Page:An Essay on a Registry for Titles of Lands - Asgill (1698).djvu/20

 whenever he had Occasion to dispose of his Estate, there would be no further Enquiry into the Title of his Lands, than to the Title of Money in his Possession.

And as Notice is thus necessary and advantageous to Title, so in the History of Conveyancing, the most perfect Titles are most Notorious, or rather the most Notorious are most perfect.

And because Antiquity of Precedents is the greatest Argument in the Law, I'll quote one out of that Authority, which treats of things done before the Foundations of the World, and fortells us of several things that will come to pass after the Dissolution of it. The History of the World is but a Modern Treatise of things of a late Date, which were done in pursuance of Counsels and Decrees made before: Matters of Fact set forth, without the Original Design and Institution of them seem irrational, and to have no Meaning in them: Would any thing seem more ridiculous, than that the taking off a Seal, and delivery of a piece of Parchment by one Man, should give another a Title to an Estate, if the Law were not known, which gives the Sanction to this Ceremony?

The Precedent I am going to quote, is, That great Settlement of Eternal Life,