SANCTIFY. To sanctify is often put instead of to prepare. Thus Joshua says to the People, Sanctify yourselves, for To-morrow the Lord will do Wonders among you. Prepare yourselves to pass over Jordan. In Isaiah, the Lord calls the Medes his sanctified. Ego mandavi sanctificatis meis. I have appointed, and, as it were, consecrated them to be the Executioners of my Vengeance against Babylon. See also Numb. xi. 18. Sanctify yourselves against To-morrow, and ye shall eat Flesh. And Joshua vii. 13. Up, sanctify the People, and say, sanctify yourselves against To-morrow, for thus says the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed Thing in the Midst of thee, O Israel. Jerem. vi. 4. Prepare ye War against her, or sanctify the War against Jerusalem; prepare yourselves to make War against her. And xii. 3. Pull them out like Sheep for the Slaughter, and prepare them for the Day of Slaughter. The Hebrew says, sanctify them. And li. 27, 28. Assemble the Troops against Jerusalem, prepare the Nations against her, or sanctify them. And Joel i. 14. Sanctify ye a Fast, ordain a solemn Fast. Mich. iii. 5. The false Prophets sanctify (or prepare) War against those who will not give them something: They declare War, or denounce Evils against them. Zeph. i. 7. The Lord hath prapared his Victims for the Day of Vengeance, he hath bid his Guests: The Hebrew says, sanctified them.
We desire of God, that his Name may be sanctified or hallowed; that is to say, honoured, praised, and glorified through the whole World, and especially by those who have the Happiness of knowing him. Let them sanctify it by their good Lives, their Fidelity, their Submission to his Orders. And they that know him not, that they may come to the Knowledge of him, may hear his Word, may become tractable to the Instructions of his Preachers. We may apprehend yet better what is meant by sanctifying the Name of God, by what is opposite to it; that is, profaning the Name of God, by vain swearing, baspheming, and ascribing his Name to Idols; by furnishing wicked Men and Infidels with an Occasion of blaspheming it by our bad Lives, and scandalous Conversation.
Levit. x. 3.It is said, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me; in his Priests, when by the terrible and exemplary Punishment of Nadab and Abihu, the Lord shewed what Purity he required in his Servants, what punctual Exactness he expected in his Service. The Lord complains in another Place, that Moses and Aaron did not sanctify him before the People of Israel. Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the Eyes of the Children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring Numb. xx. 12.this Congregation into the Land which I have given them. And how did they not sanctify him? By shewing some Distrust to his Words. Because ye believed me not. God Gen. ii. 3. Ex. xiii. 2.sanctify’d the seventh Day, or consecrated it to his Service. He sanctified all the First-born, he commands that they should be offered to him, that they should not be held as prophane, and appointed to vulgar Use. Exod. xix. 10. xiv. 12.Moses sanctifies the Israelites, and by Bathing, by Abstinence from the Use of the Marriage-bed, by the Purity of their Cloaths, he prepares them for appearing before the Lord, for receiving him, and entring into a Covenant with him.
Ex. xxix. 37.Those that approach to holy Things are sanctified; for Example, ‘tis allowed to the Priest only to offer Sacrifices at the Altar. If any one of the Laity should approach thereto, he would have contracted an Uncleanness which must have been expiated. So that to sanctify often stands for to defile, or to contract an Impurity, which would require to be purified by Sacrifices, or at least by bathing and washing of the Cloaths. See also Exod. xxx. 29. Qui tetigerit ea sanctificabitur. Levit. vi. 18, 27. Compare Levit. xxii. 15, 16. when God expresly forbids that the Laity should eat of the sanctified Things.