Page:An Essay on a Registry for Titles of Lands - Asgill (1698).djvu/11



In tracing out the Occasions of making this Statute, I was drawn through all the Statutes against Mortmain, as far back as Magna Charta, which doth prohi­bit the giving Lands to Religious Houses; by which it did seem to me, that Lands had been so given before that time, or else it had not been prohibited: For hu­mane Prohibitions generally come after the Fact committed, whereas the Laws divine prohibit by way of Prevention: Adam was forbidden the Tree, before ever he had tasted of it.

The first Statute against Mortmain was made by God himself, before the Fact com­-