MILITARY COMMANDERS have their opportu nities to" do good." They do this in an eminent degree when they support exercises of piety in their several companies and regiments, and when they rebuke the vices of the camp with due severity. Might not societies to suppress these vices be formed in the camp, to very good purpose, under their inspection? If the soldiers ask, "What shall we do?" all my answer at present is, Sirs, consider what you have to do.

COMMANDERS AT SEA have their opportunities also. The more absolute they are in their command, the greater are their opportunities. The worship of God seriously and constantly maintained abroad, will have a very happy effect. A body of good orders hung up in the steerage may produce consequences for which all the people in the vessel may at last have reason to be thankful. Books of piety should also be taken aboard, and the men should be desired to retire for the perusal of them, and for other pious exercises.

But whilst our book seems to have so far discharged its office and intention of a counsellor as to leave no further expectations, a considerable number of persons present themselves to our notice, who would have just cause for complaint, if among proposals to do good, they should remain unnoticed. Some whom we do not find among those who addressed the blessed morningstar of our Saviour for his direction, yet are now found among those who inquire, "And what shall we do?" 1 refer to the GENTLEMEN OF THE LAW, who have that in their hands, the end of which is, " To do good;" and the perversion

of which from its professed end is one of the worst of evils.

Gentlemen, your opportunities to do good are such, that proposals of what you are able to do, cannot but promise themselves an obliging reception with you. You have considerable advantages for this purpose, arising from your liberal and gentlemanly education: for with respect even to the common pleaders at the bar, I hope that maxim of the law will not be forgotten: "Dignitas advocatorum non patitur ut in eam recipiatur, qui antea fuerat vilioris conditionis;" "The situation of a lawyer is so dignified, that none should be raised to it from a mean condition in life." Things are not come to so bad a state that an honest lawyer should require a statue, as the honest publican of old did, merely on the score of rarity. You may, if you aim at it, be entitled to one on the score of universal and meritorious usefulness.

In order to your being useful, sirs, it is necessary that you should be skilful; and that you may arrive at an excellent skill in the law, you will be well advised what authors to study: on this point, it may be of the utmost consequence to be well advised. The knowledge of your own statutelaw is incontestibly needful. The same may be said of the common-law, which must continually accompany the execution of it. Here, besides useful dictionaries, you have your Cook, Vaughan, Wing ate, &c. &c. with whom you may converse. I am sorry to find a gentleman, about the middle of the former century, complaining of the English law," that the books of it cannot be perused with

any deliberation, under three or four years, and that the expence of them is enormous." I do not propose so tedious a task; for the civil law must also be known by those who would be fully acquainted with legal proceedings. Huge volumes, and loads of them, have been written upon it; but among these, two small ones, at least, should be consulted, and digested by every one who would not be an ignoramus-I mean the Enchiridion of Corvinus, and Arthur Duck's Treatise De usu et authoritate juris civilis.* I will be still more free in declaring my opinion. Had I learning enough to manage a cause of that nature, I should be ready to maintain it at any bar in the world, that there never was under the cope of heaven, a more learned man, than the incomparable ALSTEDIUS. He has written on every subject in the whole circle of learning, as accurately and as exquisitely as those who have devoted their whole lives to the cultivation of any one particular subject. The only reason why his compositions are not more esteemed is, the pleonasm of his worth, and their desert of so much esteem. To hear some silly men ridicule his labours by a foolish pun on his name All's tedious, is to see the ungrateful folly of the world; for conciseness is one of his peculiar excellencies. They might more justly charge him with any thing, than with tediousness. This digression only serves to introduce a recommendation of his "Jurisprudentia," Jurisprudentia," as one of the best books in the world for a lawyer. I shall wrong

* Concerning the use and authority of the common law. [A century has certainly produced other books of great value to the gen tlemen of the law, but it was thought proper to retain the author's advice on this subject, as well as on others.]

it if I

say

say "It is much in a little:" I would rather "It is all in one."

A lawyer should be a scholar. It is vexatious that the emperor Justinian, whose name is now on the laws of the Roman empire,* is by Suidas called "Analphabetos-one who scarcely knew his alphabet." It is vexatious to find Accursius, one of the first commentators on the laws, fall into so many gross mistakes, through his ignorance. But, when you are called upon to be wise, the design is, that you may be wise to do good. Without this disposition, "Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? They die even without wisdom." A foundation of piety must first be laid; an inviolable respect to the holy and just and good law of God. rule of all your actions; and it regulate your practice of the law. that it was always the custom of the civil law to begin with" A Deo optimo maximo"-" To the most high and gracious God:" nor was it unusual for the instruments of the law to begin with the first two letters of the name of Christ, in Greek characters. The life of the lawyer should have its beginning there, and be carried on with a constant regard to it. The old Saxon laws had the Ten Commandments prefixed to them-Ten Words of infinitely greater value than the famous Twelve

This must be the must particularly You are sensible

*They bear his name, because it was by his order that Tribonian made his hasty, and some say fallacious, collection of them, from the two thousand volumes, into which they had been growing for a thousand years.

When a sentence of Greek occurred in the text, he was able to afford no better gloss than this, " Hæc Graica sunt, quæ nec legi, nec intelligi possunt-This is Greek, which can neither be read por explained."

Tables so much admired by Tully and other ancient writers; in the fragments of which, collected by Baldwin, there are some things horribly unrighteous and barbarous. These are to be the first laws with you: and, as all the laws that are contrary to these are ipso facto null and void, so, in the practice of the law, every thing disallowed by these must be avoided. The man whom the Scripture calls a lawyer was a Karaite, or one who strictly adhered to the written law of God, in opposition to the Pharisee and the Traditionist. I know not why every lawyer should not still be, in the best sense, a Karaite. By manifesting a reverence for the divine law, both that of reason and that of superadded Gospel, you will do good in the world beyond what you can imagine. You will redeem your honourable profession from the injury which bad men have done to its reputation; and you will obtain a patronage for it very different from that which the Satyr in the idle story of your Saint Evona has assigned to it.

Your celebrated Ulpian wrote seven books, to, shew the several punishments which ought to be inflicted on christians. It is to be hoped that you will invent as many services to be done to the cause of christianity, services to be performed for the kingdom of your Saviour, and methods by which to demonstrate that you yourselves are among the best of christians.

I am not sure that our Tertullian was the gentleman of that name, who hath some Consulta in the Roman Digesta; which Grotius and others will not admit: yet Eusebius tells us that he was well skilled in the Roman laws: and in his writings you