A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

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 have 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 the command of God, it refuses to preach the glad tidings of mercy to every sinner. In 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.

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 heaven and on earth bear his likeness. It boasts in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, while it believes in no saint but one, that is, Jesus, and neglects to persevere.—Orme’s Life of Baxter, vol. ii. p. 311.

ANTI-PÆDOBAPTISTS. (From ἀντὶ, against, παῖς, child, βάπτισμα, baptism.) Persons who are opposed to the baptism of infants. In this country, this sect arrogate to themselves the title of Baptists par excellence, as though no other body of Christians baptized: just as the Socinians extenuate their heresy by calling themselves Unitarians: thereby insinuating that those who hold the mystery of the Holy Trinity do not believe in one God. (See Anabaptists, Baptism.)

ANTIPHON, or ANTIPHONY. (ἀντὶ and φωνὴ.) The chant or alternate singing of a Christian choir. This is the most ancient form of church music. Diodorus and Flavian, the leaders of the orthodox party at Antioch during the ascendency of Arianism, in the fourth century, and St. Ambrose at Milan, instead of leaving the chanting to the choristers, as had been usual, divided the whole congregation into two choirs, which sang the psalms alternately. That the chanting of the psalms alternately is even older than Christianity, cannot be doubted, for the custom prevailed in the Jewish temple. Many of the psalms are actually composed in alternate verses, evidently with a view to their being used in a responsive manner. “I make no doubt,” says Nicholls, “but that it is to this way of singing used in the temple, that that vision in Isaiah vi. alluded, when he saw the two cherubims, and heard them singing, ‘Holy, holy,’ &c. For these words cannot be otherwise explained, than of their singing anthem-wise; ‘they called out this to that cherubim,’ properly relates to the singing in a choir, one voice on one side, and one on the other.” In the earlier days of the Christian Church, this practice was adopted, and became universal. The custom is said, by Socrates the historian, to have been first introduced among the Greeks by Ignatius. St. Basil tells us that, in his time, about A. D. 470, the Christians, “rising from their prayers, proceeded to singing of psalms, dividing themselves into two parts, and singing by turns.” Tertullian remarks, that “when one side of the choir sing to the other, they both provoke it by a holy contention, and relieve it by a mutual supply and change.” For these or similar reasons, the reading of the Psalter is, in places where there is no choir, divided between the minister and people. In the cathedral worship of the Church Universal, the psalms of the day are chanted throughout. And in order to preserve their responsive character, two full choirs are stationed one on each side of the church. One of these having chanted one or two verses (the usual compass of the chant-tune) remains silent, while the opposite choir replies in the verses succeeding; and at the end of each psalm, (and of each division of the 119th Psalm,) the Gloria Patri is sung by the united choirs in chorus, accompanied by the peal of the great organ. The usage, now prevalent in foreign churches subject to Rome, of chanting one verse by a single voice, and the other by the full choir, is not ancient, and is admitted to be incorrect by some continental ritualists themselves. This method is quite destructive of the genuine effect of antiphonal chanting, which ought to be equally balanced on each side of the choir. It may indeed be accepted as a sort of modification of the ordinary parochial mode; but in regular choirs it would be a clear innovation, a retrograde movement, instead of an improvement. In some choirs the Gloria Patri is sung antiphonally, but always to the great organ.—Jebb.

ANTIPHONAR. The book which contains the invitatories, responsories, verses, collects, and whatever else is sung in the choir; but not including the hymns peculiar to the Communion Service, which are contained in the Gradual, or Grail.—Jebb.

ANTI-POPE. He that usurps the popedom in opposition to the right pope. Geddes gives the history of no less than twenty-four schisms in the Roman Church caused by anti-popes. Some took their rise from a diversity of doctrines or belief, which led different parties to elect each their several pope; but they generally took their rise from dubious controverted rights of election. During the great schism, which, commencing towards the close of the 14th century, lasted for fifty years, there was always a pope and anti-pope; and as to the fact which of the two rivals was pope, and which anti-pope, it is impossible even now to decide. The greatest powers of Europe were at this time divided in their opinions on the subject. As is observed by some Roman Catholic writers, many pious and gifted persons, who are now numbered among the saints of the Church, were to be found indifferently in either obedience; which sufficiently proved, as they assert, that the eternal salvation of the faithful was not, 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.