Page:An Essay on a Registry for Titles of Lands - Asgill (1698).djvu/12

 mitted; for by the Mosaical Law, which instituted the first Society of Priesthood, the Levites are forbidden to have any Inheritance but the Tithes, that they might not dote upon their Possessions; but Avarice increasing upon them, by an Acquisition of Wealth, which they did not know how to dispose of, they agreed to set up a Publick Trea­sury, by way of a Joint-Stock, for the use of the Church, which was not within the Words of the Prohibition; and out of this Joint-Stock they paid Judas the thirty pieces of Silver, which being returned by him, they were loth to part with it, and yet puzzled what to do with it; because being the Price of Blood, it was against their own Canons, to put it again into their Treasury; Therefore they took Counsel, and bought the Potters Field, to bury Strangers in. As my Lord Coke commends the Wisdom of our Ancient Clergy, for always choosing the most Learned in the Law to be of their Counsel, so it seems these Priests of old were endued with the like Wisdom: For the Children of this World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of the Light.

Now these Lawyers advised their Clients, that notwithstanding this Canon, they might purchase Lands with this Money, and annex them to their Church: But this be­-