a. and sb. [f. prec. + -AL.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to the Gospel.
† a. Of or pertaining to the Gospel narrative, or to the Four Gospels; contained or mentioned in the Gospels. Obs.; = EVANGELIC 1 a.
1553. T. Paynell (title), The Pandectes of the Euangelicall Lawe; comprisyng the whole Hystoric of Christes Gospell.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. M vj b. Thorough the whole euangelicall historie.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xl. § 2. What disorder is it if these few Evangelical Hymns … be … every day rehearsed?
1660. Burney, Κέρδ. Δῶρον (1611), 32. The King … commissionates every active hand in Israel, like the Evangelical Centurion.
a. 1703. Burkitt, On N. T., Luke i. 79 (1739), 144/2. In this evangelical Hymn there is a prophetical Prediction.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Harmony, Evangelical Harmony, is a title of divers books, composed to shew the … agreement of the accounts given by the four evangelists.
b. Of or pertaining to, or in accordance with, the faith or precepts of the Gospel, or the Christian religion; pertaining to, or characteristic of, the Gospel dispensation.
1531. Tindale, Exp. St. John (1537), 92. He exhorteth them to procede constauntly in the euangelicall truth.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 103. The Euangelicall Philosphye doth call vs higher to farre deeper mysteries.
1619. W. Perkins, Cases Consc., 31. A stirring vp of the heart to Euangelicall sorrow.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 41. In legall and evangelicall respects.
1699. Burnet, 39 Art., x. (1700), 123. Faith … separated from the other Evangelical Graces and Virtues.
1730. Berkeley, Serm., Wks. 1871, IV. 641. Not lip-worship, nor will-worship, but inward and evangelical.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., I. II. 164. There is nothing evangelical; all is legal and carnal.
1839. Yeowell, Anc. Brit. Ch., ii. (1847), 10. He has taken away … the legal priesthood, that he may establish … the evangelical priesthood.
1853. Marsden, Early Purit., 18. Their detestation of the papacy, and their views of evangelical truth, were confirmed.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, i. 13. The one great evangelical gift … is the gift of the Holy Ghost.
c. Evangelical prophet: a designation of Isaiah, representing the view that his writings describe prophetically the life of Christ, and the state of things under the Gospel dispensation, and that they abound in anticipations of the doctrines revealed in the Gospel.
The idea is due to St. Jerome, in whose writings it frequently occurs in various forms: e.g., he says (Ad Paulam, Wks. 1575 III. 18) that Isaiah ‘non tam propheta dicendus est quam evangelista.’
1547. Homilies, I. Falling from God, II. (1859), 85. The evangelical Prophet Esay … doth teach us.
1585. Abp. Sandys, Serm. (1841), 8. Our evangelical prophet Esaias hath … most lively described and set forth the nativity … of our Saviour Christ to judge the quick and the dead.
1699. Evelyn, Acetaria (1729), 168. The Evangelical Prophet adumbrating the future Glory of the Catholick Church.
1778. Bp. R. Lowth, Isaiah, Prelim. Diss. (ed. 12), 52. The sublime and spiritual uses to be made of this peculiarly evangelical Prophet.
1853. Maurice, Proph. & Kings, xiii. 226. He [Isaiah] is often called the evangelical prophet; by which it is meant that he is especially the prophet of the Messiah.
d. Of a person: Imbued with the spirit of the Gospel. rare.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), 101. I am so evangelical in this, and have such a fellow-feeling for whatever is weak.
2. Since the Reformation adopted as the designation of certain theological parties, who have claimed that the doctrines on which they lay especial stress constitute ‘the Gospel.’ This claim is of course disallowed by their adversaries, but (as in the case of other self-assumed party names) the designation has received the sanction of general usage.
a. = PROTESTANT. Now only with reference to Germany and Switzerland, where its German and French equivalents are also applied in narrower sense to the Lutheran as distinguished from the ‘Reformed’ or Calvinistic Church. In the German Empire ‘The Evangelical Church’ is the official name of the established Protestant Church of Prussia, formed in 1817 by the union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 353/2. Tindall himselfe woulde no lesse were done … then would hys euangelical brother Barns.
1581. W. Stafford, Exam. Compl., iii. 52 a. Euery bishop should yerely keepe a synode in his dioces of all euangeli[c]all persons.
1619. Arraign. Barnevelt, § 11. The reformed euangelicall religion.
1697. Evelyn, Numism., viii. 265. The Evangelical Churches in Germany.
1786. W. Thomson, Watson’s Philip III. (1839), 345. They should maintain two companies of evangelical soldiers.
1847. Sarah Austin, trans. Ranke’s Hist. Ref., III. V. iii. 109. The evangelical communes became aware of their superiority.
b. From 18th c. applied to that school of Protestants which maintains that the essence of ‘the Gospel’ consists in the doctrine of salvation by faith in the atoning death of Christ, and denies that either good works or the sacraments have any saving efficacy.
Other features more or less characteristic of the theology of this school are the following: a strong insistence on the totally depraved state of human nature consequent on the Fall; the assertion of the sole authority of the Bible in matters of doctrine, and the denial of any power inherent in the Church to supplement or authoritatively interpret the teaching of Scripture; the denial that any supernatural gifts are imparted by ordination; and the view that the sacraments are merely symbols, the value of which consists in the thoughts which they are fitted to suggest. As a distinct party designation, the term came into general use, in England, at the time of the Methodist revival; and it may be said, with substantial accuracy, to denote the school of theology which that movement represents, though its earlier associations were rather with the Calvinistic than the Arminian branch of the movement. In the early part of the 19th c. the words ‘Methodist’ and ‘Evangelical’ were, by adversaries, often used indiscriminately, and associated with accusations of fanaticism and ‘puritanical’ disapproval of social pleasures. The portion of the ‘evangelical’ school which belongs to the Anglican church is practically identica! with the ‘Low Church’ party. In the Church of Scotland during the latter part of the 18th and the early part of the 19th c. the two leading parties were the ‘Evangelical’ and the ‘Moderate’ party.
[1747. Doddridge, Life Col. Gardiner, 162. It was his deliberate Judgment, that the Law should be preached, as well as the Gospel; and hardly any Thing gave him greater Offence, than the irreverent Manner in which some, who have been ignorantly extolled as the most zealous Evangelical Preachers, have sometimes been tempted to speak of the former.]
1791. J. Hampson, Mem. J. Wesley, III. 61. What are usually called, evangelical views of religion.
1809. R. Southey, in Q. Rev., I. 195. The Wesleyans, the Orthodox dissenters of every description, and the Evangelical churchmen may all be comprehended under the generic name of Methodists.
1825. Ld. Cockburn, Mem., i. 43. The principles and feelings of the persons commonly called evangelical were the same then as they are now.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 38/2. Evangelical ladies there are, likewise, whose attachment to the forms of religion, and horror of theatrical entertainments, are most exemplary.
1871. Blackie, Four Phases, I. 54. The sacred-sounding columns of an evangelical newspaper may become a systematic manufactory of lies.
1889. Dict. Nat. Biog., XVII. 433. Erskine was … devoted to the doctrines and aims of the evangelical party in the church.
3. Of or pertaining to an evangelist, or preacher of the Gospel. rare.
1651. Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., xvii. § 23. 321. The Apostolicall worke indeed was universall … the Evangelicall to preach, or to be publishers of the Gospell among the infidels.
1794. Godwin, Cal. Williams, 291. He [the vicar] condescended, with his evangelical hand, to guide the plough.
B. sb.
1. A Protestant; in mod. use esp. a German Lutheran, or an adherent of the national church of the German Empire. See A. 2 a.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 352/1. Those euaungelicalles theimselfe cease not to pursue and punishe … their euaungelicall bretherne.
1860. Froude, Hist. Eng., V. 323. Clergymen professing to be Evangelicals held four or five livings, and officiated in none.
1879. in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 109/1. He [Veit Bach] is said … to have moved into Hungary with many other Evangelicals for protection from persecution.
2. A member of the Evangelical party, esp. in the Church of England. Cf. A. 2 b.
1804. R. Southey, in Ann. Rev., II. 189. The history of this society is truly characteristic of the Evangelicals. Ibid. (1807), Espriella’s Lett. (1814), II. 359. [Whitfield’s] preachers were usually called by her [Lady Huntingdon’s] name, which they have now dropt for the better title of Evangelicals.
1852. Newland, Lect. Tractar., 77. We claim the Evangelicals of the last generation as our fellow workers.
1865. Pusey, Truth Eng. Ch., 4. Ever since I knew them … I have loved those who are called ‘Evangelicals.’
1876. C. M. Davies, Unorth. Lond. (ed. 2), 374. Dr. Arnold defines the Evangelical to be ‘a good Christian, with a narrow understanding, a bad education, and little knowledge of the world.’
Hence Evangelicality, Evangelicalness (rare), the quality or state of being evangelical; faithfulness to the Gospel.
1857. De Quincey, in ‘H. A. Page,’ Life (1877), II. xviii. 129. One of the Edinburgh Professors, and notorious for his evangelicality.
1645. J. G[oodwin], Innoc. & Truth Tri., 63. Mr. Prynne by representing my Parish as divided, disordered by my Independent way, hath rather given testimony to the truth and evangelicalnesse of it.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Evangelicalness, the having evangelical quality.
