AN honest Lawyer, is the Life-guard of our Fortunes; the best Collateral security for an Estate. A trusty Pilot to steer one safe through the dangerous (and oft­times Inevitable Ocean of Contention. A true Priest of Justice, that neither sacri­fices to Fraud nor Covetousness, and in this out-does those of a higher Function, that he can make peo­ple Honest, that are Sermon Proof. He is an infallable Anatomist, of Meum and Tuum, that will presently search a Cause to the quick, and find out the Peccant humour, he little lurking-cheat, though mask'd in never so fair Pretences. One that practises Law, so as not to forget the Gospel, but always wears a Con­science as well as a Gown; he weighs the Cause more than the Gold, and if That will not bear the Touch, in a generous scorn puts back the Fee. Though he knows all the Criticisms of his Faculty, and the nice Snapperado's of Practice, yet the never uses them, unless in a Defensive way to Countermine the [Page] plots of Knavery, for he affects not the Devilish skill outbaf­fling Right, nor aims at the shameful Glory of making a Bad Cause good, but with equal contempt hates the Wolves study, and the Dogs eloquence, and disdains to grow great by Crimes, or build himself a Fortune on the spoil of the Oppressed, or the ruines of Widows and Orphans, he has more Reverence for his Profession than to debauch it to unrighteous purposes, and had rather be dumb than suffer his tongue to Pimp for Injustice, or club his Parts to bolster up a Cheat with the Legerdemain of Law-craft;

He is not fac'd like Janus, to take a Reteyning Fee from the Plantiff; and afterwards a Backhanded bribe from the Defen­dant, nor so double tongu'd, that one may purchase his Pleading, and the other at the same or a larger price, his silence. But when he undertakes a business, he espouses it in earnest, and does not Follow a Cause but manage it. A mollifying letter from the adversaries Potent Friend, a noble Treat, or the remo­ra of a lusty Present to his Wife, have no influence to make him slacken his proceedings, for he is so zealous for his Clients in­terest, that you may sooner Divorce the Sun from the Eclip­tick, than warp him from his integrity, yet still is his Patron only usque ad Aras, (as far as is just) for if once found he finds the business smell rank, St. Marks treasure or the Mines of Potosi, are two small a Fee to engage him one step further.

As his profession is Honourable, so his Education has been Li­beral and Ingenious, far different from that of some Jilting Pet­tyfoggers, and Purse-milking Law-drivers, whose breeding, like a Cuckowes, is in the Nest of another Trade, where they learn Wrangling and Knavery enough in their own Causes to spoil those of other Men, and sweetned ingredients of me­chanick Fraud compound themselves (though simple enough) fit Instruments for any Villany. Bu his greener years were season'd with Literature, and can give better proofs of his Ʋniversity-learning than reckoning up the Colledges, and boast­ing his Name in the Buttery Book, he understands Logick (the methods of right reasoning) and Rhetorick (the Art of per­swasion) is well seen in History the Free-school of Prudence) and no Stranger to the Ethicks and Politicks of the Ancients: [Page] he is skill'd in other Languages besides Declaration-Latine, and Norman Gibberish; He read Plato and Tully, before he saw ei­ther Littleton or the Statute Book, and grounded, in the Princi­ples of nature and Customes of Nations, came ( lotis manibus) to the study of our Common Municipal Law; which he found to be multorum annorum opus, a task that requires all the Nerves of Industry, and therefore imployd his Time better at the Inns of Court, than in hunting after New fashions, starting fresh Mi­stresses, haunting the Play-houses, or acquiring the other little Town accomplishments, which render their admirers fine Men in the opinion of Fools, but egregious Fops in the judgment of the wise.

In his Studies, he Traffiques not only with the Infantry of Epitome's, Abridgements, and Diminutive Collectors in Decimo sexto, but draws his knowledge from the Original Springs, di­gesting the whole Body of the Law in a Laborions and regular Method; but especially aims to be well vers't in the Practice of every Court, and rightly to understand the Art of Good pleadings, as knowing them to be most useful to unravel the knotty in­trigues of the Cause, and reduce it to an Issue, yet hates to pester the Court with Circuities, Negative Pregnants, Departures and multiplyed Impertinences; he peruses the Year Books and Responsa prudentium, with an heedy and Reverent Eye, delights to tread in the steps of the Ancient Sages, and thinks 'tis best sailing by known and Experienced Land marks. And therefore uses Presidents not as Refuges of Ignorance, But as the safe-guards of Wisedome, and yet rather than not keep pace with Justice, will Dispense with a Formality, considering that what he does grounded on Reason, if it want a President in past Ages, will be a Laudable one to those to come.

He never goes about with faigned Allegations to cast a Mist before the Eyes of Justice, that she may mistake her road, and assign the Child to the wrong Mother; endeavours not to Pack a Jury by his interest in he Ʋndersheriffe, not to Baulke an e­vidence with a multitude of sudden insnaring Interrogatories, nor maintains any correspondence with the Knights of Alsatia, or Ram-ally-Vouchers; he can prosecute a suit in Equity without [Page] seeking to create a Whirl-pool; where one Order shall beget ano­ther, and the poor Client be swung round (like a Cat before exe­cution) from Decree to rehearing, from report to exceptions, and Vice versâ till his Forunes are Shipwrack'd, and himself drown'd for want of white or yellow earth to wade through on; he ne­ver studies delayes to the ruine of a Family for the Lucre of Ten Groats; nor by drilling Quirks spins out a suit more lasting than Buff, depending a whole revolution of Saturn, and Intail'd on the third and fourth generation, he does not play the Empe­rick with his Client, and put him upon the rack to make him Bleed the more freely, casting him into a swoon with frights of a Judgment, and then reviving him again with a Cordial write of errour, or the dear Elixer of an Injunction, to keep the Brangle alive as long as ever there are any vital spirits in the Pouch; he can suffer his neighbours to live quietly about him without perpetual alarms of actions and Indictments, or Con­juring up dormant Titles to every commodious seat, and making Land fall five years Purchase meerly for Lying within ten Miles of Him.

He delights to be an Arbitrator, not an Incendiary, and has Beati pacifici oftner in his mouth than Currat Lex, he never wheadles any into endless suits for triffles, nor animates them to undo themselves and others for damage Feasant, or insigni­ficant trespases, pedibus ambulado, but (as Telephus's sword was the best cure for the wounds it made) advises people to com­pose their assaults and slanders over the same Ale that begot them; nor does he in weightier cases extort unreasonable Fees, for whatever the foul chapp'd rabble may suggest, a Lawyers Pro­fession is not Mercenary; the Money given him is onely an Honorary gratuity, for his advice and trouble, or a grateful ac­knowledgment, of our Obligations for his well intended endea­vours, and the old Emblem of the Brambles tearing oft the sheeps fleece that run to it for shelter in a storm, can have no re­flection upon him, whose Brain is as active, and his Tongue as voluble for a penniless Pauper, as when Oyl'd with the aurum potabile of a Dozen Guinnies.

In a word whilst he lives, he is the delight of the Court, the [Page] Ornament of the Bar, the Glory of his Profession, the Patron of Innoceney, the Ʋpholder of right, the Scourge of oppression the Terrour of deceit, and the Oracle of his Country, and when death calls him to the Bar of Heaven by a Habeas corpus cum Causis he finds his Judge, his Advocate, nonsuits the Devil, obtains a liberate from all his infirmities, and continues still One of the long robe in Glory.