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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2022
Of the Nature, Degrees, and Kinds of Forgery.
The Sin of Forgery is fitter to be ranked with Adultery, Theft, Perjury, and Murder, than to be committed by Priests and Prelates: One Act of it is a Crime to be punished by the Judges; what then is a whole Life spent in many various and enormous Offences of that nature?
If a Beggar forge but a Pass, or a Petition, putting the Hands and Seals of two Justices of the Peace to it, he is whipt, or clapt into the Pillory, or marked for a Rogue, though he doth it only to satisfie his Hunger.
If a Lease, a Bond, a Will, or a Deed of Gift be razed, or interlined by Craft, it passeth for a Cheat; but if the whole be counterfeited, the Crime is the greater.
If an Instrument be forged in the Kings Name, or his Seal counterfeited, and put to any Patent, without his privity and consent, it is High Treason.
If any Records of Antiquity be defaced, or wilfully corrupted, relating to the benefit of men, it is like the Crying Sin of removing thy Neighbours Land-mark, which Solomon censures in the Proverbs. But if those Records appertain to the Right of Nations, the Peace of Mankind, or the Publick Welfare of the World, the Sin is of more mysterious and deeper nature.
If Counterfeits be shufled in among good Records, to the disorder and confusion of the Authentick, and a Plea maintained by them, which without those Counterfeits would fall to the ground, upon the deposition of False Witnesses; Theft and Perjury are effectually couched, together with Lying, in the Cheat.
If the Records so counterfeited concern the Church, either in her Customs or Laws, her Lands, or the limits of her Jurisdiction, the Order of her Priests, or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Affair, besides other sins contained in it, there is superadded the Sin of Sacriledge.
The highest degree of Forgery is that of altering the Holy Scriptures; because the Majesty offended being Infinite, as well as the Concernment, the Crime is the more heinous.
The highest, next under that, is to counterfeit Rules in the Names of the Apostles, Oecumenical Councils, most glorious Martyrs, and Primitive Fathers, that is, to make Canons, Letters, Books, and Decrees in their Names, of which they were not the Authors.
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