Jonathan Edwards on Continuation of spiritual gifts
No, they ceased with the apostolic age
I do not expect a restoration of these miraculous gifts in the approaching glorious times of the church, nor do I desire it.
THE POSITION
The extraordinary gifts were "given to the church only to support it in its minority, till the church should have a complete standing rule established," and were to cease "as the church advanced to the state of manhood." He rates them far below ordinary grace — "a man may have those extraordinary gifts, and yet be abominable to God, and go to hell" — and treats the impulses and impressions claimed as guidance in the Awakening as being of the same kind as inspiration rather than of the kind of grace, and as repeatedly proved false in his own experience.
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. 6 Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. 12 Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
7 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
New England pastor, revival theologian and philosopher of the First Great Awakening, dismissed from his Northampton pulpit in 1750 over who may come to the Lord's Table. This entry rests on Freedom of the Will (1754), Original Sin (1758), Religious Affections (1746), An Humble Inquiry (1749), Distinguishing Marks (1741), Some Thoughts on the Revival (1742), An Humble Attempt (1747) and A History of the Work of Redemption, read in the Hickman edition.
Cite this page
"Jonathan Edwards on Continuation of spiritual gifts", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/edwards/spiritual-gifts (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/edwards/spiritual-gifts).