FOOTNOTES.

“The Antinomian derives his name from Anti and Nomos; signifying, against, and a law, his favourite tenet being, that the law is not a rule of life to believers. It is not easy to ascertain what he means by this position, but he seems to carry the doctrine of imputed righteousness of Christ and salvation by faith without works to such lengths as to injure, if not wholly destroy the obligation to moral obedience. Antinomianism may be traced to the period of the reformation, and its promulgator was John Agricola, originally a disciple of Luther. 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 to run into the opposite extreme. “This sect (say the Encyclopedia) sprung up in England during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, and extended the 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 they to be considered as instances of their violation of the Divine Law; consequently they have no occasion to confess their sins, or to break them off by repentance. According to them it was one of the essential and distinctive characters of the elect that they cannot do any thing displeasing to God, or prohibited by Law.”