SANCTUARY. They called by this Name that part of the Temple of Jerusalem, which was the most secret and most retired of all the rest, in which was the Ark of the Covenant, and wherein none but the High-Priest might enter, and he but once in a Year, which was upon the Day of solemn Expiation. The same Name was also given to the most sacred Part of the Tabernacle, which was set up in the Wilderness, and which remained still some time after the Building of the Temple. Each of these were called Sanctuarium, or Sancta Sanctorum. The Reader may see the Sanctuary described, with all its Dimensions, in the Article TABERNACLE, and in that of TEMPLE.
Sometimes the Word Sanctuary is used in general for the Temple, or for the holy Place, for the Place appointed for the publick Worship of the Lord. It should seem Ex. xv. 17.also, that Moses makes use of it instead of the Holy Land. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the Mountain of thine Inheritance, in the Place, O Lord, which thou hast made for Thee to dwell in; in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy Hands have established.
Levit. xx. 3.And elsewhere he says, of those who offer their Children to the God Moloch, They defile my Sanctuary, and profane my holy Name. Levit. xxi. 11.He forbids the High-Priest to go out of the Temple, to mourn for his Relations; Neither shall he go out of the Sanc tuary, nor prophane the Sanctuary of his God. The Temple is here denoted by its principal Part. ‘Tis believed that Sanctuary is sometimes Deuter. xxvi. 15.put for Heaven. Respice de Sanctuaria tuo, & de excelso cœlorum habitaculo. The Hebrew says, Look from the Dwelling of thy Sanctuary, from the high Heaven.
