THE CHARACTER OF AN HONEST LAWYER.  
By H. C. Φιλόνομιον  Justitiae cultor, rigidi servator Honesti, in common bonus. 
LICENCED. Aug, 29th. 1676. Roger L' Estrange  
LONDON, Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate Street. 1676.   

THE CHARACTER OF An Honest Lawyer.  
AN honest Lawyer, is the Lifeguard 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 outdoes those of a higher Function, that he can make people Honest, that are Sermon Proof. He is an infallible 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 masked in never so fair Pretences. One that practices 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 Snapperadoes of Practice, yet the never uses them, unless in a Defensive way to Countermine the 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 Dog's eloquence, and disdains to grow great by Crimes, or build himself a Fortune on the spoil of the Oppressed, or the ruins 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 faced like Janus, to take a Retaining Fee from the Plaintiff; and afterwards a Backhanded bribe from the Defendant, nor so double tongued, 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 Client's interest, that you may sooner Divorce the Sun from the Ecliptic, 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 Cuckoos, 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 sweetened ingredients of mechanic Fraud compound themselves (though simple enough) fit Instruments for any Villainy. But his greener years were seasoned with Literature, and can give better proofs of his university-learning than reckoning up the Colleges, and boasting his Name in the Buttery Book, he understands Logic (the methods of right reasoning) and Rhetoric (the Art of persuasion) is well seen in History the Free-school of Prudence) and no Stranger to the Ethics and Politics of the Ancients: he is skilled 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 Customs 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 employed his Time better at the Inns of Court, than in hunting after New fashions, starting fresh Mistresses, haunting the Playhouses, or acquiring the other little Town accomplishments, which render their admirers fine Men in the opinion of Fools, but egregious Fops in the judgement of the wise.  
In his Studies, he Traffics 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 versed in the Practice of every Court, and rightly to understand the Art of Good plead, 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 multiplied Impertinences; he peruses the Year Books and Responsa prudentium, with an heedy and Reverend 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 Precedents not as Refuges of Ignorance, But as the safeguards of Wisdom, 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 Precedent in past Ages, will be a Laudable one to those to come.  
He never goes about with feigned 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 Undersheriff, not to Balk an evidence with a multitude of sudden ensnaring Interrogatories, nor maintains any correspondence with the Knights of Alsatia, or Ram-ally-Vouchers; he can prosecute a suit in Equity without 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 Shipwrecked, and himself drowned for want of white or yellow earth to wade through on; he never studies delays to the ruin 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 Entailed on the third and fourth generation, he does not play the Empiric 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 Judgement, and then reviving him again with a Cordial write of error, or the dear Elixir 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 merely for Lying within ten Miles of Him.  
He delights to be an Arbitrator, not an Incendiary, and has Beati pacifici oftener in his mouth than Currat Lex, he never wheadles any into endless suits for trifles, nor animates them to undo themselves and others for damage pheasant, or insignificant trespasses, pedibus ambulado, but (as Telephus' 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 chapped rabble may suggest, a Lawyer's Profession is not Mercenary; the Money given him is only an Honorary gratuity, for his advice and trouble, or a grateful acknowledgement, of our Obligations for his well intended endeavours, and the old Emblem of the Brambles tearing oft the sheep's 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 Oiled with the aurum potabile of a Dozen Guinnies.  
In a word whilst he lives, he is the delight of the Court, the Ornament of the Bar, the Glory of his Profession, the Patron of Innoceney, the Upholder of right, the Scourge of oppression the Terror 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.  
FINIS.   

The Author's Apology.  
THere are a sort of Spider-pated-Animals that can suck Venom out of the most Medicinal Flowers; mischievous Drones! that have not only left off Laudando Facere, sed etiam Laudare; so far from doing any thing praise worthy themselves that they cannot endure the deserved Encomiums of others; if any such Vermin should light upon these Innocent sheets and endeavour to turn Panegyric into a satire, by a left-handed comment the Author thinks fit to anticipate their malice, by letting the World truly know, that there lives not a person whose breast is fraight with a greater Veneration for the Profession of the Law than himself, who had the Honour of some mean education therein, and therefore deserves to be Outlawed by common sense, if he should go about to asperse it. But as he knows no true Gamaliel's will wrong him with such a Groundless suspicion, so he esteems the displeasure of Gripping Cause Jobbers, and green bag Dabblers, below his regards; 'tis their interest to be offended at the Character of An Honest Lawyer for the very same reason, that hard favoured Ladies hate Handsome Chambermaids, and may well imitate that Dawbers Policy, who having drawn a most miserable Picture of a Cock, hired a Boy to pelt away all live Ones from coming near, lest people by Comparing should discern the horrid ugliness of his own Handy Work.  
FINIS.