prevalent in other communities. A theological system, says Dr Jortin, is two often no more than a temple consecrated to implicit faith; and he who enters in there to worship, instead of leaving his shoes, after the eastern manner, must leave his understanding at the door; and it will be well if he find it when he comes out again. punishable in the temporal courts with fie, imprisonment, and corporeal punishment. See FALSE MESSIAHS. habit to the contrary; a violent passion; or the like. IMPROPRIATION a parsonage or ecclesiastical living, the profits of which are in the hands of a layman; in which case it stands distinguished from appropriation, which is where the profits of a benefice are in the hands of a bishop, college, &c. though the terms are now used promiscuously. IMPOTENCY, r IMPOTENCE, is considered as natural and moral. Naturul is the want of some physical princi ple necessary to an action, or where a being is absolutely defective, or not free and at liberty to act. Moral impotency IMPOSITION OF HANDS, an ec-imports a great difficulty; as a strong clesiastical action, by which a bishop lays his hand on the head of a per son in ordination, confirmation, or in uttering a blessing. This practice is also frequently observed by the Dis senters at the ordination of their preach ers; when the ministers present place their hands on the head of him whom they are ordaining, while one of them prays for a blessing on him and on his future labours. They are not agreed, IMPULSE, an influence, idea, or We however, as to the propriety of this motive acting upon the mind. ceremony. Some suppose it to be con- must be careful how we are guided by fined to those who received extra rd: impuses in religion. "There are many," nary gifts in the primitive times: others as one observes, "who frequently feel think it ought to be retained, as it was singular impressions upon their minds, an ancient practice used where no ex- and are inclined to pay a very strict traordinary gifts were conveyed, Gen. regard unto them. Yea, some carry xlviii. 14. Matt. xix. 15 They do not this point so far, as to make it almost suppose it to be of such an important the only rule of their judgment, and and essential nature, that the validity will not determine any thing, until they and usefulness of a man's future minis- find it in their hearts to do it, as their try depend upon it in any degree. Im- phrase is Others take it for granted, position of hands was a J wish ceremo-that the divine mind is notified to them ny, introduced not by any divine authori- by sweet or powerful impressions of ty, but by custom; it being the practice some passages of sacred writ There among those people, whenever they are others who are determined by prayed to God for any person, to lay visionary manifestations, or by the imtheir hands on his head. Our Saviour pressions made in dreams, and the inobserved the same custom, both when terpretations they put upon them. Ail he conferred his blessing on children these things being of the same general and when he healed the sick, adding nature, may very justly be considered prayer to the ceremony. The apos together; and it is a matter of doubt tles, likewise, laid hands on those upon with many how far these things are to whom they bestowed the H ly Ghost. be regarded, or attended to by us; and The priests observed the same custom how we may distinguish any divine when any one was received in their impressions of this kind from the delu. body. And the apostles themselves un- sions of the tempter, or of our own evil derwent the imposition of hands afresh hearts But, whoever makes any of these every time they entered upon any new things his rule and standard, he forsakes design. In the ancient church, imposi the divine word; and nothing tends tion of hands was even practised on more to make persons unhappy in persons when they married, which cus themselves, unsteady in their conduct, tom the Abyssians still observe. Mau or more dangerously deluded in their rice's Dial. on Soc. Relig. p. 163. 168; practice, than paying a random regard Watts' Rational Foundation of a Christian to these impulses, as notifications of the Church, p. 31; Turner on Church Govern-divine will." See ENTHUSIASM, PROernment, p 70; King's Primitive Christian VIDENCE. Church, p. 49. IMPOSTORS, RELIGIOUS, are such as pretend to an extraordinary commission from heaven, and who ter rify the people with false denunciations of judgments. Too many of these have abounded in almost all ages. They are IMPURITY, want of that regard to decency, chastity, or holiness, which our duty requires. Impurity, in the law of Moses, is any legal defilement. Of these there were several sorts: some were voluntary, as the touching a dead body, or any animal that died of it self; or any creature that was esteemed || originally his, antecedently to such imunclean; or touching things holy by oneputation; or to what was not antecewho was not clean, or was not a priest; the touching one who had a leprosy, one who had a gonorrhea, or who was polluted by a dead carcase, &c. Sometimes these impurities were involuntary; as when any one inadvertently touched bones, or a sepulchre, or any thing polluted; or fell into such diseases as pollute, as the leprosy, &c. dently his, but becomes so by virtue of such imputation only, 2 Sam. xix. 19. Ps. cvi. 31. The imputation that re spects our justification before God is of the latter kind, and may be defined thus: it is God's gracious donation of the righteousness of Christ to believers, and his acceptance of their persons as righteous on the account thereof. Their sins being imputed to him, and his obedience being imputed to them, they are, in virtue hereof, both acquitted from guilt, and accepted as righteous before God, 21 See RIGHTEOUSNESS, SIN; Dickinson's Letters, p. 156; Hervy's Theron and Aspasio, vol ii. p. 43; Doddridge's Works, vol. iv. p. 562; Watts' Works, vol. iíi. p. 532. The beds, clothes, and moveables which had touched any thing unclean, contracted also a kind of impurity and in some cases communicated it to others. These legal pollutions were general-Rom. iv. 6, 7. Rom. v. 18, 19. 2 Cor. v. ly removed by bathing, and lasted no longer than the evening. The person polluted plunged over head in the water; and either had his clothes on when he did so, or washed himself and his clothes separately Other pollutions continued seven days; as, that which was contracted by touching a dead body. Some impurities lasted forty or fifty days; as, that of women who were lately delivered, who were unclean for ty days after the birth of a boy, and fifty after the birth of a girl. Others, again, lasted till the person was cured. Many of these pollutions were expiated by sacrifices, and others by a certain water or lie made with the ashes of a red heifer, sacrificed on the great day of expiation. When the leper was cured, he went to the temple, and offer ed a sacrifice of two birds, one of which was killed, and the other set at liberty He who had touched a dead body, or had been present at a funeral, was to be purified with the water of expiation, and this upon pain of death. The woman who had been delivered, offered a turtle and a lamb for her expiation; or if she was poor, two turtles, or two young pigeons. INABILITY, want of power sufficient for the performance of any particular action or design. It has been divided into natural and moral. We are said to be naturally unable to do a thing when we cannot do it if we wish, be cause of some impeding defect or ob. stacle that is extrinsic to the will, either in the understanding, constitution of the body, or external objects. Moral inabi lity consists not in any of these things, but either in the want of inclination, or the strength of a contrary inclination; or the want of sufficient motives in view to induce and excite the act of the will, or the strength of apparent motives to the contrary For the sake of illustration, we will here present the reader with a few examples of both. Jacob could not rejoice in Joseph's exaltation before he heard of t The woman mentioned find him. Hazael could not have smothered Benhadad, if he had not been suffered to Potiphar's wife could not rejoice in it, if she conti nued under it. Had that woman been a of famine. These impurities, which the law of Moses has expressed with the greatest accuracy and care, were only figures in 24 Kings vi. 29. could not very affectionate mother, of other more important impurities, kill her neighbour's son she could not have killed and eat him, when he was her own son in a time of such as the sins and iniquities commit-hid, and she could not plenty, as she did in a time ted against God, or faults committed against our neighbour. The saints and prophets of the Old Testament were sensible of this; and our Saviour, in the Gospel, has strongly inculcated,—that they are not outward and corporeal pollutions which render us unaccepta ble to God, but such inward pollutions as infect the soul, and are violations of justice, truth, and charity. IMPUTATION is the attributing any matter, quality, or character, whether good or evil, to any person as his own. It may refer to what was | enter his chamber. If a dutiful, affectionate son had been waiting on Benhadad in Hazael's stead, he could not have smothered him, as Hazael did. These are a few instances from which we may clearly learn the distinction of natural and moral inability. It must not, however, be forgotten, that moral inability or disinclination is no excuse for our omission of duty, though want of natural faculties or necessary means would. That God may command, though man has not a present moralf their tendency to diffuse wealth, to conability to perform, is evident, if we connect families, or to promote some polisider, 1 That man once had a power to tical advantage. do whatsoever God would command him, he had a power to cleave to God. -2. That God did not deprive man of his ability.-3. Therefore God's right of commanding, and man's obligation of returning and cleaving to God, remains firm. See LIBERTY; and Theol. Misc. vol. ii. p. 488; Edwards on the Wili; Char nock's Works, vol. ii. p. 187; Watts on Liberty, p. 4. INCARNATION, the act whereby the Son of God assumed the human nature; or the mystery by which Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word, was made man, in order to accomplish the work of our salvation. See NATIVITY; and Meldrum on the Incarnation "The Levitical law, which is received in this country, and from which the rule of the Roman law differs very little, prohibits marriage between relations within three degrees of kindred; comduting the generations not from, but through the common ancestor, and accounting affinity the same as consanguinity. The issue, however, of such marriages are not bastardized, unless the parents be divorced during their lifetime." Paley's Moral Philosophy, p. 316. vol. i. INCEST, SPIRITUAL, an ideal crime, committed between two persons who have a spiritual alliance, by means of baptism or confirmation. This ridiculous fancy was made use of as an instrument of great tyranny in times when the power of the pope was unlimited, even queens being sometimes divorced upon this pretence. Incest Spiritual is also understood of a vicar, or other beneficiary, who enjoys both the mother and the daughter; that is, holds two benefices, one whereof depends upon the collation of the other. Such spiritual incest renders both the one and the other of these benefices vacant. INCEST, the crime of criminal and unnatural commerce with a person within the degrees forbidden by the law. By the rules of the church, incest was formerly very absurdly extended even to the seventh degree; but it is now restricted to the third or fourth Most nations look on incest with horror, Persia and Egypt excepted. In the history of the ancient kings of those Countries we meet with instances of brothers marrying their own sisters, because they thought it too mean to join INCLINATION is the disposition or in alliance with their own subjects, and propensity of the mind to any particular still more so to marry into any foreign object or action; or a kind of bias upon family. Vortigern, king of South Bri nature, by the force of which it is cartain, equalled, or rather excelled them ried towards certain actions previously in wickedness, by marrying his own to the exercise of thought and reasoning daughter. The queen of Portugal was about the nature and consequences of married to her uncle: and the prince of them. Inclinations are of two kinds, Brazil, the son of that incestuous mar-natural or acquired. 1. Natural are riage, is wedded to his aunt. But they had dispensations for these unnatural marriages from his holiness "In order," says one, to preserve chastity in families, and between persons of different sexes brought up and living together in a state of unreserved intimacy, it is necessary, by every method possible, to inculcate an abhorrence of incestuous conjunctions; which abhor rence can only be upheld by the abso lute reprobation of all commerce of the sexes between near relations. Upon this principle the marriage, as well as INCOMPREHENSIBILITY OF other cohabitation of brothers and sis GOD. This is a relative term, and inters of lineal kindred, and of all who dicates a relation between an object and usually live in the same family, may be a faculty; between God and a created said to be forbidden by the law of nature understanding; so that the meaning of Restrictions which extend to remoter it is this, that no created understanding degrees of kindred than what this rea- can comprehend God; that is, have a son makes it necessary to prohibit from perfect and exact knowledge of him, intermarriage, are founded in the such a knowledge as is adequate to the authority of the positive law which_or-perfection of the object, Job xi. 7. Isa. dains them, and can only be justified by xl. God is incomprehensible, 1. As to such as we often see in children, who from their earliest years differ in their tempers and dispositions. In one you see the dawnings of a liberal diffusive soul; another gives us cause to fear he will be altogether as narrow and sordid. Of one we may say he is naturally revengeful; of another, that he is pa tient and forgiving.-2. Acquired inclinations are such as are superinduced by custom, which are called habits; and these are either good or evil. See HABIT. titled, Reflections on the Sources of Incre dulity with regard, to Religion, and Cassaubon on Credulity and Incredulity. the nature of his essence. 2. The excellency of his attributes. 3. The depth of his councils. 4. The works of his providence. 5. The dispensation of his INDEPENDENCY OF GOD is his grace, Eph. iii. 8. Job xxxvii. 25. Rom. existence in and of himself, without dexi. The incomprehensibility of God pending on any other."His being and follows, 1. From his being a spirit endu-perfections," as Dr. Ridgley observes ed with perfections greatly superior to our own.-2. There may be (for any thing we certainly know) attributes and perfections in God of which we have not the least idea,-3. In those perfections of the divine nature of which we have some idea, there are many things to us inexplicable, and with which, the more deeply and attentively we think of them, the more we find our thoughts swallowed up; such as his self-existence, eternity, omnipresence, &c. This should teach us therefore, 1. To admire and reverence the Divine Being, Zech. ix. 17. Neh. ix 5.-2. To be humble and modest, Ps. viii. 1. 4. Eccl. v. 2, 3, Job || xxxvii. 19.-3. To be serious in our ad-on some reason out of himself inducing dresses, and sincere in our behaviour to wards him. Caryl on Job xxvii. 25; Tillotson's Sermons, sermon 156; Aber. nethy's Sermons, vol. ii. No. 6, 7; Doddridge's Lect. lec. 59. INCONTINENCY, not abstaining from unlawful desires. See CONTINENCY. INCORPOREALITY OF GOD, is his being without a body. That God is incorporeal is evident; for, 1. Materiality is incompatible with self-existence and God being self-existent, must be in corporeal.-2. If God were corporeal. he could not be present in any part of the world were body is; yet his presence is necessary for the support and motion of body.-3. A body cannot be in two places at the same time; yet he is every where and fills heaven and earth. -4. A body is to be seen and felt, but God is invisible and impalpable, John i 18. Charnock's Works vol. i. p. 117; Doddridge's Lect. lec. 47; Gill's Body of Div. vol. i. p. 45. 8vo. INCORRUPTIBLES, or INCORKUP TIBILES, the name of a sect which sprang out of the Eutychians. Their distinguishing tenet was, that the body of Jesus Christ was incorruptible; by which they meant, that, after and from the time wherein he was formed in the womb of his mother, he was not susceptible of any change or alteration; not even of any natural or innocent passion, as of hunger, thirst, &c. so that he ate without occasion before his death, as well as after his resurrection. INCREDULITY, the withholding our assent to any proposition, not with standing arguments sufficient to demand assent. See Duncan Forbes' piece, en (Body of Div. q. 7,)" are underived, and him thereto; for it is essential to the di "The Levitical law, which is receiv in this country, and from which the r of the Roman law differs very lit prohibits marriage between relati within three degrees of kindred; co duting the generations not from, through the common ancestor, and counting affinity the same as cons guinity. The issue, however, of s marriages are not bastardized, unl the parents be divorced during th lifetime." Paley's Moral Philosophy, 316. vol. i. INCEST, SPIRITUAL, an id crime, committed between two pers who have a spiritual alliance, by me of baptism or confirmation. This ridi lous fancy was made use of as an strument of great tyranny in ti when the power of the pope was u mited, even queens being someti divorced upon this pretence. Incest ritual is also understood of a vicar, other beneficiary, who enjoys both mother and the daughter; that is, h two benefices, one whereof depe upon the collation of the other. S spiritual incest renders both the one the other of these benefices vacant. INCLINATION is the dispositio propensity of the mind to any partic object or action; or a kind of bias u nature, by the force of which it is ried towards certain actions previo to the exercise of thought and reaso about the nature and consequence them. Inclinations are of two ki natural or acquired. 1. Natural such as we often see in children, from their earliest years differ in t tempers and dispositions. In one see the dawnings of a liberal diff soul; another gives us cause to fea will be altogether as narrow and did. Of one we may say he is natu revengeful; of another, that he is tient and forgiving.-2. Acquired nations are such as are superind by custom, which are called ha and these are either good or evil. HABIT. INCOMPREHENSIBILITY GOD. This is a relative term, an cates a relation between an object faculty; between God and a cre understanding; so that the meani it is this, that no created understan can comprehend God; that is, ha nperfect and exact knowledge of the such a knowledge as is adequate t or-perfection of the object, Job xi. 7. ed by xl. God is incomprehensible, 1. A |