Page:Terræ-filius- or, the Secret History of the University of Oxford.djvu/330

 l �X. Terre-Fifius. What a truly .primitive and chrittian �pirk is here difcovcr'd ! a.fptit worthy of tb d!ufive and munb. ficent a benefacq:or! Who could more paflionate!y exprefs his concern for the wdfareofmankind, and the honour of God ? The great foul of Sir Thomas.. Wlite, who�e memory few dries and co,'poration in E,xcL,D ha,e nr rome renfon to ble, breaths in every line, and proclaims the author of it to be a perfon who had devoted the whole tenour of hi life to piety and good orks. I can never read it without a fort of religiomen. thufiafin  I. fancy my fell thrown back into rome dillant, g91den age, before fraud and eorruptio were clhb!ifled amon ft men and wl:en the love ofour fellow-creatures, and the hap?inefs o[ potterity pre- vailed over all perfonal gratificatiom. Nei?er can I help being tBfuIerfi. itiom (if it mull be ca!ld fuperflition) as to believe that the fervent zeal of this righteous man has a very fenfible eff-e&; for I muff impute the preterit flourifljing condition of that college, the brotherly. love which is to be feen.. amonger itsmembers, thetr great.application to learn- ig, their hat'red of/rife and variance, their indultry in peace-making, and above all, their dntereiled in- tegrity in the adminittration of he college, to his devout prayers, that God would blefi them, and thai; the Holy Ghofi avould reft upon them. Indeed, if there lhould ever ariti a I'erj3n, who, whiter he enjoys the benefit of this foeiety, fhould have eitlxer the. .,:i//to attempt, or the power.to per- petrate -any thing contrary .to the latt dying intreaties of fo good a man, and fo mdutgent a benefactor, no name could be found equal to his guilt, and no pu- niflment fuflici. ent to attone it: he mutt firlt of all, tim up his bowels againer all compaflion, and rub- due the di&ates of eonfcience and honefly; he mutt reje& the hieflag of God, which his founder be- queathed him and defpife the affiltance of the Ho 0

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