which are used by him reading his text, &c. But neither
yet are they holy, by virtue of the church's dedicating of them to those
uses for which she appointed them; for the church hath no such power as by
her dedication to make them holy. P. Martyr(476) condemneth the dedication
or consecration (for those words he useth promiscuously) whereby the
Papists hallow churches, and he declareth against it the judgment of our
divines to be this, _Licere, imo jure pietatis requiri, ut in prima
cujusque rei usurpatione gratias Deo agamus, ejusque bonitatem celebremus,
&c. Collati boni religiosum ac sanctum usum poscamus._ This he opposeth to
the popish dedication of temples and bells, as appeareth by these words:
_Quanto sanius rectusque decernimus._ He implieth, therefore, that these
things are only consecrated as every other thing is consecrated to us. Of
this kind of consecration he hath given examples. _In libro Nehemiae
dedicatio maeniam civitatis commemoratur, quae nil aliud fuit nisi quod
muris urbis instauratis, populus una cum Levitis et sacerdotibus, nec non
principibus, eo se contulit, ibique gratias Deo egerunt de maenibus
reaedificatis, et justam civitatis usuram postularunt, qua item ratione
prius quam sumamus cibum, nos etiam illum consecramus._ As the walls of
Jerusalem then, and as our ordinary meat are consecrated, so are churches
consecrated, and no otherwise can they be said to be dedicated, except one
would use the word _dedication_, in that sense wherein it is taken, Deut.
xx. 5; where Calvin turns the word _dedicavit_; Arias Montanus,
_initiavit_; Tremelius, _caepit uti_. Of this sort of dedication, Gaspar
Sanctius writeth thus: _Alia dedicatio est, non solum inter prophanos, sed
etiam inter Haebreos usitata, quae nihil habet sacrum sed tantum est
auspicatio aut initium operis, ad quod destinatur locus aut res cujus tunc
primum libatur usus. Sic Nero Claudius dedicasse dicitur domum suam cum
primum illam habitare caepit. Ita Suetonius in Nerone. Sic Pompeius
dedicavit theatrum suum, cum primum illud publicis ludis et communibus
usibus aperuit; de quo Cicero,_ lib. 2, epist. 1. Any other sort of
dedicating churches we hold to be superstitious. Peter Waldus, of whom the
Waldenses were named, is reported to have taught that the dedication of
temples was but an invention of the devil.(477) And though churches be
dedicated by preaching and praying, and by no superstition of sprinkling
them with holy water, or using