DIRECTIONS TO LAWYERS ABOUT THEIR DUTY TO GOD.
Gentlemen, you need not meet these directions with the usual censures
or suspicions, that divines are busying themselves with the matters of
your calling, which belong not to them, and which they do not
understand; you shall see that I will as much forbear such matters as
you can well desire. If your calling be not to be sanctified by
serving God in it, and regulating it by his law, it is then neither
honourable nor desirable. But if it be, permit me very briefly so far
to direct you.[114]
_Direct._ I. Take the whole frame of polity together, and study
each part in its proper place, and know it in its due relation to the
rest; that is, understand first the doctrine of polity and laws _in
genere_, and next the universal polity and laws of God _in
specie_; and then study human polity and laws, as they stand in
their due subordination to the polity and laws of God, as the by-laws
of corporations do to the general laws of the land.
He that understandeth not what polity and law is _in genere_, is
unlike to understand what divine or human polity or law is _in
specie_; he that knoweth not what government is, and what a
community, and what a politic society is, will hardly know what a
commonwealth or church is: and he that knoweth not what a commonwealth
is _in genere_, what is its end, and what its constitutive parts,
and what the efficient causes, and what a law, and judgment, and
execution is, will study but unhappily the constitution or laws of the
kingdom which he liveth in.
And he that understandeth not the divine _dominium et imperium_,
as founded in creation, (and refounded in redemption,) and man's
subjection to his absolute Lord, and the universal laws which he hath
given in nature and Scripture to the world, can never have any true
understanding of the polity or laws of any kingdom in particular; no
more than he can well understand the true state of a corporation, or
the power of a mayor, or justice, or constable, who knoweth nothing of
the state of the kingdom, or of the king, or of his laws. What
ridiculous discourses would such a man make of his local polity or
laws! He knoweth nothing worth the knowing, who knoweth not that all
kings and states have no power but what is derived from God, and
subservient to him; and are all his officers, much more below him,
than their justices and officers are to them; and that their laws are
of no force against the laws of God, whether of natural or
supernatural revelation. And therefore it is most easy to see, that he
that will be a good lawyer must first be a divine; and that the
atheists that deride or slight divinity, do but play the fools in all
their independent broken studies. A man may be a good divine that is
no lawyer, but he can be no good lawyer that understandeth not
theology. Therefore let the government and laws of God have the first
and chiefest place in your studies, and in all your observation and
regard.
1. Because it is the ground of human government, and the fountain of
man's power and laws.
2. Because the divine polity is also the end of human policy; man's
laws being ultimately to promote our obedience to the laws of God, and
the honour of his government.
3. Because God's laws are the measure and bound of human laws; against
which no man can have power.
4. Because God's rewards and punishments are incomparably more
regardable than man's; eternal joy or misery being so much more
considerable than temporal peace or suffering; therefore though it be
a dishonour to lawyers to be ignorant of languages, history, and other
needful parts of learning, yet it is much more their dishonour to be
ignorant of the universal government and laws of God.[115]
_Direct._ II. Be sure that you make not the getting of money to
be your principal end in the exercise of your function; but the
promoting of justice, for the righting of the just, and the public
good; and therein the pleasing of the most righteous God.[116] For
your work can be to you no better than your end. A base end doth
debase your work. I deny not, but your competent gain and maintenance
may be your lower end, but the promoting of justice must be your
higher end, and sought before it. The question is not, Whether you
seek to live by your calling; for so may the best; nor yet, Whether
you intend the promoting of justice; for so may the worst (in some
degree). But the question is, Which of these you prefer? and which you
first and principally intend? He that looketh chiefly at his worldly
gain, must take that gain instead of God's reward, and look for no
more than he chiefly intended; for that is formally no good work,
which is not intended chiefly to please God, and God doth not reward
the servants of the world; nor can any man rationally imagine, that he
should reward a man with happiness hereafter, for seeking after riches
here. And if you say that you look for no reward but riches, you must
look for a punishment worse than poverty; for the neglecting of God
and your ultimate end, is a sin that deserveth the privation of all
which you neglect; and leaveth not your actions in a state of innocent
indifferency.
_Direct._ III. Be not counsellors or advocates against God, that
is, against justice, truth, or innocency. A bad cause would have no
patrons, if there were no bad or ignorant lawyers. It is a dear-bought
fee, which is got by sinning; especially by such a wilful, aggravated
sin, as the deliberate pleading for iniquity, or opposing of the
truth.[117] Judas's gain and Ahithophel's counsel will be too hot at
last for conscience, and sooner drive them to hang themselves in the
review, than afford them any true content: as St. James saith to them
that he calleth to weep and howl for their approaching misery, "Your
riches are corrupted, and your garments moth-eaten, your gold and
silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against
you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire: ye have heaped treasure
together for the last days." Whatever you say or do against truth, and
innocency, and justice, you do it against God himself. And is it not a
sad case that among professed christians, there is no cause so bad but
can find an advocate for a fee? I speak not against just counsel to a
man that hath a bad cause (to tell him it is bad, and persuade him to
disown it); nor do I speak against you for pleading against excessive
penalties or damages; for so far your cause is good, though the main
cause of your client was bad; but he that speaketh or counselleth
another for the defence of sin, or the wronging of the innocent, or
the defrauding another of his right, and will open his mouth to the
injury of the just, for a little money, or for a friend, must try
whether that money or friend will save him from the vengeance of the
universal Judge (unless faith and true repentance, which will cause
confession and restitution, do prevent it).
The Romans called them thieves, that by fraud, or plea, or judgment
got unlawful gain, and deprived others of their right.
Lampridius saith of Alexander Severus, _Tanti eum stomachi fuisse in
eos judices qui furtorum fama laborassent, etiamsi damnati non essent,
ut si eos casu aliquo videret, commotione animi stomachi choleram
evomeret, toto vultu inardescente, ita ut nihil posset loqui_. And
afterwards, _Severissimus judex contra fures, appellans eosdem
quotidianorum scelerum reos, et solos hostes inimicosque reipublicæ_.
Adding this instance, _Eum notarium, qui falsum causæ brevem in
consilio imperatorio retulisset, incisis digitorum nervis, ita ut
nunquam posset scribere, deportavit_. And that he caused Turinus
one of his courtiers to be tied in the market-place to a stake, and
choked to death with smoke, for taking men's money on pretence of
furthering their suits with the emperor; _Præcone dicente, Fumo
punitur, qui vendidit fumum_. He strictly prohibited buying of
offices, saying, _Necesse est ut qui emit, vendat: Ego vere nin
patiar mercatores potestatum: quos si patiar, damnare non possum_.
The frowns or favour of man, or the love of money, will prove at last
a poor defence against his justice whom by injustice you offend.[118]
The poet could say,
Justum et tenacem propositi virum,
Non civium ardor prava jubentium
Non vultus instantis tyranni,
Mente quatit solida:----Horat.
But if men would first be just, it would not be so hard to bring them
to do justly; saith Plautus,
Justa autem ab injustis petere insipientia est:
Quippe illi iniqui jus ignorant neque tenent.
_Direct._ IV. Make the cause of the innocent as it were your own;
and suffer it not to miscarry through your slothfulness and
neglect.[119] He is a lover of money more than justice, that will
sweat in the cause of the rich that pay him well, and will slubber
over and starve the cause of the poor, because he getteth little by
them. Whatever your place obligeth you to do, let it be done
diligently and with your might; both in your getting abilities, and in
using them. Scævola was wont to say, (ut lib. Pandect. 42. tit.
refer.) _Jus civile vigilantibus scriptum est, non dormientibus_.
Saith Austin, _Ignorantia judicis plerumque est calamitas
innocentis_. And as you look every labourer that you hire should be
laborious in your work, and your physician should be diligent in his
employment for your health; so is it as just that you be diligent for
them whose cause you undertake, and where God who is the lover of
justice doth require it.
_Direct._ V. Be acquainted with the temptations which most endanger
you in your place, and go continually armed against them with the true
remedies, and with christian faith, and watchfulness, and resolution.
You will keep your innocency, and consequently your God, if you see to
it that you love nothing better than that which you should keep. No
man will chaffer away his commodity for any thing which he judgeth to
be worse and less useful to him. Know well how little friends or
wealth will do you in comparison of God, and you will not hear them
when they speak against God, Luke xiv. 26; xvii. 33. When one of his
friends was importunate with P. Rutilius to do him an unjust courtesy,
and angrily said, "What use have I of thy friendship, if thou wilt not
grant my request?" He answered him, "And what use have I of thy
friendship, if for thy sake I must be urged to do unjustly?" It is a
grave saying of Plutarch, _Pulchrum quidem est justitia regnum
adipisci: pulchrum etiam regno justitiam anteponere: nam virtus
alterum ita illustrem reddidit, ut regno dignus judicaretur; alterum
ita magnum ut id contemneret_. Plut. in Lycurg. et Numa. But
especially remember who hath said, "What shall it profit a man to win
all the world, and lose his soul?" And that temptations surprise you
not, be deliberate and take time, and be not too hasty in owning or
opposing a cause or person, till you are well informed; as Seneca
saith of anger, so say I here, _Dandum semper est tempus: veritatem
enim dies aperit. Potest pœna dilata exigi; cum non potest exacta
revocari_. It is more than a shame to say, I was mistaken, when you
have done another man wrong by your temerity.[120]
[114] Legum mihi placet autoritas; sed earum usus hominum nequitia
depravatur: itaque piguit perdiscere, quo inhoneste uti nollem, et
honeste vix possem, etsi vellem. Petrarch. in vita sua.
[115] Male se rectum putat, qui regulam summæ rectitudinis ignorat.
Ambros. de Offic.
[116] It was an ill time when Petr. Bless. said, "Officium
officialium est hodie jura confundere, lites suscitare, transactiones
rescindere, dilationes innectere, supprimere veritatem, fovere
mendacium, quæstum sequi, æquitatem vendere, inhiare actionibus,
versutias concinnare."
[117] Bias fertur in causis orandis summus atque vehementissimus
fuisse, bonam tamen in partem dicendi vim exercere solitum. Laert. p.
53. Justum est homines justitiam diligere; non autem justitiam
propter homines postponere. Gregor. Reg. Justitia non novit patrem, vel
matrem; veritatem novit; personam non novit; Deum imitatur.--Cassian.
Plutarch saith, that Callicratidas being offered a great sum of money
(of which he had great need to pay his seamen) if he would do an
unjust act, refused: to whom saith Cleander his counsellor, "Ego
profecto hæc accepissem, si fuissem Callicratidas." He answered, "Ego
accepissem, si fuissem Cleander."
[118] Facile est justitiam homini justissimo.
[119] Vix potest negligere, qui novit æquitatem: nec facile erroris
vitio fordescit, quem doctrina purgaverit. Cassiodor.
[120] Chilon in Laert. p. 43. (mihi) saith, Sibi non esse conscium in
tota vita ingratitudinis: una tamen re se modice moveri, quod cum
semel inter amicos illi judicandum esset, neque contra jus agere
aliquid vellet, persuaserit amico judicium a se provocaret, ut si
nimirum utrumque et legem et amicum servaret. This was his injustice
of which he repented.