INDUL'GENCE

INDUL'GENCY, noun Free permission to the appetites, humor, desires, passions or will to act or operate; forbearance of restraint or control. How many children are ruined by indulgence! indulgence is not kindness or tenderness, but it may be the effect of one or the other, or of negligence.

1. Gratification; as the indulgence of lust or of appetite.

2. Favor granted; liberality; gratification.

If all these gracious indulgencies are without effect on us, we must perish in our folly.

3. In the Romish church, remission of the punishment due to sins, granted by the pope or church, and supposed to save the sinner from purgatory; absolution from the censures of the church and from all transgressions.