charge given to the people, is to avoid ceremonial impurities; those particularly that may be contracted by eating unclean meats, and above all, by eating insects and reptiles, which are called an abomination. Now, certainly, in this inferior acceptation, the term is utterly inapplicable to God. But what entirely removes the difficulty, is, that the people are said, by a participation in such unclean food, to make themselves abominable. To this the precept, Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, stands in direct opposition. There is here, therefore, a coincidence of the second and fifth meanings of the word holy, which are connected, in their application to men, as the means and the end, and therefore ought both to be understood as comprehended; though the latter alone is applicable to God. Now, as the opposite of abominable is estimable, venerable, the import of the precept, Sanctify yourselves, manifestly is, Be 'careful, by a strict attention to the statutes ye have ' received concerning purity, especially in what regards your food, to avoid the pollution of your 'body; maintain thus a proper respect for your persons, that your religious services may be es'teemed by men, and accepted of God; for remem⚫ber that the God whom ye serve, as being pure and perfect, is entitled to the highest esteem and vene'ration. Whatever, therefore, may be called slovenly, or what his law has pronounced impure in his servants, is an indignity offered by them to their 'master, which he will certainly resent.'

But as an artful gloss or paraphrase will sometimes mislead, I shall subjoin the plain words of Scripture 18, which come in the conclusion of a long chapter, wherein the laws relating to cleanliness in animal food, in beasts, birds, fishes, and reptiles, are laid down. Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things, that creep upon the earth; them ye shall not eat, for they are an abomination. Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby. For I am the Lord your God; ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy : neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. It is plain that any other interpretation of the word holy than that now given, would render the whole passage incoherent.

17. Now, to come to the word TD chasid, ooos, this is a term which properly and originally expresses a mental quality, and that only, in the same manner as ptsaddik, dixavos just, JPN amon, Tugos faithful, and several others. Nor is there any material variation of meaning that the word seems to have undergone at different periods. The most

181 Lev. xi. 42, &c.

common acceptation is, humane, merciful, beneficent, benign. When there appears to be a particular reference to the way wherein the person stands affected to God and religion, it means pious, devout. In conformity to this sense, our translators have, in several places in the Old Testament, rendered it godly. The phrase o ooloi T8 Oe8 is, therefore, not improperly rendered the saints of God, that is, his pious servants. It most probably, as was hinted before, means pious in what is said of our Lord, that he was oolos, ακακος, αμιαντος, as it seems to have been the inten tion of the sacred writer to comprehend, in few words, his whole moral character respecting God, the rest of mankind, and himself. In the enumeration which Paul gives to Titus 182, of the virtues whereof a bishop ought to be possessed, it is surely improper to explain any of them by a general term equally adapted to them all; since nothing can be plainer than that his intention is to denote, by every epithet, His words are some quality not expressed before. φιλοξενον, φιλαγαθον, σωφρονα, δικαιον, οσιον, εγώ κρατη. Το render οσιον holy (though that were in other places a proper version) would be here in effect the same as to omit it altogether. If the sense had been pious, it had probably been either the first or the last in the catalogue. As it stands, I think, it ought to be rendered humane.

There are certain words which, on some occasions, are used with greater, and on others, with

less, latitude. Thus the word dixauos sometimes comprehends the whole of our duty to God, our neighbour, and ourselves; sometimes it includes only the virtue of justice. When oi dixaior is opοι δικαιοι

posed to or лоpot, the former is the case, and it is οι πονηροι, better to render it the righteous, and dixaloovvn righteousness ; but when δικαιος or δικαιοσυνη occur in a list with other virtues, it is better to render them just or justice. Sometimes the word is employed in a sense which has been called forensic, as being derived from judicial proceedings. He that justifieth the wicked, says Solomon 183, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. The word wicked, means no more here than guilty, and the word just, guiltless of the crime charged. In like manner oσtorns, in one or two instances, may be found in the New Testament, in an extent of signification greater than usual. In such cases it may be rendered sanctity, a word rather more expressive of what concerns manners than holiness is.

§ 18. BUT, as a further evidence that the Hebrew word 'n chasid, is not synonymous with p kadosh, and consequently neither 'ootos with ayos, it must be observed, that the abstract TD chesed, is not once rendered by the Seventy oσtorns, or, by our interpreters, holiness, though the concrete is almost always rendered ootos in Greek, and often holy in English. This substantive, on the contrary, is

193 Prov. xvii. 15.

translated in the Septuagint, ελεος, ελεημοσύνη, οικ

с

τείρημα, ελπις, χαρις, or some such term ; once, indced, and but once, oota. In English it is translated kindness, favour, grace, mercy, loving-kindness, pity, but never holiness. The analogy of language, (unless use were clear against it, which is not the case here) would lead us to think, that there must be a nearer relation in meaning than this, between the substantive and the adjective formed from it. Yet worthy does not more evidently spring from worth, than 70 chasid, springs from 70 chesed. Of the term last mentioned it may be proper just to observe, that there is also an anomalous use (like that remarked in kadosh), which assigns it a meaning, the reverse of its usual signification, answering to avoua, overdos, flagitium, probrum. But it is only in two or three places that the word occurs in this acceptation.

19. I SHALL conclude with observing, that chasid or hosios is sometimes applied to God; in which case, there can be little doubt of its implying merciful, bountiful, gracious, liberal, or benign. The only case, wherein it has an affinity in meaning to the English words saint or holy, is when it expresses pious affections towards God. As these cannot be attributed to God himself, the term, when used of him, ought to be understood, according to its most frequent acceptation. The Psalmist's words, which, in the common version, are 184, The Lord

194 Psal. cxlr. 17.