and entreaty had ceased, John Muirhead, the father in the home, asked Peden what he meant by Brown’s blood. ‘What do I mean?’ he answered. ‘Claverhouse has been at the Priesthill this morning, and has murdered John Brown. His corpse is lying at the end of his house, and his poor wife sitting weeping by his corpse, and not a soul to speak comfortably to her.’ And then, lifted into a kind of ecstasy, he continued, ‘This morning, after the sun-rising, I saw a strange apparition in the firmament, the appearance of a very bright, clear, shining star fall from heaven to the earth. And indeed there is a clear, shining light fallen this day, the greatest Christian that ever I conversed with.’ Into Peden’s eyes ‘from the well of life three drops’ were instilled; his heart, as the Quaker apostle said, was baptised into a sense of all conditions; and he saw, by a spiritual intuition, the sorrows which were happening in other parts of the vineyard of Christ.[31]

Smellie indicates that Brown had been killed in the presence of his wife outside their home that morning, just as Alexander Peden had said.

John Howie makes a significant summary about Alexander Peden:

Thus died Alexander Peden, so much famed for his singular piety, zeal, and faithfulness, and indefatigableness in the duty of prayer, but especially exceeding all we have heard of in latter times for that gift of forseeing and foretelling future events, both with respect to the Church and nation of Scotland and Ireland, and particular persons and families, several of which are already accomplished.[32]

IV. Summary on Prophecy among the Scottish Presbyterians and Covenanters

For a period of almost one hundred and forty years, extraordinary revelation was reported in Scotland concerning these ministers. What was experienced was viewed as more than merely an extraordinary providence. It was noted above that Knox viewed a number of his contemporaries as prophets to whom God had revealed specific coming judgments as he had to Knox himself.[33]

In defense, many cessationists point to the Puritan John Owen’s A Discourse of Spiritual Gifts as clearly setting forth a strict cessationist view. In one of his last chapters, however, he takes a step away from strict cessationism. In describing the final calling of the Jews, Owen says:

Who or what peculiar instruments he will use and employ for the final recovery of that miserable, lost people, whether he will do it by an ordinary or an extraordinary ministry, by gifts miraculous, or by the naked efficacy of the gospel, is known only in his own holy wisdom and counsel.[34]

In this statement, Owen was standing in line with Calvin, Knox, Ames, and the Scottish Book of Discipline. Knox and other leaders believed that God was again giving prophetic gifts according to the need of the day. As Lutjens notes,

We are not arguing here that all of Knox’s claims to prophetic powers of prediction are to be ipso facto believed because he is a Reformed father of renown. We merely want the Presbytery to understand that Knox and other Reformers who were committed to the sola scriptura principle also believed that God could and did raise up people to whom he willed to give extraordinary insight in the application of the principles of the Word in a given historical situation.[35]

A summary of the Scottish conclusions is most appropriate. The Church of Scotland’s 1577 Second Book of Discipline written under the leadership of Andrew Melville (1545–1622) states:

Some of these Ecclesiastical Functions are ordinary, and some extraordinary or temporary. There be three extraordinary functions: the Office of the Apostle, of the Evangelist, and the Prophet, which are not perpetual, and have now ceased in the Kirk of God, except when it pleased God extraordinarily for a time to stir some of them up again.[36]

A similar view was held by the influential Puritan-in-exile, William Ames (1576–1633). Ames was one of the leading Calvinist theologians of the generation that taught the Westminster divines. Concerning the offices of apostles, prophets, and evangelists, and with his eye on the Protestant Reformation, Ames writes, “This extraordinary ministry is either for the first constituting of a church, or for the special and extraordinary conservation of a church, or for the extraordinary restoring of a church which has collapsed.”[37] Ames’s three categories may be most helpful in dealing with the question. When does God stir up these gifts? When his church is most in need of them.

V. Healing among the Scottish Presbyterians and Covenanters

A second gift usually considered among the charismata is the gift of healing. Like prophecy, healing was also experienced among the Scottish Presbyterians and Covenanters and is recorded by Fleming, Walker, and Howie.

1. Robert Bruce (1554–1631)

Bruce’s prophetic ministry was also accompanied by a healing ministry. Howie notes:

Robert Bruce was also a man who had somewhat of the spirit of discerning future events, and did prophetically speak of several things that afterward came to pass; yea, and divers persons distracted says Fleming, in his “Fulfilling of the Scripture,” and those who were past all recovery with epileptic disease, or falling sickness, were brought to him, and were, after prayer by him on their behalf, fully restored from that malady. This may seem strange, but it is true, for he was such a wrestler with God, and had more than ordinary familiarity with him.[38]

It is important to recognize that more than just one extraordinary providence apparently was recorded about Robert Bruce in regard to healing. A variety of people were brought to him and healed through his prayers.

2. John Scrimgeour (16th Cent.)

John Scrimgeour lived at the end of the sixteenth century and served for a time as chaplain to James VI. Howie notes that he had a particular talent for comforting the dejected. He observes:

He was also an eminent wrestler with God, and had more than ordinary power and familiarity with Him as appears from the following instances:

(1) When he was minister at Kinghorn, there was a certain godly woman under his charge, who fell sick of a very lingering disease, and was all the while assaulted with strong temptations, leading her to think that she was a castaway, notwithstanding that her whole conversation had put the reality of grace in her beyond a doubt. He often visited her while in this deep exercise, but her trouble and terrors still remained. As her dissolution drew on, her spiritual trouble increased. He went with two of his elders to her, and began first, in their presence, to comfort and pray with her; but she still grew worse. He ordered his elders to pray, and afterwards prayed himself, but no relief came. Then sitting pensive for a little space, he thus broke silence: “What is this! Our laying grounds of comfort before her will not do; prayer will not do; we must try another remedy. Sure I am, this is a daughter of Abraham; sure I am, she hath sent for me; and therefore, in the name of God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who sent Him to redeem sinners; in the name of Jesus Christ, who obeyed the Father, and came to save us; and in the name of the Holy and blessed Spirit, our Quickener and Sanctifier, I, the elder, command thee, a daughter of Abraham, to be loosed from these bonds.” And immediately peace and joy ensued.

(2) Mr. Scrimgeour had several friends and children taken away by death. The only daughter who at that time survived, and whom he dearly loved, was seized with the king’s evil, by which she was reduced to the very point of death, so that he was called up to see her die. Finding her in this condition, he went out to the fields, as he himself told, in the night-time, in great grief and anxiety, and began to expostulate with the Lord, with such expressions as for all the world he durst not again utter. In a fit of displeasure, he said, “Thou, O Lord, knowest that I have been serving Thee in the uprightness of my heart, according to my power and measure; nor have I stood in awe to declare Thy mind even unto the greatest in the time, and Thou seest that I take pleasure in this child. O that I could obtain such a thing at Thy hand, as to spare her!” And being in great agony of spirit, at last it was said to him from the Lord, “I have heard thee at this time, but use not the like boldness in time coming, for such particulars.” When he came home the child was recovered, and sitting up in the bed, took some meat; and when he looked at her arm, it was perfectly whole.[39]

3. John Welch (1570–1622)

We have earlier seen John Welch’s experience with extraordinary revelation. Howie also attributes one of the most remarkable instances of healing in history to John Welch.

There was in his house, amongst many others who boarded with him for good education, a young gentleman of great quality and suitable expectations, the heir of Lord Ochiltree, Governor of the Castle of Edinburgh. This young gentleman, after he had gained very much upon Mr. Welch’s affections, fell ill of a grievous sickness, and after he had been long wasted by it, closed his eyes and expired, to the apprehension of all the spectators; and was therefore taken out of his bed, and laid on a pallet on the floor, that his body might be more conveniently dressed. This was to Mr. Welch a very great grief, and therefore he stayed with the body fully three hours, lamenting over him with great tenderness. After twelve hours, the friends brought in a coffin, whereinto they desired the corpse to be put, as the custom was; but Mr. Welch desired that, for the satisfaction of his affections, they would forbear for a time; which they granted, and returned not till twenty-four hours after his death. Then they desired with great importunity, that the corpse might be coffined and speedily buried, the weather being extremely hot; yet he persisted in his request, earnestly begging them to excuse him once more, so they left the corpse upon the pallet for full thirty-six hours; but even after all that, though he was urged not only with great earnestness, but displeasure, they were constrained to forbear for twelve hours more. After forty-eight hours were past, Mr. Welch still held out against them, and then his friends, perceiving that he believed the young man was not really dead, but under some apoplectic fit, proposed to him for his satisfaction, that trial should be made upon his body by doctors and chirurgeons [sic], if possibly any spark of life might be found in him, and with this he was content. So the physicians were set to work, who pinched him with pinchers in the fleshy parts of his body, and twisted a bow-string about his head with great force; but no sign of life appearing in him, the physicians pronounced him stark dead, and then there was no more delay to be made. Yet Mr. Welch begged of them once more that they would but step into the next room for an hour or two, and leave him with the dead youth; and this they granted.

Then Mr. Welch fell down before the pallet, and cried to the Lord with all his might, and sometimes looked upon the dead body, continuing to wrestle with the Lord, till at length the dead youth opened his eyes and cried out to Mr. Welch, whom he distinctly knew, “O sir, I am all whole, but my head and legs:” and these were the places they had sorely hurt with their pinching. When Mr. Welch perceived this, he called upon his friends; and showed them the dead young man restored to life again, to their great astonishment…. This story the nobleman himself communicated to his friends in Ireland.[40]

This recorded instance of John Welch’s healing raises a number of questions. Often the skeptics of the continuation of the charismata will ask if there are any recorded instances of people being restored from death. While there have not been many in the history of the Reformation, there is at least this one. A second question that often arises from our day and age is whether this really happened or not. We cannot answer that question. The point of the argument is not whether this really happened, but that Welch and his contemporaries believed that it was a miraculous restoration and that they did not find it inconsistent with their Reformed theology.

4. Thomas Hog (1628–16??)

Thomas Hog was ordained to the ministry in 1654 or 1655. Hog is noted for the intense labors of his pastoral ministry in the homes in his parish, as well as for what we would call a significant ministry of healing. As Howie records:

So soon as it pleased the Lord thus to bless his parochial labours with a gracious change wrought upon a considerable number of the people, he took care to unite the more judicious in societies for prayer and conference. These he kept under his own inspection, and did heartily concur with them; for he himself was much in the exercise of that duty, and had several notable returns to prayer, of which we have several instances.

(1) A good woman having come with this sore lamentation, that her daughter was distracted, Mr. Hog charged one or two devout persons (for he frequently employed such on extraordinary occasions) to set apart a day and a night for fasting and prayer, and join with him in prayer for the maid the next day. Accordingly, when this appointment was performed, she recovered her senses as well as before.

(2) A daughter of the laird of Park, his brother-in-law, who lodged with him, was seized with a high fever, which left little hope of life. Mr. Hog loved the child dearly, and while he and his wife were jointly supplicating the Lord in prayer, acknowledging their own and the child’s iniquity, the fever instantly left her. This passage was found in his own diary, which he concludes with admiration upon the goodness of God, to whom he ascribes the praise of all.

(3) In like manner, a child of the Rev. Mr. Urquhart having been at the point of death, those present pressed Mr. Hog to pray, for he now was become so esteemed that none other would in such case do it, while he was present; upon which he solemnly charged them to join with him, and having fervently wrestled in prayer and supplication for some time, the child was restored to health. A like instance is found of a child of Kinmundy’s in his own diary.

(4) David Dunbar, who lived at a distance, being in a frenzy, came to Mr. Hog’s house in one of his fits. Mr. Hog caused him to sit down and advised with Mr. Fraser of Brea, and some others present, what could be done for the lad. Some were for letting blood, but Mr. Hog said, “The prelates have deprived us of money, wherewith to pay physicians, therefore let us employ Him who cures freely,” and then laid it on Mr. Fraser to pray, who put it back on himself. So after commanding the distracted person to be still, he prayed fervently for the poor man; who was immediately restored to his right mind. This is faithfully attested to by those who were eye and ear witnesses.

(5) Mr. Hog having once gone to see a gracious woman in great extremity of distress, both of body and mind, he prayed with her and for her, using this remarkable expression among others, “O Lord, rebuke this temptation, and we in Thy name rebuke the same;” and immediately the woman was restored both in body and mind.

And yet, notwithstanding the Lord had honoured him in such a manner, it is doubtful if any in his day more carefully guarded against delusions than he did, it being his custom, whenever he bowed a knee, to request to be saved from delusions.[41]

Again there are several observations to be made. Hog recognized that some of what he was called to do was extraordinary. It is interesting to note his use of other devout people along with the use of fasting. Hog was esteemed as having a unique ministry in this area. He was very much concerned about delusions in anything he was doing and prayed constantly against being deluded.

The kind of healing ministry experienced is different from what is observed today in that there was no advertising or promoting of this ministry. Nevertheless, there was a gift of healing that was recognized as being possessed by these men. In any event, it is important to note that the Scottish experience of both prophecy and healing was experienced throughout Scotland, among a wide range of people, and for a period of 140 years.

VI. Practical Relevance

What conclusions should be drawn from this historical survey? How might what was experienced be defined? As has been seen, some have no hesitation in calling it prophecy, although it is primarily predictive. Barrow refers to it as “extraordinary predictive prophecy.”42 Miladin shares this understanding, describing it as

… Holy Spirit empowered, proclamation, and application of existing revealed truth to the contemporary situation. In other words, beyond revelation and canon, prophecy possesses a broad interpretive/declarative form and significance. This view is not novel. It has been held by many of our Reformed and Puritan forbears.[43]

Barrow notes the need for some freedom regarding extraordinary revelation since the closing of the canon of Scripture, pointing to the Westminster Confession as an example:

We must recognize that some diversity of opinion and emphasis may exist within orthodox parameters—especially where our limited perception of the secret working of the Spirit of God is involved. We will not easily fall into the snare of requiring the judgment of mere men to coincide in every particular so long as we maintain that the Spirit of God speaking in His holy Word is the final judge of controversy. As the (Westminster) divines above wisely demonstrate, sometimes it is enough to agree upon more general parameters while allowing a diversity of emphasis concerning the particular means used by God in accomplishing his glorious purpose. This ought to be kept in mind throughout this discussion.[44]

Others, concerned that the term prophecy at least implies canonicity or apostolic authority, seek a term or concept that avoids that. Poythress seeks to provide a basis for the diversity discussed above to exist. He does this by reason of analogy,

that modern spiritual gifts are analogous to but not identical with the divinely authoritative gifts exercised by the apostles. Since there is no strict identity, apostolic teaching and the Biblical canon have exclusive divine authority.[45]

Modern gifts are all fallible. They are all dependent on Scripture and do not add to the Biblical canon.[46]

Gaffin, one of the best known and most respected cessationists, makes a similar allowance:

This is an appropriate place to remind our readers that my cessationist position for its part is not as closed as it might appear. I do not deny that experiences may occur today, incalculably in the Spirit’s sovereign working, that in some respects are similar to those associated with the revelatory word gifts present in the New Testament. What I do question is that the New Testament teaches that these gifts are to continue or are to be sought today, and that those individuals and groups that claim to have received them today are, in that respect, closer to New Testament Christianity than those who have not.[47]

Similarly Ferguson notes the position of John Owen:

Thus, for example, the seventeenth-century theologian John Owen, a cessationist, argues that while some special gifts in the New Testament era are no longer given to the church, some continuing gifts have much in common with them: 

But although all these gifts and operations ceased in some respect, some of them absolutely, and some of them as to the immediate manner of communication and degree of excellency; yet so far as the edification of the church was concerned in them, something that is analogous unto them was and is continued.[48]

Ferguson’s own position is representative of many cessationists who are uncomfortable with any use of the word prophecy to describe these kinds of events.

In the case of prophecy, it would be more consistent with its revelatory nature (and therefore its existentially canonical function) for continuationists to recognize that their insights into God’s word and their sense of God’s purpose are not actually prophecy at all, but illumination, fallible insight and contemporary application of biblical truth.[49]

For Ferguson, the issue is illumination in contrast to revelation.

Christian theology has generally differentiated between revelation and illumination. The conceptual distinction is a biblical one (Ps 119:18; 2 Tim 2:7), although the same terminology (‘revelation’) may be used of both. Revelation is given in a special sense to Paul and the apostles (Eph 3:5); yet he prays that the Ephesians will have a Spirit of revelation to know God better (Eph 1:17; cf. Matt 16:17). The common terminology denotes not a single concept but either of two related ideas which have analogous characteristics. Revelation is used by Paul to refer to both the giving of the truth and the illumination of its meaning. But these are clearly distinct phenomena. A categorical distinction exists between the lasting authority which attaches to apostolic revelation and the subjective ‘revelation’ or ‘illumination’, even though it remains perfectly legitimate for us to pray for the ‘Spirit … revelation, so that you may know him better’ (Eph 1:17).[50]

Ferguson then suggests that what is needed by the church is not additional revelation, but illumination. Earlier in his book he notes:

If it were recognized by advocates of both views that the form which continuing prophecy takes today belongs to a completely different authority-level from the revelatory prophetic ministry of the apostles, the tendency to create polarization, or antagonism, in discussion and debate would be minimized. Some differences would be seen to be more semantic than real. Cessationists, like charismatics, may have unusual mental experiences: what one cessationist [John Murray] has called ‘feelings, impressions, convictions, urges, inhibitions, impulses, burdens, resolutions’. If they recognized that this is virtually identical to what is intended by ‘prophecy [lower level]’, and if continuationists made more modest claims for ‘prophecy’, then mutual understanding and greater harmony could be attained. Continuationists would avoid such implicitly infallibilist expressions as ‘This is what the Lord says’, so that there would be no question of their prophecies appearing to rival the authority of Scripture; cessationists and continuationists would then be able to recognize that they share similar experiences of spiritual illumination even if they describe or categorize them differently. Mutual agreement would then be within reach.[51]

Ferguson, however, also has a warning for cessationists.

It is possible for cessationists to reject genuine illumination precisely because it is (falsely in their view) presented in terms of the formula of revelation…. The Spirit must not be quenched, or prophecy despised (1 Thess 5:19–20). All Spirit-given illumination and insight must be received and welcomed for what it is.[52]

When continuationists refer to their insights as prophecy, cessationists reject them, rather than recognizing that there may be legitimate illumination that has been proclaimed. Whether one calls these things “extraordinary revelation,” “extraordinary predictive prophecy,” or an expanded form of “illumination” may be a matter of semantics, as Ferguson suggests. The PCA General Assembly, in dealing with a case from the Missouri Presbytery, allowed in 1988, and reaffirmed in 1989, a set of criteria and restrictions:

1. The gifts do not communicate binding special revelation, and any claiming the gifts shall not be allowed to demand other believers’ submission to their claims.
2. Not only is the canon of the Scripture closed, but no gift is to be allowed which has the practical effect of functioning as a normative source of truth or divine instruction from God, alongside the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures.
3. Any view which holds that one in the present day can inerrantly predict the future is not allowed.[53]

These guidelines allow freedom in thinking and in experience, but establish the full and final authority of the Scriptures. The confusion resulting from the use of the word prophecy may be avoided when it is clear that the revelation experienced by the Scots and others since their time is non-apostolic, non-canonical, and non-authoritative. On the other hand, it must be clear that the experience is “Spirit-given illumination and insight” as Ferguson suggests, and not just intuition, or some other merely human experience.

What about the healings of the Scottish Presbyterians and Covenanters? There is much less written on this subject, although it is significant that some of the Reformers in dealing with the clear instructions in Jas 5:14–16 (calling for elders and having them anoint the sick) simply regard the verses as having validity only in the apostolic period, despite the fact that the instructions are given to elders. No cessationist would argue that God cannot heal today. Their objection is to whether the gift of healing continues. And there is a natural reaction to the many abuses of “healing ministries” today. Yet among the duties of pastors and elders is the visitation of the sick. Do Reformed pastors and elders naturally and readily pray for the healing of the sick? Do they carry oil with them for the purpose of anointing the sick? Do they pray expectantly for healing? Is it appropriate for Reformed churches to have special times of prayer for healing? Where are the Reformed pastors today like Robert Bruce, John Scrimgeour, John Welch, and Thomas Hog? There may not be many, but shouldn’t the church today expect to find some?

Jonathan Edwards’s The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God is his response to the critics of the Great Awakening, especially to the extraordinary displays of bodily effects, emotion, and imaginations. Edwards acknowledges the stumbling blocks and difficulties associated with the revival. He especially challenges those whose conclusions are simply a reaction to the abuses, with no real effort to inform themselves about or examine what was being done. His concern is that in their doubt, they will hesitate until the season of God’s blessing is past. His warning to the skeptics is relevant to us:

For the reasons we have considered, let us all be warned. We should not oppose or do anything in the least to clog or hinder the work. On the contrary, we should do our utmost to promote it. Now Christ is come down from heaven in a remarkable and wonderful work of His Spirit. It is proper for all His professed disciples to acknowledge Him and give Him honor. 

The example of the Jews in Christ’s and the apostles’ times should teach those who do not acknowledge this work to be very cautious of what they say or do. Christ then was in the world, and the world knew Him not: He came to His own professing people, and His own received Him not. That coming of Christ was much spoken of in the biblical prophecies that they had in their hands. It had been long expected. Yet because Christ came in a manner they did not expect and that did not conform to their human reason, they would not own Him. Rather, they opposed Him, counted Him a madman, and pronounced the Spirit by which He worked to be the spirit of the devil. They stood and wondered at the great things done. They knew not what to make of them. Yet they erected so many stumbling blocks that they finally could not acknowledge Him. And when the Spirit of God was poured out so wonderfully in the apostles’ days, they looked upon it as confusion and distraction. They were astonished by what they saw and heard but were not convinced. The work of God was rejected, especially by those who were most conceited about their own understanding and knowledge.[54]

Edwards’s warning is relevant to those who have adopted a strict cessationist paradigm that makes no allowances for continuation and who assume that such a position is the Reformed position.

A similar reaction can be seen to Howie’s The Scots Worthies, first published in 1775. In recounting the death of George Wishart, Howie stated that Wishart “possessed the spirit of prophecy to an extraordinary degree.”[55] Deere makes this note about a later edition:

In a revised and expanded edition of Scots Worthies published seventy-one years later in 1846, the editor changed Howie’s original sentence to read, “He possessed an extraordinary degree of sagacious foresight.” Sagacious foresight! What’s that? It means that due to Wishart’s own wisdom he was able to accurately guess how some events would turn out. It means that Wishart’s predictive powers did not come from God’s supernatural revelation but rather from his own wisdom. 

William McGavin, who supplied the notes to the 1846 edition, justified the change from “prophecy” to “sagacious foresight” by stating that the Scottish Reformers were simply mistaken about the nature of prophecy. According to McGavin’s understanding of the Bible, prophecy was no longer given. In other words, he felt free to actually change an original text in order to conform it to his own theology … McGavin’s explanation:

… It happened that, about three months thereafter, the Cardinal was murdered; and then, Wishart’s words were considered prophetical of that event. I do not believe, and would by no means insinuate, that he was privy to the conspiracy; but this is more probable than that he should be endowed with the spirit of prophecy for no conceivable purpose.[56]

Similar suspicion among Reformed scholars can be found today. Reformed theologians have adopted the theology and the ecclesiology of the Scottish Reformers. Their pneumatology, at least in terms of their experience, however, has either been ignored or avoided.

Miladin expresses a concern:

It is Scripture itself that teaches us what Martin Luther so wonderfully stated in his hymn, “A Mighty Fortress.” In its fourth stanza the reformer wrote, “The Spirit and the gifts are ours.” Both the Spirit and His gifts were then, and continue to be, important in the life and ministry of the Church. Why is it then that our 450 years of Reformed tradition have minimized the gifts, neglected them, or avoided the subject altogether? There seems to be a tendency to think in terms of what the Spirit won’t do, rather than what he will do.[57]

Deere, a former cessationist, also warns against the danger of allowing a cessationist paradigm to force us to reject what earlier Reformers believed and practiced. There is always the tendency to ignore experiences that do not conform to twentieth-century experience and theology. Is it possible that the life and ministry of the church, as we know it, has so seldom been in places where the church has not been long constituted, or so little persecuted, or until recently, not in danger of collapse, that we have neither sought, nor expected, nor seen the extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit of God?

The purpose of the paper was to demonstrate that the strict cessationist position of Warfield is not shared by all Reformed theologians. The experience and the theology of the Scots demonstrates the validity within Reformed theology of a position of “cautious continuationism” or “open” or “soft” cessationism in regard to prophecy and healing. God works by his ordinary means, but in his own time and purpose may choose to work in extraordinary ways for the sake of his kingdom and the glory of his name.

These Scottish ministers prayed for, labored for, and expected God to work in powerful and extraordinary ways … and they were not disappointed!

Notes

1. Benjamin B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1918), 6; emphasis added.
2. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 1043, esp. n. 49.
3. Iain Murray, Pentecost Today? (Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1998), 197–99.
4. John Knox, The Works of John Knox (ed. David Laing; 6 vols.; New York: AMS Press, 1996), 3:168–69.
5. Ibid., 3:176-77.
6. Ibid., 6:229-30; emphasis added.
7. Jack Deere, Surprised by the Voice of God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 83.
8. William Steven, The History of the Scottish Church, Rotterdam (Edinburgh: Waugh and Innes, 1883), 111–12.
9. David C. Lachman, “Patrick Walker,” in Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1993), 851–52.
10. Patrick Walker, Six Saints of the Covenant (ed. D. Hay Fleming; New York: Dodd, Mead, 1901), xxix.
11. George Gillespie, “A Treatise of Miscellany Questions,” The Works of George Gillespie (Edmonton: Stillwaters Revival Books, 1992), 2:29.
12. Byron Curtis, “Private Spirits,” WTJ 58 (1996): 257-66. See also Garret H. Milne’s response to Curtis in WTJ 61 (1999): 101-10.
13. Gillespie, “Treatise,” 29; emphasis added.
14. Samuel Rutherford, A Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist (London, 1648), 42.
15. John Howie, The Scots Worthies (Edinburgh/London: Oliphant, Anderson, Ferrier, 1870), 29.
16. Ibid., 30.
17. Deere, Surprised, 72.
18. Howie, Scots Worthies, 18.
19. Ibid., 57-58.
20. Ibid., 61.
21. Ibid., 86-87.
22. Ibid., 123; emphasis added.
23. Ibid., 124-25; emphasis added.
24. Ibid., 130.
25. Ibid., 379-80.
26. Ibid., 317.
27. Ibid., 426.
28. Ibid., 511.
29. Ibid.
30. Alexander Smellie, Men of the Covenant (2d ed.; New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1903), 332.
31. Ibid., 334-35.
32. Howie, Scots Worthies, 520.
33. See above nn. 5 and 6.
34. John Owen, The Works of John Owen (ed. William Goold; 16 vols.; London: Banner of Truth, 1967), 4:440; emphasis added.
35. Ron Lutjens, “The Reformed Fathers and the Gift of Prophecy” (Webster Groves, Mo.: published privately by the author, 1987), 9. This paper was a response to the “Majority Report of the Missouri Presbytery Study Committee on Prophecy” of the Presbyterian Church in America.
36. Second Book of Discipline (1739), 71; emphasis added.
37. William Ames, The Marrow of Theology (trans. J. D. Eusden; Durham, N.C.: The Labyrinth Press, 1983), 9; emphasis added.
38. Howie, Scots Worthies, 148.
39. Ibid., 117-18.
40. Ibid., 132-34.
41. Ibid., 564-65.
42. Greg Barrow, A Reformation Discussion of Extraordinary Predictive Prophecy Subsequent to the Closing of the Canon of Scripture (Edmonton: Stillwaters Revival Books, 1998).
43. George Miladin, “The Spirit and the Gifts Are Ours” (La Mesa, Calif.: published privately by the author, 1998), 7. The paper was drafted in response to the proceedings of the Presbytery of Southern California of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
44. Barrow, Reformation Discussion, 11.
45. Vern Poythress, “Modern Spiritual Gifts as Analogous to Apostolic Gifts: Affirming Extraordinary Works of the Spirit within Cessationist Theology,” JETS 39 (1996): 71.
46. Ibid., 77.
47. Richard Gaffin, “A Cessationist Response to Robert L. Saucy,” in Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? (ed. Wayne Grudem; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 153.
48. Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1996), 233.
49. Ibid., 235-36.
50. Ibid., 230.
51. Ibid., 220-21.
52. Ibid., 232-34.
53. Minutes of the Sixteenth General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (Atlanta: The Committee for Christian Education and Publication, 1988), 215.
54. Archie Parrish, The Spirit of Revival (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2000), 120–21; Edwards’s language modernized.
55. Howie, Scots Worthies, 18.
56. Deere, Surprised, 79–80.
57. Miladin, “Spirit and Gifts,” 3.