the state of a person who cannot sin: or a grace, privilege, or principle, which puts him out of a possibility of sinning.

The schoolmen distinguish several kinds and degrees of impeccability: that of God belongs to him by nature; that of Jesus Christ, considered as man, belongs to him by the hypothetical union; that of the blest is a consequence of their condition; that of men is the effect of a confirmation in grace, and is rather called impeccance than impeccability; accordingly divines distinguish between these two: this distinction is found necessary in the disputes against the Pelagians, in order to explain certain terms in the Greek and Latin fathers, which without this distinction are easily confounded.