[See def. and -IST.] An adherent of Sir Henry Vane (1613–62) in respect of Antinomian principles.
1658. Baxter, Life John Howe, Wks. 1846, Pref. p. xiii. Infidels and Papists who are very high and busy under several garbs, especially of Seekers, Vanists, Behmenists. Ibid. (1664), Life (1696), 63. The Vanists, the Independants, and other Sects … was left by Cromwell to do his Business under the Name of the Parliament of England.
1825. Coleridge, Aids Refl. (ed. 2), 135. Favouring the errors of the … Vanists.
1836. H. Rogers, J. Howe, iii. 65. Here was a Vanist, pouring out his unintelligible rhapsodies.
