may remember, that they give no better, or indeed other reasons for this their bold assertion, than their progenitors the heathens did, when they were possessed with their spirit, to contradict a definition of sacrilege, current in all times, as agreeable to the law of nature: Quisquis id quod deorum est sustulit, et consumpsit, atque in usum suum vertit, sacrilegus est: they thought they refelled this proposition very substantially when they denied this to be sacrilege, because of the universal power and dominion the gods had over all things and places, quia quicquid sublatum est ex eo loco, qui deorum erat, in eum transfertur locum qui deorum est. Nor need there be another answer given to them than the philosopher, who I doubt was a better divine than many of the teachers, then gave, Omnia quidem deorum esse, sed non omnia diis dicata; and he convinced them by an argument very like their own, that all the world was the temple of the immortal gods, (solum quidem amplitudine illorum ac magnificentia dignum;) et tamen a sacris prophana decerni, et non omnia licere in angulo, cui nomen fani impositus est, quæ sub cœlo et conspectu syderum licent; many things may be done in other places which are neither fit or lawful to be done in churches, or places dedicated to God's service. The most sacrilegious person cannot do an injury to God, quem extra ictum sua divinitas posuit, sed tamen pu

nitur quia tanquam deo fecit. If this were not known to be Seneca's, it might be well owned by those casuists who are to dispute with these men ́; who yet, it may be, will rather chuse to be converted by the philosopher, as it is the dictate of natural reason, without the authority of the church. And it can never be enough lamented, that after places have been set aside in all nations, from the time of which we have any records, and assigned for the peculiar service and worship of that divinity that was there acknowledged; and after so much pious care for the building of churches to that end, from the time that Christianity hath had any authority in the world; that the Christian clergy owned and acknowledged under that appellation, and who, according to the judgment of a learned man, I think, as any age hath brought (Mr Mede) can derive their descent from the apostles themselves; that is, from those for whom their Lord and Master prayed unto his Father, (John xvii. 16, 17.) " Sanctify them (Father) unto or for thy truth, thy word is truth;" that is, saith he, separate them unto the .ministry of thy truth: I say, it is matter of great lamentation, that these places and these persons should now be esteemed so common, and of so little regard, and to be looked upon as the only places and persons to which an injury cannot be done, or to whom an affront or indignity cannot be commit

ted. And it is a very weighty observation by the said Mr Mede (who never received tithes or offerings, and was too little known in the church whilst he lived,) That they are in a great error, who rank sacrilege as a sin against the eighth commandment; for though he that commits sacrilege, indirectly and by consequence robs men too, namely, those who should live upon God's provision, yet, as sacrilege, it is a sin of the first table, and not of the second, a breach of the loyalty we immediately owe to God, and not of the duty we owe to our neighbour; and then he cites the text mentioned before in Malachi," Will a man rob God, &c." And truly, methinks, there is too much said in the New Testament against this sin, to leave it in the power of any man to imagine, that what is said in the old is abrogated.

No man must imagine that this monstrous sin is contracted to, or in any one climate or region, and affected only by those of any one religion; it is equally spread amongst all nations, and more practised and countenanced amongst those of the catholic, than of the reformed religion; at least was first introduced and practised by them, before it was by these. Emperors and kings contrive and permit it; and popes themselves no otherwise contradict it, than that they would not have it committed, without their special licence and dispensation; by which it was

first planted in England, and as warrantably propagated afterwards by him, who had as much authority to do it himself, as with the consent of the pope. They who know how many abbies, and other ecclesiastical promotions, are at present possessed by laymen, and what pensions are daily granted upon bishoprics, and other revenues of the church, to laymen and other secular uses, throughout the catholic dominions of Germany, Italy, France, and Spain, will rather wonder that there is so fair revenues yet left to the church in protestant countries, than that so much hath been taken away; which for the most part was done in catholic times, and by catholic authority: and it is a wonderful thing how little hath been said in the one church or the other, in justification or excuse of what hath been so much practised in both; and they who have attempted it have done it so obscurely, upon such suppositions, and with such reservations and distinctions, as if they endeavoured to find out or contrive a more warrantable and decent way to do that which ought not to be done at all; and what they allow proves to be as unlawful by their own rules, as what they condemn; which falls out very often to be the case in the writings of the schoolmen, and amongst the modern casuists. And it may be, they who are most conscientiously troubled and afflicted with the sense of the sin, and the

punishment that must reasonably attend it, and to see so many noble and great families involved insensibly under a guilt, that is already in some de gree punished, in their posterities degenerating from the virtue of their ancestors, and their noble blood corrupted with the most abject and vulgar affections and condescensions; I say, these good men are not enough affected, to search and find out expedients and cures, to redeem these transgressions, and to wipe out the guilt from those who do heartily desire to expiate for the errors and faults of their forefathers. Many men are involved in sacrilege without their privity or consent, by inheritances and descents; and it may be, have made purchases very innocently of lands which they never knew had been dedicated to the church :' and it cannot reasonably be imagined that either of these, especially if they have no other estates, or very little, but what are marked with the same brand, will, out of the conscience of their great-grandfather's impiety, ransom themselves from a leprosy which is not discernable, by giving away all they have; and which by established laws are as unquestiona. bly their own, as any thing can be made to belong to any man: but they will rather leave their ancestors to pay their own forfeitures, and be very indulgent to those arguments which would persuade them, that what was sacrilege a hundred years since,