ANTINOMIANS (αντί, against, and νό/ios, law), a term first employed by Luther as a designation of the followers of John Agricola, who maintained that the moral law was not binding, as such, upon Christians (see Agricola, J ohannes). In this, as in many other cases, however, the thing existed long before the name. From the 1st century of the Christian era downwards, there have been those who, on one ground or other, denied that the law was of use or obligation under the gospel dispensation, and the term Antinomian is, accordingly, applied with sufficient propriety to many who lived at an earlier date than the sect or school to describe whom Luther invented it. It would seem, from several passages in the New Testament (Rom. iii. 8, 31, vi. 1; Eph. V. 6; 2 Pet. ii. 18, 19), in which the apostles warn their followers against perversions of their doctrine as an excuse for licentiousness, that Antinomianism, in its grosser form, found a place even in the primitive church. It is to be noticed that this first manifestation of the heresy seems to have been due to the same cause as that which operated in the case of Agricola,—a mistaken interpretation of the doctrine of justification by faith. The Gnostic sects, several of whom are classed as Antinomian, seem to have proceeded on the principle, that being spiritual their nature could not be corrupted whatever their moral conduct might be. Gnostic Antinomianism seems; therefore, to have been in this'respect analogous to that of the High Calvinists, some of whom went so far as to maintain that an elect person did not sin -even when he committed actions in themselves wicked. Such were the Antinomians in England during the Protectorate. A doctrine so extreme, and sanctioning so unmistakably an immoral life, is to be carefully ...

are those who maintain that the law is of no use or obligation under the Gospel dispensation, or who hold doctrines that clearly supersede the necessity of good works and a virtuous life. The Antinomians took their origin from John Agricola, about the year 1538, who taught that the law was in no wise necessary under the Gospel; that good works do not promote our salvation, nor ill ones hinder it; that repentance is not to be preached from the decalogue, but only from the Gospel. This sect sprung up in England during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell; and extended their system of libertinism much farther than Agricola, the disciple of Luther. Some of their teachers 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 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 break them off by repentance. According to them, it is one of the essential and distinctive characters of the elect, that they cannot do any thing which is displeasing to God. Luther, Rutherford, Schlusselburgh, Sedgwick, Gataker, Witsius, Bull, Williams, &c, have written refutations; Crisp, Richardson, Saltmarsh, &c, defences, of the Antinomians; Wigandus, a comparison between ancient and modern Antinomians. The doctrine of Agricola was in itself obscure, and is thought to have been represented worse than it really was by Luther, who wrote against him with acrimony, and first styled him and his followers Antinomians. Agricola, in defending himself, complained that opinions were imputed to him which he did not hold. The writings of Dr. Crisp in the seventeenth century are considered as highly favourable to ...