These terms sometimes denotes outward purity or cleanliness; sometimes internal purity and sanctification. True holiness characterizes outward acts, but still more the motive and intent of the heart. It is an inward principle; not mere rectitude or benevolence, or any one moral excellence, but the harmonious and perfect blending of all, as all the colors of the prism duly blend from pure light. God is holy in a transcendent and infinitely perfect manner, Isa 1:4; 6:3. The Messiah is called "the Holy One," Ps 16:10; Lu 4:34; Ac 3:14; and Holy is the common epithet given to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. God is the fountain of holiness, innocence, and the sanctification. Mankind lost all holiness in the fall; but God makes his people gradually "partakers of his holiness" here, and in heaven they will be found perfectly and for ever sanctified; as an earnest of which, he look upon them as already in Christ, holy and beloved. The Bible applies the epithet holy in a secondary sense to whatever pertains especially to God-to heaven, to his temple, its parts, utensils, and services; to his day, his ministers, priests, prophets, and apostles. The Jews were called a holy people, because they were separated unto God, to be a religious and consecrated people; and Christians, as a body, are also called holy, because they are in like manner separated unto Christ. But a "holy man," in the ordinary Christian sense, is one who exhibits in his conduct the inward purity, benevolence, and holy devotedness to the Savior, with which his heart overflows.