INCUM'BER, v. a. Fr. encombrer. To em reason of the incurability of the former, and facile care barrass. See ENCUMBER.

of the other.

Harvey.
My cause is called, and that long looked for day No man with holds thee, nothing from thy hand
is still encumbered with some new delay. Dryden.

Fear I incurable; bring up thy van ;
INCUR', v.a. Lat. incurro ; Span. in- My heels are fettered, but my fist is free.
INCUR'SION, n. s. ) currir; Ital. incorrcre. To

Millon, Samson Agonistes. become liable to blame or punishment; to press

We cannot know it is or is not, being incurably

Locke. on the senses : incursion, a hostile attack; in- ignorant. vasion without conquest; inroad; ravage.

A schirrus is not absolutely incurable, because it has

teen known that fresh pastu:- has cured it in cattle. Spain is very weak at home, or very slow to move,

Arbuthnot. when they suffered a small feet of English to inake an The Creator did not bestow so much skill upon hk hos invasion, or incursion, upon their havens and

creatures, to be looked upon with a careless incurious roads.

Bacon.
eye.

Derham.
The motions of the minute parts of bodies are in-

He seldom at the park appeared ;
visible, and inrur not to the eye ; but yet they are to Yet, not incurious, was inclined
be deprehended by experience.

Id.

To know the converse of mankind. Swift.
I have incurred displeasure from inferiors for giving If idiots and lunaticks cannot be found, incurables
way to the faults of others.
Hayward. may be taken into the hospital,

Id.
They, not oboying,

But ah! what woes remain ! life rolls apace
Incurred, what could they less ? the penalty ; And that incurable disease old

age,
And, manifold in sin, deserved to fall. Milton.

In youthful bodies more severely felt,
So judge thou still, presumptuous ! 'till the wrath, More sternly active, shakes their blasted prime.
Which thou incurrest by flying, meet thy flight

Armstrong.
Sevenfold, and scourge that wisdom back to hell.

Id.

INCURVATION, n. š. 2. Lat.incurvo. The

INCUR'vate, v. a. act of bending ; the
Now the Parthian king hath gathered all his host

Incur'vity, n. s. state of being bent;
Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild
Have wasted Sogdiana.

Id.

Alexion of the body in token of reverence: to Sternly he pronounced

crook : a change from a straight line.
The rigid interdiction, which resounds

One part moving while the other rests, one would
Yet dreadful in mine ear, though in my choice think, should cause an incurvation in the line.
Not to incur.
Id. Paradise Lost.

Glanville. The mind of man, even in spirituals, acts with cor The incurvity of a dolphin must be taken not really, porcal dependance; and so is he helped or hindered but in appearance, when they leap above water, and in its operations, according to the different quality of suddenly shoot down again : strait bodies, in a sudden external objects that incur into the senses. South. motion, protruded obliquely downward, appear Sins of daily incursion, and such as human frailty is

crooked.

Browne. unavoidably liable to.

Id.

He made use of acts of worship which God hath They had a full persuasive that not to do it were appropriated ; as incurvation, and sacrifice. to desert God, and consequently to incur damnation.

Stillingfleet. Id.

Sir Isaac Newton has shewn, by several experi. The incursions of the Goths disordered the affairs of ments of rays passing by the edges of bodies, that the Roman empire.

Arbuthnot on Coins.
they are incurvated by the action of these bodies.

Cheyne.
To imitate the fictions and sentiments of Spenser
can incur no reproach; for allegory is perhaps one of

IN'DAGATE, v. a. Lat. indago. To search, the most pleasing vehicles of instruction.

INDAGA'TION, n. a.

or beat out: indagation, Johnson's Rambler. INDAGA'TOR, n. s.

an enquiry or examinaINCURABIL’ITY, n. s. Fr. incurabilité tion: indagator, an examiner. INCU'RABLE, adj.

Latin in and curo.

Part hath been discovered by himself, and some by IncU'RABLENESS, n. s.

- Impossibility of human indagation. Browne's Vulgar Errours. INCU'RABLY, udv. cure: remediless; The number of the elements of bodies requires to INCU'R101's, adj.

not to be removed be searched into by such skilful indagators of nature. by medicine : these words are used principally

Boyle. with reference to bodily disease; but also in a

Paracelsus directs us, in the indagation of colours, figurative sense, as descriptive of any state which

to have an eye principally upon salts. Boyle. is beyond remedy: incurious is negligent; in

INDART, v.a. In and dart. To dart in; to attentive.

strike in.
If I bide here, life can I not sustain ;

I'll look to like, if looking liking move;
If I go hence my peines be incurable :

But no more deep will I indart mine eye,
Where him to finde, I knowe no place certain ;

Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

Shakspeare.
And thus I ne wote, of these things twain,
Whiche 1 maie take, and which I maie refuse

Lat. in and debeo. To
My hert is wounded, heron to think or muse.

adj. Chaucer. Lament of Mary Magdaleine.

INDEBT, 0,01; } put into debt; to oblige point

which fitteth them he their virtues, let polity acknow- superiority, as above the common rate: this is ledge itself indebted to religion, godliness being the to be granted ; a particle of connexion. It is chiefest top and well-spring of all true virlues, even used sometimes as a slight assertion or recapias God is of all things.

Hooker.

tulation in a sense hardly perceptible or expliHe for himself

cable, and, though some degree of obscure power Indebted and undone, has nought to bring.

Milton.

is perceived, might, even where it is properly Let us represent to our souls the love and benefi- enough inserted, beomitted without being missed.

To denote concession in comparisons. cence for which we daily stand indebted to God.

Rogers. Some, who have not deserved judgment of death, Pew consider how much we are indebted to govern- have been for their goods' sake caught up and carried ment, because few can represent how wretched man streight to the bough: a thing indeed very pitiful and kind would be without it. Atterbury. horrible.

Spenser.
This blest alliance may
Th' indebted nation bounteously repay.

Though such assemblies he had indeed for Religion's

sake, hurtful nevertheless they may prove as well in Granville,

regard of their fitness to serve the turn of hereticks, We are wholly indebted for them to our ancestors.

and such as privily will venture to instil their poisou Swift. into new minds,

Hooker. Thy forehead wrapt in clouds, A leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne,

Then didst thou utter, I am yours for ever, A sliding car indebted to no wheels. Cowper.

'Tis grace indeed.

Shakspeare. For the most valuable coin forts of life we are in Against these forces were prepared to the number debted to the social and benevolent attentions of one of near one hundred ships; not so great of balts another.

Beattie. indeed, but of a more nimble motion. Bacon. Friends fail-slaves fly-and all betray--and more I said I thought it was confederacy between the Than all the most indebted--but a heart

juggler and the two servants; tho' indeed I had no That loves without self-love. 'Tis here—now prove it. reason so to think.

la. Byron. Borrows in mean affairs his subjects' pains ; INDE'CENCY, n. s. Fr. indecence; Lat. But things of weight and consequence indeed, INDE'CENT, adj. in and decet. Any Himself doth in his chamber them debate.

Davies. INDECENTLY, adv. thing unbecoming; any thing contrary to good manners; something

Yet loving indeed, and therefore constant. wrong, but scarcely criminal: unfit to be seen oi

Sidney. heard.

This limitation, indeed, of our author will save

those the labour who would look for Adam's heir If on they rushed, repulse Repeated, and indecent overthrow

among the race of brutes ; but will very little conDoubled, would render them yet more despised,

tribute to the discovery of one next heir amongst

Locko. And to their foes a laughter,

Milton's Paradise Lost. Such sons of Abraham, how highly soever they may Characters, where obscene words were proper in bave the luck to be thought of, are far from being their mouths, but very indecent to be heard.

Israelites indeed.

Sout). Dryden. There is indeed no great pleasure in visiting these He will in vain endeavour to reform indecency in magazines of war, after one has seca two or three of his pupil, which he allows in himself. Locke.

them.

Addison. Till these men can prove these things, ordered by There is nothing in the world more generally our church, to be either intrinsically unlawful or in- dreaded, and yet less to be feared, than death: in decent, the use of them, as established amongst us, is deed, for those unhappy men whose hopes terminate necessary

South. in this life, no wonder if the prospect of another And it is abominable, because it abounds in filthy seems terrible and amazing.

Wake. and indecent images.

Beattie.

When young indeed INDECID'UOUS, adj. Lat. in, de, cado

In full content, we sometimes nobly rest, In and deciduous. Not falling; not shed. Used

Unanxious for ourselves.

Young. of trees that do not shed their leaves in winter.

It is indeed true that habits of long acquaintance

will sometimes overcome dislike. We find the statue of the sun framed with rays about the head, which were the indecidílous and un

Indeed a certain fair and fairy one shaken locks of Apollo.

Browne.

Of the best class, and better than her class. INDECLI'NABLE, adj. Fr. indeclinable ; Lat. indeclinabilis. Not varied by terminations.

I dread it, indeed, but upon far other grounds; 1

dread it from a consciousness of the tremendous Pondo is an indeclinable word, and when it is joined

Arbuthnot. to numbers it signifies libra.

power Great Britain possesses of pushing hostilities

in which she may be engaged to consequences which INDEC'OROUS, adj. 1 Lat. in, decus, inde- I shudder to contemplate. INDECO'RUM, n. s. corus. Conduct un

INDEFAT'IGABLE, adj.? suitable, unsemly, and improper : unbecoming.

INTEFATIGABLY, adv.

| French, indefatiWhat can be more indecorous than for a creature to gable; Lat. in and defatigo. Unwearied; not violate the commands, and trample upon the authority, exhausted with labor; diligent: without interof that awful Excellence to whom he owes his life?

mission, and without tiring.

Norris.
The soft address, the castigated grace,

Who shall spread his airy flight,
Are indecorums in the modern maid.

Young.

Unborne with indefatigable wings,
Over the vast abrupt.

Milton INDEED', adu. Belg. inde dadt; Teut.

A mar, indefutigably zealous in the service of the inder that, i.e. that is truly. See Deed. In church and state, and whose writings have highly reality; in truth: used emphatically to express deserved of boch.

men.

Beattic

Byron. Don Juan.

Canning. Spanish and

Dryden.

and defen

love.

The ambitious person must rise early and sit up Wilful perpetration of unworthy actions brands late, and pursue his design with a constant indefatio with indelible characters the name and memory. gable attendance : he must be infinitely patient and

King Charles. servile,

South. They are indued with indelible power from above to INDEFECTIBILITY, n. s. ) Lat. in and

feed, to govern this household, and to consecrate pasINDEFEC'TIBLE, adj.

defectus. The

tors and stewards of it to the world's end. Sprut.

Thy heedless sleeve will drink the coloured oil, quality of suffering no decay, decline, or defect: Aud spot indelible thy pocket soil. Gay's Trivia. unfailing; constant.

INDEFEI'SIBLE, adi. Fr. inde faisable. Not INDEL'ICACY, n. s. 2 Latin in and deliciæ : to be cut off'; not to be vacated; irrevocable.

INDEL'ICATE, adj. S hence delicatus. Wart So indefeisible is our estate in those joys, that, if

of decency; coarseness of appearance or manwe do not sell it in reversion, we shall, when once

• ner : inelegant. See DELICACY. invested, be beyond the possibility of ill husbandry. Your papers would be chargeable with worse than

Decay of Piety. indelicacy, they would be immoral, did you treat detest

able uncleanness as you rally an impertinent sell. INDEFEN'SIBLE, adj. Lat. in and defen

Addison. sus. That cannot be defended or maintained.

INDEMNIFICATION, n. s.) Fr. indemAs they extend the rule of consulting Scripture to

INDEM'NIFY, 0. a.

nité ; Ital, inall the actions of common life, even so far as to the 1:

INDEM'NITY, n. s.

demnita; in, taking up of a straw, so it is altogether false or inde

and Lat. damno. Security against loss; reimfensible.

Sanderson.

bursement of penalty or loss, and security from INDEF'INITE, adj.) Fr. indefini; Italian

punishment: to preserve from injury. IndEF'INITELY, adv. indefinite ; Lat. indefiINDEFIN'ITUDE, n. s. ) nitus. Not determined

I will use all means, both of amnesty and indem

nity, which may most fully remove all fears, and bury or limited ; undecided; large beyond human

all jealousies in forgetfulness. King Charles. comprehension, although not absolutely without

Insolent signifies rude and haughty, indemnify to limits : quantity not limited or defined.

keep safe.

Watts. We observe that custom, whereunto St. Paul al. Just laws, to be sure, and admirable equity, if a ludeth, and whereof the fathers of the church in their stranger is to collect a mob which is to set half Man. writings make often mention, to shew indefinitely what chester on fire; and the burnt half is to come upon was done ; but not universally to bind for ever all the other half for indemnity, while the stranger goes prayers unto one only fashion of utterance. Hooker. off unquestioned, by the stage !

Canning. Though a position should be wholly rejected, yet INDENT', 0. a., v. n. & n. s.) Fr. denté ; that negative is more pregnant of direction than an INDENTA'TION, N. S.

ŞItal. indenture; indefinite ; as ashes are more generative than dust. INDENT'URE, n. s.

Latin in and Bacon's Essays. dens; a tooth. To nark any thing with ineHer advancement was left indefinite ; but thus, qualities like a row of teeth ; to cut in and out; that it should be as great as ever any former queen to make a wave or undulate. Indent, from the of England had.

Bacon. method of cutting counterparts of a contract toThey arise to a strange and prodigious multitude, if not inde finitude, by their various positions, combi. gether, that, laid on each other, they may fit, and nations, and conjunctions.

Hale.

any want of conformity may discover a fraud;

any want of We conceive no more than the letter beareth; that to contract ; to bargain; to make a compact, is, four times, or indefinitely more than thrice. Indent, inequality; incisure. Indentation, wav,

Browne. ing in any figure. Indenture, a covenant, so Tragedy and picture are more narrowly circum- named because the counterparts are indented or scribed by place and time than the epick poem ; and cut one by the other; a contract of which there the time of this last is left indefinite. Dryden, is a counterpart.

If the word be indefinitely extended, that is, so far In Hall's chronicle much good matter is quite as no human intellect can fancy any bounds of it, then marred with indenture English. what we see must be the least part.

Ascham's Schoolmaster. Though it is not infinite, it may be indefinite; Trent shall not wind with such a deep indent, though it is not boundless in itself, it may be so to To rob me of so rich a bottom here. Shakspeare human comprehension.

Spectator. Shall we buy treason, and indent with fears, A duty to which all are indefinitely obliged, upon when they have lost and forfeited themselves? some occasions, by the expressed command of God.

Smalridge.

About his neck . INDELIB'ERATE, adj. 2 Fr. indeliberé. A green and gilded snake had wreathed itself, INDELIB'ERATED.

In and deliberate. Who with her bead, nimble in threats, approached

The opening of his mouth; but suddenly, Unpremeditated; done without consideration.

Seeing Orlando, unlinked itself, Actions proceeding from blandishments, or sweet And with indented glides did slip away persuasions, if they be indeliberated, as in children, lato a bush.

As You Like It. who want the use of reason, are not presently free H e descends into the solemnity of a pact and coveactions.

Bramhall. nant, and has indented with us. Decay of Piety. The love of God better can consist with the indeli- Trent, who, like some earth-born giant, spreads berate commissions of many sins, than with an allowed His thirty arms along the indented meads. Milton. persistance in any one. Government of the Tongue.

The serpent then, not with indented wavo, INDEL'IBLE, adj. Fr. indelebile ; Lat. in- Prone on ihe ground, as since ; but on his rear delebilis. Not to be blotted out or effaced; not Circular base of rising folds, that towered

Fold above fold, a surging maze! to be annulled.

Id.

Ray.

Id.

that state.

The margins do not terminate in a straight line, INDEPENDENCY. Under the term BISHOP we but are indented, each indentation being continued in have stated at considerable length the chief ara small ridge, to the indentation that answers it on the guments in favor of the episcopal form of church opposite margin.

Woodward.
government.

It will be fair to add a more deThe margins on each side do not terminate in a

tailed statement of the principal arguments of straight line, but are indented.

Id.

the Independents in favor of their plan. In supThe critick to his grief will find

Swift.
How firmly these indenturea bind.

port of it, they observe, that the word exklnou,

translated church, is always used in Scripture to INDEPEN'DENCE, n. s. French indepen, signify either a single congregation, or the place INDEPENDENCY, n. s. dance; in, and where a single congregation meets. Thus that INDEPEN'DENT, adj.& n. s. Latin, dependeo. unlawful assembly at Ephesus, brought together INDEPEN'DENTLY, adu.

Freedom;

ex- against Paul by the craftsmen, is called Erk youa, emption from control: not depending; not sup- a church. Acts xix. 32, 39, 41. The word, ported by any other; not relying on another ; however, is generally applied in a more sacred not controlled. It is used with on, of, or from, use; but still it signifies either the body assemthe object; of which on seems most proper, since bling, or the place in which it assembles. The we say to depend on, and consequently depen- whole body of the disciples at Corinth is called dent 'on; not relating to any thing else as its the church, and spoken of as coming together superior. Independent, one who holds that into one place. 1 Cor. xiv. 23. The place into every congregation is a complete church, subject, which they came together has been likewise in religious matters, to no superior authority. thought to be called a church. See 1 Cor. xi. Independently, without reference to other things 18, 20. Wherever there were more congregaor subjects.

tions than one there were likewise more We shall, in our sermons, take occasion to justify churches than one. See 1 Cor. xi. 18. The such passages in our liturgy as have been unjustly whole nation of Israel is indeed called a church, quarrelled at by presbyterians, independents, or other but it was no more than a single congregation; puritan sectaries.

Sanderson.

for it had but one place of public worship, viz. Dispose lights and shadows, without finishing every first the

bernacle, and afterwards the temple. thing independently the one of the other.

Since all princes of independens governments are in The Catholic church of Christ, his holy nation a state of nature, the world never was without men in and kingdom, is also a single congregation, hav

Locke. ing one place of worship, viz. heaven, where all Creation must needs infer providence, and God's the members assemble by faith and hold commaking the world irrefragably proves that he governs munion; and in which, when they shall all be it 100 ; or that a being of dependent nature remains fully gathered together, they will in fact be one nevertheless independent upon him in that respect. glorious assembly. We find it called the gene

South.

ral assembly and church of the first-born, whose Dreams may give us some idea of the great excele names are written in heaven.' The Independent lency of a human soul, and some intimations of its

can find no other description of a church in the independency on matter.

Addison.

New Testament; not a trace of a diocese or A very famous independent minister was head of a college in those times.

Id. Spectator.

presbytery consisting of severai congregations all The town of St. Gaul is a protestant republick, in- subject to one jurisdiction. The number of dependent of the abbot, and under the protection of disciples in Jerusalem was certainly great before

Addison. they were dispersed by the persecution; yet The consideration of our understanding, which is they are never mentioned as forming distinct an incorporeal substance independent from matter; assemblies, but as one assembly meeting with its and the contemplation of our own bodies, which have elders in one place; sometimes in the temple, all the stamps and characters of excellent contrivance; sometimes in Solomon's porch, and sometimes these alone do very easily guide us to the wise Author in an upper room. of all things.

After the dispersion the Bentley.

disciples who fled from Jerusalem, as they could Let fortune do her worst. whatever she makes us lose, as long as she never makes us lose our honesty a church by themselves, or one church, but the

no longer asseinble in one place, are never called and our independence. Give me, I cried, enough for me,

churches of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee (Acts My bread and independency :

ix. 31, Gal. i. 22). Whence the Independents So bought an annual rent or two,

conclude that in Jerusalem the words church And lived just as you see I do.

Id. and congregation were of the same import; and Hail! Independence, hail! Heaven's next best gift if such was the case there, where the gospel was To that of life and an immortal soul!

first preached, we may reasonably expect to find

Thomson's Liberty. it so in other, places.' Thus, when Paul on his I praise you much, ye meek and patient pair, journey calls the elders of the church of Ephesus For ye are worthy; chusing rather far

to Miletus, he speaks to them as the joint overA dry but independent crust, hard earned,

seers of a single congregation.

See Acts xx. And caten with a sigh, than to enduro

28. The rugged frowns and insolent rebuffs

Had the church at Ephesus consisted of Of kraves in office.

Cowper.

different congregations, united under such a juHe was as independent--aye, much more

risdiction as that of a modern presbytery, it Than those who were not paid for independence.

would have been natural to say "Take heed to

Byron. Don Juan. yourselves, and to the flocks over which the The house of Braganza was placed at the head of Holy Ghost hath made you overseers:' but this an independent monarchy at the instance and by the is a way of speaking of which the Independents friendship of Great Britain.

Canning. find not an instance in the whole New Testament

the cantons.

Pope.

Such were

The sacred writers, when speaking of all the to tell it to that particular church or congrega-
Christians in a nation or province, never call tion to which they both belong; and the sentence
them the church of such a nation or province, of that assembly, pronounced by its elders, is in
but the churches of Galatia (Gal. i. 2), of Mace a very solemn manner declared to be final, from
donia (2 Cor. viii. 1), and of Asia (i Cor. xvi. which there lies no appeal to any jurisdiction on
10). On the other hand, when speaking of the earth.
disciples in a city or town, who might ordinarily With respect to the constituting of elders in
assemble in one place, they uniformly call them any church or congregation, the Independent
a church; saying the church of Antioch, the reasons as follows. The officers of Christ's ap-
church at Corinth, the church of Ephesus, and pointment are either ordinary and permanent in
the like.

the church, or they were extraordinary and per
In each of these churches or congregations culiar to the planting of Christianity. The
there were elders or presbyters, and deacons; extraordinary officers were employed in laying
and in every church there seem to have been the plan of the gospel churches, and in publish-
more than one elder, in some many, who‘labored ing the New Testament revelation.
in word and doctrine.' Thus we read (Acts xiv. the apostles, the chosen witnesses of our Saviour's
23) of Paul and Barnabas ordaining elders in resurrection ; such were the prophets inspired
every church; and (Acts xx. 17) of a company by the Holy Ghost for explaining infallibly the
of elders in the church of Ephesus, who were ex- Old Testament by the things written in the New;
horted to "feed the flock, and to take heed to and such were the evangelists, the apostle's mi-
themselves, and to all the flock over which the nisters. These can be succeeded by none in
Holy Ghost had made them overseers :' but of that which was peculiar to them, because their
such elders as are to be found in modern. Pres- work was completed by themselves. But they
byterian churches, who neither teach, nor are apt are succeeded in all that was not peculiar to
to teach, the Independents find no vestige in the them by elders and deacons, the only two ordi-
Scriptures, nor in the earliest writers of the nary and permanent orders of ministers in the
Christian church. The rule or government of church. We have already seen that it belongs
this presbytery or eldership in a church is not to the office of the elder to feed the flock of
their own, but Christ's. They are not lords over Christ; and the only question to be settled is,
God's heritage, nor can they pretend to more how men are ordinarily called to that office; for
power over the disciples than the apostles had. about the office of the deacon there is little or no
But when the administration of the apostles in dispute. No man now can pretend to be so
the church of Jerusalem, and other churches called of God to the ministry of the word as the
where they acted as elders, is enquired into by apostles and other inspired elders were, whom he
an Independent, it does not appear to him that chose to be the publishers of his revealed truth,
they did any thing of common concern to the and to whose mission he bore witness in an ex-
church, without the consent of the multitude: traordinary manner.
nay, it seems they thought it necessary to judge But what the apostles were to those who had
and determine in discipline in presence of the the divine oracles from their mouths, that their
whole church (Acts vio1, 6; xv. 22; 1 Cor. v. writings are to us: and therefore, as no man can
3, 4, 5).

lawfully pretend a call from God to make any Excommunication and absolution were in the addition to those writings, so neither can any power of the church at Corinth, and not of the man pretend to be lawfully called to the ministry elders, as distinguished from the congregation of the word already written, but in the manner (1 Cor. v., 2 Cor. ii.) The apostle indeed speaks which that word directs. Now there is nothing of his delivering some unto Satan (1 Tim. i. 20), of which the New Testament speaks more clearly but it is by no means clear that he did it by him- than of the characters of those who should exerself, and not after the manner pointed at, 1 Cor. cise the office of elders in the church, and of the v. 4, 5; even as it does not appear, from his actual exercise of that office. The former are saying, in one epistle, that the gift was given graphically drawn in the epistles to Timothy and unto Timothy by the putting on of his hands, that Titus; and the latter is minutely described in this was not done in the presbytery of a church, Paul's discourse to the Ephesian elders, in as in the other epistle we find it actually was. Peter's exhortation to elders, and our Lord's The trying and judging of false apostles was a commission to those ministers with whom he matter of the first importance: but it was done promised to be always present even unto the end by elders with the fock at Ephesus (Rev. of the world. It is not competent for any nsan ii. 2; Acts xx. 28—30); which flock did in the or body of men to add to, or diminish from, the days of Ignatius all partake of the Lord's supper, description of a gospel minister given in these and pray together in one place. Even the places, so as to insist upon the necessity of any power of binding and loosing, or the power of the qualification which is not there mentioned, or to keys, as it has been called, was by our Saviour dispense with any qualification as needless which conferred not upon a particular order of disci- is there required. Neither bas Jesus Christ, the ples, but upon the church. See Matt. xvm. 15, only legislator to the church, given to any mi16, 17, 18. It is not said, if he shall neglect to nisters or people any power or right whatsoever hear the one or two, tell it to the elders of the to call, send, elect, or ordain, to that office, any church ; far less can it be meant that the offende person who is not qualified according to the des ed

person should tell the cause of his offence to scription given in his law. Let a man have all the disciples in a presbytery or diocese con- hands laid upon him by such as could prove an sisting of many congregations : but he is required uninterrupted descent by imposition of hands

2 Y

Vol. XI.