INS 



INS 



ble matter must present comparatively 

 few points of contact ; it must be always 

 withdrawn from the sphere of action, and 

 of course, if it be opposed to a combina- 

 tion, it can act with comparatively little 

 energy. From the same cause, if it be a 

 compound, and be acted on by any sub- 

 stance tending to combine with one of its 

 principles, its insolubility must in some 

 measure protect it, as abstracting it from 

 the action of the decomposing substance. 



INSOLVENT debtors. Insolvent acts 

 are statutes passed for the purpose of re- 

 leasing from prison, and sometimes from 

 their debts, persons whose transactions 

 have not been of such a nature as would 

 subject them to the bankrupt laws. Their 

 discharge is usually from all suits and im- 

 prisonment, upon delivering up all their 

 estates and effects, real and personal, for 

 the benefit of their creditors. 



INSPIRATION, among divines, &c. im- 

 plies the conveying of certain extraordi- 

 nary and supernatural notices or motions 

 into the mind ; or it denotes any superna- 

 tural influence of God upon the mind of a 

 rational creature, whereby he is formed 

 to any degree of intellectual improve- 

 ments, to which he could not, or would 

 not, in fact, have attained in his present 

 circumstances, in a natural way. Thus 

 the prophets are said to have spoken by 

 divine inspiration. 



Some authors reduce the inspiration of 

 the sacred writers to a particular care of 

 Providence, which prevented any thing 

 they had said from failing or coming to 

 nought ; maintaining, that they never 

 were really inspired either with know- 

 ledge or expression. According to others, 

 inspiration is no more than a direction of 

 the Holy Spirit, which never permitted 

 the sacred writers to be mistaken. It is 

 a common opinion, that the inspiration of 

 the Holy Spirit regards only the matter, 

 not the style or words. 



Theological writers have enumerated 

 several kinds of inspiration; such as "an 

 inspiration of superintendency," in which 

 God does so influence and direct the mind 

 of any person, as to keep him more se- 

 cure from error in some various and com- 

 plex discourse, than he would have been 

 merely by the use of his natural faculties ; 

 " plenary superintendent inspiration," 

 which excludes any mixture of error from 

 the performance so superintended ; " in- 

 spiration of elevation," where the facul- 

 ties act in a regular, and, as it seems, in 

 a common manner, yet are raised to an 

 extraordinary degree, so that the compo- 

 ser shall, upon the whole, have more of 

 the true sublime or pathetic, than natu- 



ral genius could have given ; and " inspi- 

 ration of suggestion," when the use of the 

 faculties is superseded, and God does, as 

 it were, speak directly to the mind, mak- 

 ing such discoveries to it, as it could not 

 otherwise have obtained, and dictating 

 the very words in which such discoveries 

 are to be communicated, if they are de- 

 signed as a message to others. 



It is generally allowed, that the New- 

 Testament was written by a superintend- 

 ent inspiration ; fur without this the dis- 

 courses and doctrines of Christ could not 

 have been faithfully recorded by the 

 Evangelists and Apostles ; nor could they 

 have assumed the authority of .speaking 

 the words of Christ, and evinced this au- 

 thority by the actual exercise of miracu- 

 lous powers ; and, besides, the sacred 

 writings bear many obvious internal 

 marks of their divine original, in the ex- 

 cellence of their doctrines, the spiritual- 

 ity and elevation of their design, the ma- 

 jesty and simplicity of thfcir stile, the 

 agreement of their various parts, and 

 their efficacy on mankind ; to which may 

 be added, that there has been in the 

 Christian church, from its earliest ages, a 

 constant tradition, that the sacred books 

 were written by the extraordinary assis- 

 tance of the Spirit, which must at least 

 amount to superintendent inspiration; but 

 it has been controverted, whether this in- 

 spiration extended to every minute cir- 

 cumstance in their writings, so as to be in 

 the most absolute sense plenary. Jerome, 

 Grotius, Erasmus, Episcopius, and many 

 others, maintain, that it was not : whilst 

 others contend, that the emphatical man- 

 ner in which our Lord speaks of the agen- 

 cy of the spirit upon them, and in which 

 they themselves speak of their own writ- 

 ings, will justify our believing that their 

 inspiration was plenary, unless there be 

 very convincing evidence brought on the 

 other side to prove that it was not : and if 

 we allow, it is said, that there were some 

 errors in the New Testament, as it came 

 from the hands of the Apostles, there may 

 be great danger of subverting the main 

 purpose and design of it ; since there will 

 be endless room to debate the importance 

 both of facts and doctrines. See Dod- 

 dridge's Lectures. 



INSTALMENT, the instating or -esta- 

 blishing a person in some dignity. This 

 word is chiefly used for the induction of a 

 dean, prebendary, or other ecclesiastical 

 dignitary, into the possession of his stall, 

 or other proper seat, in the cathedral to 

 which he belongs. It is also used for the 

 ceremony whereby the knights of the 

 garter are placed in their rank, in the 



