horns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. In another place, he speaks of the number of the beast, and says, it is six hundred threescore and six.

It is not the purpose of this dictionary to state the various ways in which this prophecy has been understood. We therefore pass on to say, that Antichrist is to lay the foundation of his empire in Babylon, i. e. (as many have supposed,) in Rome, and he is to be destroyed by the second coming of our LORD.

ANTINOMIANS.

The Antinomians

derive their name from ἀντὶ, against, νόμος, law, their distinguishing tenet being, that the law is not a rule of life to believers under the gospel. The founder of the Antinomian heresy was John Agricola, a Saxon divine, a contemporary, a countryman, and at first a disciple, of Luther. He was of a restless temper, and wrote against Melancthon; and having obtained a professorship at Wittemberg, he first taught Antinomianism there, about the year 1535. The Papists, in their disputes with the Protestants of that day, carried the merit of good works to an extravagant length; and this induced some of their opponents, as is too often the case, to run into the opposite extreme. The doctrine of Agricola was in itself obscure, and perhaps represented worse than it really was by Luther, who wrote with acrimony against him, and first styled him and his followers Antinomians- perhaps thereby "intending," as Dr. Hey conjectures, "to disgrace the notions of Agricola, and make even him ashamed of them." Agricola stood in his own defence, and complained that opinions were imputed to him which he did not hold.

About the same time, Nicholas Amsdorf, bishop of Naumburg in Saxony, fell under the same odious name and imputation, and seems to have been treated more unfairly than even Agricola himself. The bishop died at Magdeburg in 1541, and some say that his followers were called for a time Amsdorfians, after his name.

This sect sprung up among the Presbyterians in England, during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, who was himself an Antinomian of the worst sort. The supporters of the Popish doctrines deducing a considerable portion of the arguments on which they rested their defence from the doctrines of the old law, Agricola, in the height of his zeal for reformation, was encouraged by the success of his master, Luther, to attack the very foundation of their arguments, and to deny that any part of the Old Testament was

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intended as a rule of faith or practice to the disciples of Christ.

He is said to have taught that the law ought not to be proposed to the people as a rule of manners, nor used in the Church as a means of instruction; and, of course, that repentance is not to be preached from the Decalogue, but only from the gospel; that the gospel alone is to be inculcated and explained, both in the churches and the schools of learning; and that good works do not promote our salvation, nor evil works hinder it.

Some of his followers in England, in the seventeenth century, are said to have expressly maintained, that as the elect cannot fall from grace, nor forfeit the Divine favour, the wicked actions they commit are not really sinful, nor are they to be considered as instances of their violation of the Divine law; and that, consequently, they have no occasion either to confess their sins, or to seek renewed forgiveness. According to them, it is one of the essential and distinctive characters of the elect, that they cannot do anything displeasing to GOD, or prohibited by the law. "Let me speak freely to you, and tell you," says Dr. Tobias Crisp, (who may be styled the primipilus of the more modern scheme of Antinomianism, and was the great Antinomian opponent of Baxter, Bates, Howe, &c.,) "that the Lord hath no more to lay to the charge of an elect person, yet in the height of his iniquity, and in the excess of riot, and committing all the abominations that can be committed; I say, even then, when an elect person runs such a course, the Lord hath no more to lay to that person's charge, than God hath to lay to the charge of a believer: nay, God hath no more to lay to the charge of such a person than he hath to lay to the charge of a saint triumphant in glory. The elect of God, they are the heirs of God; and as they are heirs, so the first being of them puts them into the right of inheritance, and there is no time but such a person is the child of God."

That the justification of sinners is an immanent and eternal act of God, not only preceding all acts of sin, but the existence of the sinner himself, is the opinion of most of those who are styled Antinomians, though some suppose, with Dr. Crisp, that the elect were justified at the time of Christ's death. In answer to the question, " When did the Lord justify us?" Dr. Crisp says, "He did, from eternity, in respect of obligation; but in respect of execution, he did it when Christ was on the cross; and in respect of application, he doth it while children are yet unborn."

The other principal doctrines which at present bear the appellation of Antinomian, are said to be as follow:

1. That justification by faith is no more than a manifestation to us of what was done before we had a being.

2. That men ought not to doubt of their faith, or question whether they believe in Christ.

3. That by God's laying our iniquities upon Christ, and our being imputed righteous through him, he became as completely sinful as we, and we as completely righteous as Christ.

4. That believers need not fear either their own sins or the sins of others, since neither can do them any injury.

5. That the new covenant is not made properly with us, but with Christ for us; and that this covenant is all of it a promise, having no conditions for us to perform; for faith, repentance, and obedience, are not conditions on our part, but on Christ's; and that he repented, believed, and obeyed for us.

6. That sanctification is not a proper evidence of justification-that our righteousness is nothing but the imputation of the righteousness of Christ-that a believer has no holiness in himself, but in Christ only; and that the very moment he is justified, he is wholly sanctified, and he is neither more nor less holy from that hour to the day of his death.

Justification by a faith not necessarily productive of good works, and righteousness imputed to such a faith, are the doctrines by which the members of this denomination are chiefly distinguished.

While the Socinian Unitarians place the whole of their religion in morality, in disregard of Christian faith, the Antinomians rely so on faith as to undervalue morality. Their doctrines at least have too much that appearance.

In short, according to Dr. Williams, Dr. Crisp's scheme is briefly this: "That by God's mere electing decree all saving blessings are by Divine obligation made ours, and nothing more is needful to our title to these blessings: that on the cross all the sins of the elect were transferred to Christ, and ceased ever after to be their sins: that at the first moment of conception a title to all those decreed blessings is personally applied to the elect, and they are invested actually therein. Hence the elect have nothing to do, in order to an interest in any of those blessings, nor ought they to intend the least good to themselves in what they do sin can do them no harm

because it is none of theirs; nor can God afflict them for any sin." And all the rest of his opinions "follow in a chain,” adds Dr. W., "to the dethroning of Christ, enervating his laws and pleadings, obstructing the great design of redemption, opposing the very scope of the gospel, and the ministry of Christ and his prophets and apostles."-Adams.

High Calvinism, or Antinomianism, absolutely withers and destroys the consciousness of human responsibility. It confounds moral with natural impotency, forgetting that the former is a crime, the latter only a misfortune; and thus treats the man dead in trespasses and sins, as if he were already in his grave. It prophesies smooth things to the sinner going on in his transgressions, and soothes to slumber and the repose of death the souls of such as are at ease in Zion. It assumes that, because men can neither believe, repent, nor pray acceptably, unless aided by the grace of God, it is useless to call upon them to do so. It maintains that the gospel is only intended for elect sinners, and therefore it ought to be preached to none but such. In defiance, therefore, of he command of God, it refuses to preach the glad tidings of mercy to every sinner. opposition to Scripture, and to every rational consideration, it contends that it is not man's duty to believe the truth of God-justifying the obvious inference, that it is not a sin to reject it. In short, its whole tendency is to produce an impression on the sinner's mind, that if he is not saved it is not his fault, but God's; that if he is condemned, it is more for the glory of the Divine Sovereignty, than as the punishment of his guilt.

In

So far from regarding the moral cure of human nature as the great object and design of the gospel, Antinomianism does not take it in at all, but as it exists in Christ, and becomes ours by a figure of speech. It regards the grace and the pardon as everything--the spiritual design or effect as nothing. Hence its opposition to progressive and its zeal for imputed sanctification: the former is intelligible and tangible, but the latter a mere figment of the imagination. Hence its delight in expatiating on the eternity of the Divine decrees, which it does not understand, but which serve to amuse and to deceive; and its dislike to all the sober realities of God's present dealings and commands. It exults in the contemplation of a Christ who is a kind of concretion of all the moral attributes of his people; to the overlooking of that Christ who is the Head of all that in

in this case, endangered by their error. The schism began soon after the election of Urban VI., and was terminated by the Council of Constance. By that Council three rival popes were deposed, and the peace of the Church was restored by the election of Martin V.

ANTI-TYPE. A Greek word, properly signifying a type or figure corresponding to some other type: the word is commonly used in theological writings to denote the person in whom any prophetic type is fulfilled: thus, our blessed SAVIOUR is called the Anti-type of the Paschal lamb under the Jewish law.

APOCALYPSE. A revelation. The name sometimes given to the last book of the New Testament, the Revelation of St. John the Divine, from its Greek title, άTokaλus, which has the same meaning.

This is a canonical book of the New Testament. It was written, according to Irenæus, about the year of Christ 96, in the island of Patmos, whither St. John had been banished by the emperor Domitian; but Sir Isaac Newton fixes the time of writing this book earlier, viz. in the time of Nero. In support of this opinion he alleges the sense of the earliest commentators, and the tradition of the Churches of Syria preserved to this day in the title of the Syriac version of that book, which is this: "The Revelation which was made to John the Evangelist by God in the island of Patmos, into which he was banished by Nero the Cæsar." This opinion, he tells us, is further confirmed by the allusions in the Apocalypse to the temple, and altar, and holy city, as then standing; as also by the style of it, which is fuller of Hebraisms than his Gospel; whence it may be inferred, that it was written when John was newly come out of Judea. It is confirmed also by the many Apocalypses ascribed to the apostles, which appeared in the apostolic age: for Caïus, who was contemporary with Tertullian, tells us, that Cerinthus wrote his Revelation in imitation of St. John's, and yet he lived so early that he opposed the apostles at Jerusalem twenty-six years before the death of Nero, and died before St. John. To these reasons he adds another, namely, that the Apocalypse seems to be alluded to in the Epistles of St. Peter, and that to the Hebrews; and if so, must have been written before them. The allusions he means, are the discourses concerning the high priest in the heavenly tabernacle; the daßßaToμòs, or the millennial rest; the earth, "whose end is to be burned," &c.; whence this learned author is of opinion, that

APOCALYPSE.

Peter and John stayed in Judea and Syria till the Romans made war upon their nation, that is, till the twelfth year of Nero; that they then retired into Asia, and that Peter went from thence by Corinth to Rome; that the Romans, to prevent insurrections from the Jews among them, secured their leaders, and banished St. John into Patmos, where he wrote his Apocalypsis; and that very soon after, the Epistle to the Hebrews and those of Peter were written to the churches, with reference to this prophecy, as what they were particularly concerned in. Some attribute this book to the arch-heretic Cerinthus : but the ancients unanimously ascribe it to John the son of Zebedee, and brother of James. The Revelation has not at all times been esteemed canonical. There were many Churches of Greece, as St. Jerome informs us, which did not receive it; neither is it in the catalogue of the canonical books prepared by the Council of Laodicea; nor in that of St. Cyril of Jerusalem; but Justin, Irenæus, Origen, Cyprian, Clemens of Alexandria, Tertullian, and all the fathers of the fourth, fifth, and following centuries, quote the Revelations as a book then acknowledged to be canonical.

It is a part of this prophecy, that it should not be understood before the last age of the world; and therefore it makes for the credit of the prophecy that it is not yet understood. The folly of interpreters has been to foretell times and things by this prophecy, as if GOD designed to make them prophets. By this rashness, they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the prophecy also into contempt. The design of GOD was much otherwise. He gave this, and the prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify men's curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that, after they were fulfilled, they might be interpreted by the event; and his own providence, not the interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world. There is already so much of the prophecy fulfilled, that as many as will take pains in this study, may see sufficient instances of GOD's providence.

The Apocalypse of John is written in the same style and language with the prophecies of Daniel, and hath the same relation to them which they have to one another: so that all of them together make but one consistent prophecy, pointing out the various revolutions that should happen both to the Church and the State, and at length the final destruction and downfal of the Roman empire.

APOCRYPHA.

APOCRYPHA. (See Bible, Scriptures.) From ȧò and рúπTш, to hide, “because they were wont to be read not openly and in common, but as it were in secret and apart." (Bible of 1539, Preface to Apocrypha.) Certain books appended to the sacred writings. There is no authority, internal or external, for admitting these books into the sacred canon. They were not received as portions of the Old Testament by the Jews, to whom "were committed the oracles of GOD;" they are not cited and alluded to in any part of the New Testament; and they are expressly rejected by St. Athanasius and St. Jerome in the fourth century, though these two fathers speak of them with respect. There is, therefore, no ground for applying the books of the Apocrypha "to establish any doctrine, but they are highly valuable as ancient writings, which throw considerable light upon the phraseology of Scripture, and upon the history and manners of the East; and as they contain many noble sentiments and useful precepts, the Church of England doth read them for "example of life and instruction of manners." (Art. VI.) They are frequently quoted with great respect in the Homilies, although parties who bestow much praise upon the Homilies are wont to follow a very contrary course. The corrupt Church of Rome, at the fourth session of the Council of Trent, admitted them to be of equal authority with Scripture. Thereby the modern Church of Rome differs from the Catholic Church; and by altering the canon of Scripture, and at the same time making her dictum the rule of communion, renders it impossible for those Churches which defer to antiquity to hold communion with her. Divines differ in opinion as to the degree of respect due to those ancient writings. The reading of the Apocryphal books in churches formed one of the grievances of the Puritans: our Reformers, however, have made a selection for certain holy days; and for the first lesson from the evening of the 27th of September, till the morning of the 23rd of November, inclusive. Some clergymen take upon themselves to alter these lessons; but for so doing they are amenable to the ordinary, and should be presented by the churchwardens, at the yearly episcopal or archidiaconal visitation; to say nothing of their moral obligation. There were also Apocryphal books of the New Testament; but these were manifest forgeries, and of course were not used or accepted by the Church. (See the Acts of the Apostles.)

APOLLINARIANS. An ancient sect

who were followers of Apollinaris or Apollinarius, bishop of Laodicea, about the middle of the fourth century. He denied that our SAVIOUR had a reasonable human soul, and asserted that the Logos or Divine nature supplied the place of it. This is one of the sects we anathematize when we read the Athanasian Creed. The doctrine of Apollinaris was condemned by several provincial councils, and at length by the General Council of Constantinople, in 381. In short, it was attacked at the same time by the laws of the emperors, the decrees of councils, and the writings of the learned, and sunk, by degrees, under their united force.

APOLOGY. A word derived from two Greek words, signifying from and speech, and thus in its primary sense, and always in theology, it means a defence from attack; an answer to objections. Thus the Greek word, amoλoyia, from which it comes, is, in Acts xxii. 1, translated by defence; in xxv. 16, by answer; and in 2 Cor. vii. 11, by "clearing of yourselves." There were several Apologies for Christianity composed in the second century, and among these, those of Justin Martyr and Tertullian are best known.

APOSTASY. (ámooráciç, falling away.) A forsaking or renouncing of our religion, either formally, by an open declaration in words, or virtually, by our actions. The word has several degrees of signification. The primitive Christian Church distinguished several kinds of apostasy: the first, of those who went entirely from Christianity to Judaism. The second, of those who mingled Judaism and Christianity together. The third, of those who complied so far with the Jews, as to communicate with them in many of their unlawful practices, without formally professing their religion; and the fourth, of those who, after having been some time Christians, voluntarily relapsed into Paganism. It is expressly revealed in Holy Scripture that there will be a very general falling away from Christianity, or an apostasy, before the second coming of our LORD. (2 Thess. ii. 3; 1 Tim. iv. 1; 2 Tim. iv. 3, 4.)

In the Romish Church the term apostasy is also applied to a renunciation of the monastic vow.

APOSTLE. A missionary, messenger, or envoy. The highest order in the ministry were at first called Apostles; but the term is now generally confined to those first bishops of the Church who received their commission from our blessed LORD himself, and who were distinguished from