In the opening chapter of the Confession, the divines of Westminster
included a clause that implied that there would no longer be any special
immediate revelation from God. Means by which God had once communicated
the divine will, such as dreams, visions, and the miraculous gifts of
the Spirit, were said to be no longer available. However, many of the
authors of the WCF accepted that ""prophecy"" continued in their time,
and a number of them apparently believed that disclosure of God's will
through dreams, visions, and angelic communication remained possible.
How is the ""cessationist"" clause of WCF 1:1 to be read in the light of
these claims? This book reconciles this paradox in a detailed study of
the writings of the authors of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
""Garnet Milne presents us with a much-needed study. . . . He builds his
case by presenting judicious and thorough evidence from a large number
of both primary and secondary sources. It is a fascinating and
groundbreaking book . . . and clarifies a remarkable amount of profound,
theological detail."" --Joel R. Beeke, from the Foreword ""Connecting
the past to the present is always a difficult but necessary task for the
responsible Christian theologian. Dr. Milne's work is a good example of
how modern questions can be sensitively engaged in a manner which gives
due respect to the great formulations of the past without either
imposing Procrustean criteria on such historic discussions or simply
historicizing such to the point of irrelevance."" --Carl R. Trueman,
Professor of Church History and Historical Theology, Westminster
Theological Seminary, Philadelphia ""Scholars in puritan studies are
increasingly alert to the variety of the movement's theology and
spirituality. Garnet Milne's carefully-argued conclusions will provide a
major resource for the reassessment of the most critical of puritan
doctrines--the sufficiency of Scripture."" --Crawford Gribben, Long Room
Hub Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Print Studies, Trinity College,
Dublin Garnet Howard Milne has served as pastor of two Reformed churches
in Wainuiomata and Wanganui, New Zealand, over the past eleven years. He
has contributed to the Westminster Theological Journal and was editor of
his denominational magazine Faith in Focus for many years. Dr. Milne's
doctorate in historical theology, from Otago University, forms the basis
of this book.
