The followers of Samuel Hopkins (1721–1803), who taught Calvinism in its most repulsive form.
1821. In a few particulars, the Hopkinsians have superadded to the doctrinal part of this system.—T. Dwight, ‘Travels,’ iv. 452.
1824. He is, in Albany, a professed Calvinist, and a sworn enemy to Hopkinsian principles.—The Microscope, June 5.
1837. I do not mean to say that I believe there are no good and conscientious Christians among the Hopkinsian Calvinists.… Go into a Hopkinsian-Presbyterian church for a Sabbath, and observe the men you have met during the week, in their stores, at the tavern, and the town-meeting, as they come into church.—Knick. Mag., ix. 354–5 (April).
1840. Mr. Austin was of the Hopkintonian school, and preached [at Worcester, Mass.] of original sin, and there being infants in hell not a span long.—E. S. Thomas, ‘Reminiscences,’ ii. 14 (Hartford, Ct.).
1850. Hopkinsianism, while it pushed the doctrine of the Genevan reformer on the subject of the Divine decrees and agency to that extreme point where it wellnigh loses itself in Pantheism, held at the same time that guilt could not be hereditary.—Whittier, ‘Prose Works: Samuel Hopkins’ (1889), ii. 132. (N.E.D.)
