cious. To
make things holy by consecration of them to holy uses for policy, is an
uncouth speculation, and, I dare say, the Bishop himself comprehendeth it
not. God's designation of a thing to any use, which serves for his own
glory, is called the sanctification of that thing, or the making of it
holy, and so the word is taken, Isa. xiii. 3; Jer. i. 5, as G. Sanctius
noteth in his commentaries upon these places; and Calvin, commenting upon
the same places, expoundeth them so likewise; but the church's appointing
or designing of a thing to an holy use, cannot be called the making of it
holy. It must be consecrated at the command of God, and by virtue of the
word and prayer: thus are bread and wine consecrated in the holy supper,
_Res sacrae_, saith Fennerus,(472) _sunt quae Dei verbo in praedictum usum
sanctificatae et dedicatae sunt_. Polanus, speaking of the sacramental
elements, saith,(473) _Sanctificatio rei terrenae est actio ministri, qua
destinat __ rem terrenam ad sanctum usum, ex mandato Dei, &c._ The
Professors of Leyden(474) call only such things, persons, times and places
holy, as are consecrated and dedicated to God and his worship, and that
_divina praescriptione_. If our ordinary meat and drink cannot be
sanctified to us, so that we may lawfully, and with a good conscience, use
those common things, but by the word of God and prayer, how then shall
anything be made holy for God's worship but by the same means? 1 Tim. iv.
5. And, I pray, which is the word, and which be the prayers, that make
holy those things which the Bishop avoucheth for things consecrated and
made holy by the church, namely, the ground whereupon the church is built,
the stones and timber of an hospital; the rents, lands, money, or goods
given to the ministry and the poor; the vessels, vestures, tables,
napkins, basons, &c., appointed for the public worship.

_Sect._ 8. 2d. Times, places and things, which the church designeth for
the worship of God, if they be made holy by consecration of them to holy
political uses, then either they may be made holy by the holy uses to
which they are to be applied, or else by the church's dedicating of them
to those uses. They cannot be called holy by virtue of their application
to holy uses; for then (as Ames argueth(475)) the air is sacred, because
it is applied to the minister's speech whilst he is preaching, then is the
light sacred which is applied to his eye in reading, then are his
spectacles sacred