INS 
INS 
action, the insoluble 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must be always withdrawn from the sphere 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 combination, it can act with compara- 
tively little energy. From the same cause, 
if it be a compound, and be acted on by 
any substance 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 sub- 
stance. 
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 dis- 
charge is usually from all suits and impri- 
sonment, upon delivering up all their es- 
tates and effects, real and personal, for the 
benefit of their creditors. 
INSPIRATION, among divines, &c. 
implies 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 improvements, 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 knowledge or ex- 
pression. According to others, inspiration 
is no more than a direction of the Holy Spi- 
rit, 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 secure 
from error in some various and complex dis- 
course, 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 ; “ inspiration of eleva- 
tion,” where the faculties act in a regular, 
and, as it seems, in a common manner, yet 
are raised to an extraordinary degree, so 
that the composure shall, upon the whole, 
have more of the true sublime or pathetic, 
than natural genius could have given ; and 
“ inspiration of suggestion,” when the use 
of the faculties is superseded, and God 
does, as it were, speak directly to the mind, 
making 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 design- 
ed as a message to others. 
It is generally allowed, that the New 
Testament was written by a superintendent 
inspiration ; for without this the discourses 
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 authority by the actual 
exercise of miraculous powers : and be- 
sides, the sacred writings .bear many obvi- 
ous internal marks of their divine original, 
in the excellence of their doctrines, the spi- 
rituality and elevation of their design, the 
majesty and simplicity of their style, 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 writ- 
ten by the extraordinary assistance of the 
Spirit, which must at least amount to super- 
intendent inspiration ; but it has been con- 
troverted, whether this inspiration extended 
to every minute circumstance in their writ- 
ings, so as to be in the most absolute sense 
plenary. Jerome, Grotius, Erasmus, Episco- 
pius, and many others, maintain that it was 
not ; whilst others contend, that the emphati- 
cal manner in which our Lord speaks of the 
agency of the Spirit upon them, and in 
which they themselves speak of their own 
writings, 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 pur- 
pose and design of it ; since there will be 
endless room to debate the importance both 
of facts and doctrines. See Doddridge’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 
