John Selden Quote

All things are God's already; we can give him no right, by consecrating any, that he had not before, only we set it apart to his service - just as a gardener brings his master a basket of apricots, and presents them; his lord thanks him, and perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the apricots were as much his lord's before as now.

Table-talk: the discourses of J. Selden [ed. by R. Milward.]. (ed. 1716)