Cessationism – representative voices
‘Cessationism’ is the name given to the view that the miraculous or extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased at the end of the apostolic age, when the canon of Scripture was complete.
Following are some representative voices (from this source). I have seen the originals of some of these quotations, but not all of them.
John Calvin (1509-1564): ‘…the gift of healing, like the rest of the miracles, which the Lord willed to be brought forth for a time, has vanished away in order to make the preaching of the Gospel marvellous for ever’ (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Bk IV:19, 18).
John Owen (1616-1683): ‘Gifts which in their own nature exceed the whole power of all our faculties, that dispensation of the Spirit is long since ceased and where it is now pretended unto by any, it may justly be suspected as an enthusiastic delusion’ (Works IV, 518).
Thomas Watson (c 1620-1686): ‘Sure, there is as much need of ordination now as in Christ’s time and in the time of the apostles, there being then extraordinary gifts in the church which are now ceased’ (The Beatitudes, 140).
Matthew Henry (1662-1714): Speaking of the ‘gift of tongues,’ he said, “These and other gifts of prophecy, being a sign, have long since ceased and been laid aside, and we have no encouragement to expect the revival of them; but, on the contrary, are directed to call the Scriptures the more sure word of prophecy, more sure than voices from Heaven; and to them we are directed to take heed, to search them, and to hold them fast …’ (Preface to Vol IV of his Exposition of the OT & NT, vii).
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758): ‘Of the extraordinary gifts, they were given ‘in order to the founding and establishing of the church in the world. But since the canon of Scriptures has been completed, and the Christian church fully founded and established, these extraordinary gifts have ceased’ (Charity and its Fruits, 29).
George Whitefield (1714-1770): ‘… the karismata, the miraculous gifts conferred on the primitive church … have long ceased …’ (Second Letter to the Bishop of London, Works, Vol. IV, 167).
James Buchanan (1804-1870): ‘The miraculous gifts of the Spirit have long since been withdrawn. They were used for a temporary purpose’ (The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, 34)
Robert L. Dabney (1820-1898): ‘After the early church had been established, the same necessity for supernatural signs now no longer existed, and God, Who is never wasteful in His expedients, withdrew them … miracles, if they became ordinary, would cease to be miracles, and would be referred by men to customary law’ (‘Prelacy a Blunder,’ Discussions: Evangelical and Theological, Vol. 2, 236-237).
Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921): ‘These gifts were … distinctively the authentication of the apostles. They were part of the credentials of the apostles as the authoritative agents of God in founding the church. Their function thus confirmed them to distinctively the apostolic church and they necessarily passed away with it’ (Counterfeit Miracles, 6).