Supralapsarian, n. and a. Theol.
(ˌs(j)uːprəlæpˈsɛərɪən)
[f. mod.L. suprālapsārius, f. suprā supra- 8 + L. lapsus fall, lapse: see -ian. Cf. F. supralapsaire.]
A. n. A name applied to those Calvinists who held the view that, in the divine decrees, the predestination of some to eternal life and of others to eternal death was antecedent to the creation and the fall: opposed to Infralapsarian.
| 1633 Hoard Gods Love to Mankind 13 The Maintainers of the Absolute Decree do say..eyther that all actions..and all events.. are absolutely necessary; so the Supralapsarians: or that all mens ends (at least) are unalterable and indeterminable by the power of their wills; so the Sublapsarians. 1674 Hickman Quinquart. Hist. (ed. 2) 75, I believe, with the Supralapsarian, that God hath decreed, not to bestow converting Grace upon many whom he could easily (had he so pleased) have converted. 1674 Boyle Excell. Theol. i. i. 50 Some few Theologues..have got the name of Supra⁓lapsarians, for venturing to look back beyond the fall of Adam for God's decrees of election and reprobation. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVIII. 84/1 According to the supralapsarians, the object of predestination is, homo creabilis et labilis; and, according to the sublapsarians and infralapsarians, homo creatus et lapsus. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 400 The young candidate for academical honours..was strictly interrogated by a synod of louring Supralapsarians as to the day and hour when he experienced the new birth. |
B. adj. Of or pertaining to the Supralapsarians or their doctrine; that is a Supralapsarian.
| 1633 Hoard Gods Love to Mankind 2 The rest of that side, thinking to avoyd the great inconveniences, to which that supralapsarian way lyeth open,..present man to God in his decree of Reprobation, lying in the fall. 1733 Neal Hist. Purit. II. 79 A treatise of Beza's upon the Supralapsarian scheme of Predestination. 1764 A. Maclaine tr. Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. xvii. (1833) 639/1 The Supralapsarian and Sublapsarian divines forgot their debates and differences. 1831 Macaulay Ess., Pilgr. Progr. (1897) 191 An absurd allegory written by some raving supralapsarian preacher who was dissatisfied with the mild theology of the Pilgrim's Progress. 1839 Hallam Lit. Eur. iii. ii. §32 The Supra-lapsarian tenets of Calvin. 1885 Encycl. Brit. XIX. 670/2 The supra⁓lapsarian view was..adopted by Beza and other Calvinists, as it had been held by some of the Augustinian schoolmen. |
Hence ˌSupralapˈsarianism [cf. mod.L. suprālapsāriismus], the doctrine of the Supralapsarians. So † Supraˈlapsary n. and a. = Supralapsarian.
| 1728 Chambers Cycl., Supralapsary, in Theology, a Person who holds, that God, without any Regard to the good or evil Works of Men, has resolv'd, by an eternal Decree, to save some, and damn others. 1755 Johnson, Supralapsary, antecedent to the fall of man. 1775 Ash, Supralapsarianism. 1841 J. Evans' Sk. Denom. Chr. World 80 Recent divines who have gone to the height of Supralapsarianism. 1874 Green Short Hist. viii. §1. 458 Whitgift strove to force on the Church the supralapsarianism of his Lambeth Articles. |