marriages whence they sprang were holy ; or unless the prin- ciple that intimate commmiion with the holy renders holy, were a correct principle.
The assertion of the apostle is, that the unbelieving hus- band or wife is sanctified in virtue of the marriage relation with a believer. We have already seen that the word (dyta- ^€ti/), to sanctify^ means, 1. To cleanse. 2. To render morally pure. 3. To consecrate, to regard as sacred, and hence, to reverence or to hallow. Examples of the use of the word in the third general sense just mentioned, are to be found in all parts of Scripture. Any person or thing consecrated to God, or employed in his service, is said to be sanctified. Thus, particular days appropriated to his service, the temple, its utensils, the sacrifices, the priests, the whole theocratical peo- ple, are called holy. Persons or things not thus consecrated are called profane, common, or unclean. To transfer any per- son or thing from this latter class to the former, is to sanctify him or it. "What God hath cleansed (or sanctified), that call not thou common," Acts 10, 15. Every creature of God is good, and is to be received with thanksgiving, " For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer," 1 Tim. 4, 5. This use of the word is specially frequent in application to persons and communities. The Hebrew people were sanctified (i. e. consecrated), by being selected from other nations and de- voted to the service of the true God. They were, therefore, constantly called holy. All who joined them, or who were intimately connected with them, became in the same sense, holy. Their children were holy ; so were their wives. " If the first-fruits be holy, the lump is also holy ; and if the root be holy, so are also the branches," Rom. 11, 16. That is, if the parents be holy, so are also the children. Any child, the circumstances of whose birth secured it a place within the pale of the theocracy, or commonwealth of Israel, was, accord- ing to the constant usage of Scripture, said to be holy. In none of these cases does the word express any subjective or inward change. A lamb consecrated as a sacrifice, and there- fore holy, did not differ in its nature from any other lamb. The priests or people, holy in the sense of set apart to the service of God, were in their inward state the same as other men. Children born within the theocracy, and therefore holy, were none the less conceived in sin, and brought forth in ini- quity. They were by nature the children of wrath, even as others, Eph. 2, 3. When, therefore, it is said that the unbe-