less murder or theft before God, than if there were no such act; and, I confess, I cannot apprehend how spoiling or defrauding the church can be less sacrilege, by what authority soever men are qualified to commit it.

But if we examine this a little farther, we shall find, that though no man (as I said before) denied sacrilege to be a sin, yet very many deny that to be sacrilege which hath been commonly accounted sacrilege they do not, or seem not to believe, that it is the same sin in the gospel that it was in the law; at least, that things do not become dedicated in the same manner to God under the gospel, as they did under the law; because, as to a gift there is always to be a receiver as well as a giver, so there is not evidence under the gospel, that God doth accept and receive what is given, as there was under the law, and therefore that it cannot be sacrilege : they are contented that shall be sacrilege as it is ecclesiastical robbery; and that as it is felony to steal a pot out of a common house, so it shall be sacrilege to steal the chalice out of the church, and are willing that they shall be equally punished for it; but they are not all satisfied to allow that distinction, or that there is any difference of places now: and they are in truth the more ingenuous of the two, and they will best define the committing of sacrilege, who do reject all difference and distinction of persons and places; and so neither leave God himself a capacity of being robbed, nor suffer those who claim under him, by serving at his altar, or his church, to have a propriety in any thing, of which they may not be deprived for the conveniency of a great man, or of the state in which they live. But these men 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 their 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 magnificentiâ dignum ;) et tamen a sacris profana decerni, et non omnia licere in angulo, cui nomen fani impositus est, quæ sub cœlo et conspectu siderum 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 any injury to God, "Quem extra ictum sua divinitas posuit, sed tamen punitur 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 choose 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. 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 committed. 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 license 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 abbeys, 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

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they who have attempted it have done it so obscurely, upon such suppositions, and with such re-servations 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 school-men, 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 degree 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 greatgrandfather's impiety, ransom themselves from a leprosy which is not discernible, by giving away all they have; and which by established laws are as un