rable changes happen in the meanings of words in the same language, and among the same people. Now, to trace the gradations and nicer shades of meaning, which distinguish different periods, is one of the most difficult, but most important, tasks of criticism.

9. In regard to the word kadosh, hagios, I acknowledge that it does not seem to me to have had originally any relation to character or morals. Its primitive signification appears to have been clean; first, in the literal sense, as denoting free from all filth, dirt, or nastiness; secondly, as expressing what, according to the religious ritual, was accounted clean. The first is natural, the second ceremonial, cleanness. Some traces of the first of these meanings we have in the Old Testament, but nothing is more common there than the second, particularly in the Pentateuch. Again, as things are made clean to prepare them for being used (and the more important the use, the more carefully they are cleaned), the term has been adopted to denote, thirdly, prepared, fitted, destined for a particular purpose, of what kind soever the purpose be; fourthly, and more especially, consecrated, or devoted to a religious use; fifthly, as things, so prepar ed and devoted, are treated with peculiar care and attention, to hallow or sanctify, comes to signify to honour, to reverence, to stand in awe of, and holy, to imply worthy of this treatment, that is, honourable, venerable, awful: sixthly, and lastly, as out

ward and corporeal cleanness has, in all ages and languages been considered as an apt metaphor for moral purity, it denotes guiltless, irreproachable, which is at present, among Christians, the most common acceptation of the word.

10. I SHALL give an example or two of each of the six uses aforesaid, not confining myself to the adjective kadosh, but including its conjugates of the same root. First, that it denotes clean in the vulgar acceptation, is manifest from the precept given to Israel in the desert, to be careful to keep the camp free from all odour 15. The reason assigned is in these words: For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, therefore shall thy camp be holy,

xa esou άyia, that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.

Another remarkable example of this meaning we have in the history of king Hezekiah, who is said to have given orders to the Levites 152, to sanctify the house of the Lord; the import of which order is explained by the words immediately following, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. The sacred service had, in the reign of the impious Ahaz, been for a long time totally neglected; the lamps were gone out, and the fire extinguished on the altars, both of burnt-offerings and of incense; and the temple itself had at length been abso

nay,

151 See the whole passage, Deut. xxiii, 12, 13, 14.
152 2 Chron. xxix. 5, &c.

Both

lutely deserted and shut up. The king, intending to restore the religious worship of Jehovah to its former splendour, saw that the first thing necessary was to make clean the house, with all its furniture, that they might be fit for the service. Frequent mention is made of this cleansing in the chapter above referred to, where it is sometimes called cleansing 153, sometimes sanctifying 154; the Hebrew verbs 770 tahar, and p kadash, being manifestly, through the whole chapter, used indiscriminately. words are, accordingly, in this passage, rendered by the Seventy indifferently ἁγνιζειν and καθαρίζειν, not ayalew; in the Vulgate mundare, expiare, and once sanctificare. In both the above examples the word holy is evidently the opposite of dirty, nasty, filthy, in the current acceptation of the terms. This, as being the simplest and most obvious, is proba bly the primitive sense. Things sensible first had names in every language. The names were afterwards extended to things conceivable and intellectual. This is according to the natural progress of knowledge.

§ 11. FROM this first signification, the transition is easy to that which, in the eye of the ceremonial law, is clean. One great purpose of that law, though neither the only, nor the chief, purpose, is to draw respect to the religious service, by guarding against every thing that might savour of indecency or

153 Verse 15, 16. 18.

154 Verse 5. 17. 19.

uncleanliness. The climate, as well as the nature of their service, rendered this more necessary than we are apt to imagine. Any thing which could serve as a security against infectious disorders in their public assemblies, whereof, as they lived in a hot climate, they were in much greater danger than we are, was a matter of the highest importance. Now, when once a fence is established by statute, it is necessary, in order to support its authority, that the letter of the statute should be the rule in all cases. Hence it will happen, that there may be a defilement in the eye of the law, where there is no natural foulness at all. This I call ceremonial uncleanness, to express the reverse of which, the term holy is frequently employed. Thus, by avoiding to eat what was accounted unclean food, they sanctified themselves 15; they were likewise kept holy by avoiding the touch of dead bodies, to avoid which, was particularly required of the priests, except in certain cases, they being obliged, by their ministry, to be holier than others 156. Moses is said 157 to sanctify the people by making them wash their clothes, and go through the legal ceremonies of purification. Nor is it possible to doubt that, when men were ordered to sanctify themselves directly, for a particular occasion, they were enjoined the immediate performance of something which could be visibly and quickly executed, and not the acquisition of a charac156 Lev. xxi. 1—6.

155 Lev. xi. 42, &c. xx. 25, 26.

157 Exod. xix. 10. 14. 22.

ter, which is certainly not the work of an hour or of a day. Thus the priests were to sanctify themselves, before they approached the Lord on Sinai; and thus the people were commanded by Joshua to sanctify themselves, in the evening, that they might be prepared for seeing the wonders which God was to perform among them, next day 158 In the same sense, Joshua also is said to sanctify the people 159. In this sense, we are also to understand what we are told of those who sanctified themselves, for the observance of that great passover which Hezekiah caused to be celebrated. What is termed sanctifying in one verse, is cleansing in another 160 To prevent being tedious, I do not repeat the whole passages, but refer to them in the margin; the reader may consult them at his leisure.

Even in the New Testament, where the word is not so frequently used in the ceremonial sense, holy and unclean, ἅγιος and ακαθαρτος, are contrasted as natural opposites 161. In one place in the Old Testament 162, the Seventy have rendered the word kadosh xadapos, as entirely equivalent, calling that pure or clean water, which, in Hebrew, is holy water; and oftner than once in the Targums or Chaldee paraphrases, the Hebrew kadosh is rendered, by their common term, for clean. Thus, in that passage of the Prophet 163, Stand by thyself ;

come not near me, for I am holier than thou,"