One of the greatest arguments against the salvation of children not baptized, which has been advanced, is, that the rite of baptism is essential to covenantship, pro- vided the parents had not by peculiar circumstances been prevented from attending to this duty. But this point does not seem to be well taken, for among the Is- raelites circumcision did not admit their children into covenant with God, as they were in that covenant by birth. Circumcision was merely the sign or seal of the covenant, without which they coidd not be recognised as being of the people of God. So Christian children are included in the covenant with Christ; but the rite of baptism is their natural sign and seal of that covenant, and without it they cannot be considered as belonging to the visible followers of Christ. See, besides the au- thorities already referred to, Wesley, Works, v, 377 ; Mercersh. Rev. 1860, p. 387 sq. ; Meth. Qua?: Rev. 1859, p. 632; 186-l,p.517sq.,552sq.; 1865, p.81; 1870, p. 290; Fairchild, A re Infants elected (Tract of the Presb. Ch. No. 229) ; McConoughy, A re Infants saved (Presb. Ch. Tract No. 132) ; Children in Heaven (Phila. 1865, Presb. Board of Publ.), p. 352 ; Christian Examiner, iv, 431 ; v, 229, 310 ; Russell, On Infant Salvation (London, 1822, 12mo) ; Harris, Hope for Salvation of all dying in In- fancy (Lond. 1822, 8vo) ; Doddridge, Lectures on Divin- %, Lect. 168. (J.H.W.) Infel. See Infula.
Inferential Theology. Many pious minds of the Christian Church have earnestly opposed the opin- ion of the more liberally inclined orthodox theologians, that the Christian theology is in some respects "infer- ential." Liddon adroitly puts this question in his Bamp- ton Lecture of 1866 {Our Lord's Divinity, p. 441, 442) : " No one would deny that in all ages of the Church the field of theology has been the scene of hasty, unwar- rantable, and misleading inferences. False conclusions have been drawn from true premises, and very doubtful or false premises have been occasionally assumed, if not asserted to bo true. . . . But if this should be admitted it would not follow that theology is in no sense ' infer- ential.' Within certain limits, and under due guidance, 'inference' is the movement, it is the life of theology. The primal records of revelation itself, as we find them in Scripture, are continually inferential, and it is at least the business of theology to observe and marshal these revealed inferences, to draw them out, and to make the most of them. The illuminated reason of the collective Church has for ages been engaged in study- ing the original materials of the Christian revelation. It has thus shaped, rather than created, the science of theology. What is theology but a continuous series of observed and systematized inferences respecting God in his nature and his dealings with mankind, drawn from premises which rest upon God's authority? . . . If we reject conclusions drawn professedly from the sub- stance of revelation, but really enlarging instead of ex- plaining it, it does not follow that we should reject in- ferences which are simply explanatory, or Avhich exhibit the bearing of one revealed truth upon another. This, indeed, is the most fruitful and legitimate province of inference in theological inquiry. Such • inference' brings out the meaning of the details of revelation. It raises
this feature to prominence, it throws that into the shade. It places language to which a too servile literalism might have attributed the highest force in the lower rank of metaphor and symbol; it elicits pregnant and momentous truths from incidents which, in the absence of sufficient guidance or reflection, may have been thought to possess only a secondary degree of signifi- cance."
Inferior Clergy, "the several classes of assistants to the priesthood in the ancient churches. They were distinguished by the title axupoToniroQ virrjpiaia, be- cause they were appointed to their respective offices without the imposition of hands. Not being ordained at the altar, nor in ecclesiastical form, they were, of course, ineligible for the exercise of any of its sacerdotal functions; indeed, so distinctly drawn was the line be- tween them and the superior orders, called ttpdintrot, holy, that they were strictly forbidden to touch the sa- cred vessels, or so much as to enter the ' diaconicum' — sanctuary. The inferior clergy of the Church of Eng- land includes all those in holy orders not distinguished by their position and title as dignitaries of the Church. The offices of churchwarden, verger, sexton, and pew- opener in the Church of England correspond in general to the offices of the inferior clergy of ancient times" (Eadie, Eccles. Cyclopwdia, s. v.). See Bingham, Orig. Eccles. book i, ch. i. See Clergy.
Infeudation is a term in law for the placing in possession of a fee or freehold estate. It was used in ecclesiastical law to designate the granting of tithes to laymen, and the temporary possession by ecclesiastical associations of lay property. Pope Urban VIII, in the year 1625, declared himself against all infeudation, and made it null and void if thereafter contracted. See Aschbach, Kirchen-Lexikon, iii, 450.
Infidel (aTTKTror, 2 Cor. vi, 15 ; 1 Tim. v, 18), an un- believer, as elsewhere rendered.
Infidelity etymologically means simply u-ant of belief. By common usage it has come to m.ean (1), in a restricted sense, a rejection of the Christian faith ; and (2), in a wider sense, the rejection of religion generallj'. Thus Atheists, who disbelieve in God, and Deists, who believe in God, but reject Christianity, are alike called infidels.