THE

LAWYER'S COMPLAINT, &c.

THE produce of a twelvemonth's study, according to report, is at last fallen into my hands: but it is not voluminous, though it has been elaborate; which serves to convince me that the pen of the author, like the wheels of Pharaoh's chariots, dragged heavily; and no wonder when a Lawyer is willing to justify himself, Luke x. 29.

You need not have told me that you was an Attorney; your title-page proves that. It is a common saying, that a Lawyer will tell a lie for a crown; and you have not only confirmed the proverb, but have fallen the price, for you give us to know that you will tell one for a groat.

Your excellent piece is entitled, A Dialogue between Mr. Latitat and Mr. Huntington.' But, to tell the world that you carried on a dialogue with me, when you know that I never saw nor heard of you, is an absolute falsity. Besides every one who knows me knows that I would have no more fellowship or correspondence with an un

renewed lawyer, than I would with the devil, or Balaam the wizard.

'You sometimes amuse yourself with the study of anatomical subjects.' I have no doubt but you speak the truth, sir: I believe anatomy is your chief, if not your only, study. Gentlemen of your profession have ever been noted for that; and many a poor widow, orphan, idiot, lunatic, and inheritance, has been pillaged, plundered, dissected, swallowed up and devoured, by them. Hence we read of their eating up a man and his heritage; of their devouring widows' houses; and, for a pretence, making long prayers, for which they have received a singular promise.

My Arminian Skeleton is in the world; nor have I any objection to its being viewed or criticised by Mr. Latitat; for it is cognoscible, if you have cognoscence. A wise man will never set himself against it; and, as for the fool, he can neither overthrow nor understand it.

I do not suppose you pay any regard to conciseness when you enter an action at the pocket: you are more laconical, I take it, when you demand the fee; then it is multum in parvo, much in a little; much money, little disputing to get it, and less work for it.

What you call learning has been called ignorance and foolishness ever since the wisdom of God in a mystery has been published. Real learning consists in a saving experimental knowledge of God, and of an interest in his favour. Unlearned

men are empty professors, who are ignorant of God, and wrest his word to their own destruction.

Far be it from me ever to expect either truth or satire from you: not truth, for want of grace; nor satire, for want of wit. The Scriptures say nothing about the charity either of Arians or Lawyers. The former rob Christ of his glory, and his church of the dignity of an everlasting righteousness and the Saviour hints that some of the latter will be employed to sue his disciples out of their cloke; and, knowing that a cloke will hardly suffice, he tells them to give the coat also.

It is not subscribing to a creed that will make a man a Christian, any more than a scrap of Latin will make a man a lawyer. There is but one faith; that comes from God, and leads to him and if you could prove your own faith, you would not disapprove of mine.

It is a truth, the Bible is very scanty of honest lawyers, though they are to be found in almost every body's mouth in our days. The scriptures give us an account of the church of God for upwards of four thousand years; and there is an account of one Zenas the lawyer walking with Apollos, who was to be brought on his journey and be supplied by Titus; but what he was, or where he was going, I know not; there is nothing said about his grace or his honesty.

I once spent an evening with one of the best lawyers that ever I met with; and he gave me a humorous reproof for my throw at honest lawyers;

and told me that he believed there were such things in being, and that himself was one. · For instance,' said he, a man of property came to me, to make his will; and having but one child, a daughter, who had married against his will, and without his consent, he was determined to disinherit her. I reproved him, and refused to make his will; and is not that a proof of an honest Lawyer?' I asked him if the human laws that he handled would allow a man thus to cut off a child, and him to make such a will? He replied 'Yes;' but he could not in conscience do it. I then told him he must not palm his honesty upon law, but upon equity: he was not a lawyer, but an honest ́ equitarian; for conscience prohibited what the law allowed.

I am intimate with another of the profession, who served an apprenticeship in the country, finished his studies in town, and began to practise his profession; but, as soon as convicting grace reached his heart, he left it, declaring that he could not keep a conscience for God and get his bread by that he therefore cast it off, and exposed himself to numberless difficulties, rather than have any thing to do with it; nor has he to this day.

As to conscience, there is as much difference between people's consciences as there is between their principles. Some consciences are as tough as a bull's hide, and some are as tender as an oyster. We read of some being seared with a hot iron; and some, like David's, will smite for

the least offence, as his smote him when he only cut off the skirt of a murderer who sought his life. If you had a conscience like the former, you could swallow an oath, a bribe, or a lie, with more ease than another could make a will.

Government itself seems to have had an eye to the account that the scriptures give of lawyers, by appointing an universal guardian for widows, orphans, and lunatics; besides a high court of equity, and an inferior court of conscience: these, like the ancient cities of refuge, are to shelter widows, orphans, and property, from the endless suits of lawyers, as those did the manslayer from the pursuits of the avenger of blood.

To expect Christian patience to be acted where no Christian principles are implanted, is as great a paradox as to expect honesty from a dishonest lawyer.

Why you should call yourself a rogue and an impostor, and palm it upon me, in your dialogue, I know not. And how can you dream of being inevitably damned, and at the same time intimate the practicability of keeping a good conscience towards God in the pursuit of your profession? Damnation and a good conscience can never go together. Indeed, sir, you give me room to suspect that conscience does not subscribe to all you write. Let a man be a lawyer, a quack doctor, or what he may; without repentance he will inevitably perish. But if God should give repentance even to a lawyer, he would save his soul;