7he HISTORY of the PuRITANs. VoL. II, - K. ~~arl~s I. them. to an ~xact. compli~nce wit? their _fhtutes. . The p~ofe.JJors were in. ~ defatigable m mfl:ruchng the1r pup1ls ~oth m public and private. drunkennefs, oaths, and profanation of the lord's day, were banifhed: firict piety, and a profeffion of religion were in fa!hion ; the {cholars ofte~ met together for prayer and religious conference; fo that, as Mr. Philip Henry who lived then in the univer6ty, obferves, if thofe qf tht oldjpirit and way ~vere atfitjl the better ftholars, thej'e were tbe better men. Remarks. Walker's Suff. Cler. p. 140Let the reader now judge of the impartiality and candor of thofe wri– ters, who in6nuate '' that the new profeffors could neither pronounce " Iatin, nor write englijh; that in the room of the ejected loyalifls there " fuccecded an illiterate rabble, fwept up from the plough-tail, from « !hops and grammar fchools, and the dregs of the neighbouring univer. " fity; that the mufes were driven from their ancient feats; that allloy• ... alty, learning, and good fenle, was banifhed ; and that there fucceed– " ed in their room nothing but barbarifm, enthu6afm, and ignorance, " till the dawn of the refioration." Lord Ciarendon was a dechued enemy . to tbefe changes, and has painted them in the mofi: odious colours, yet the force of truth has obliged him to confefs, that " though it might " have been reafon ab!y expected, that this wild and barbarous depopula. " tion (as he calls it) would have extirpated all the learning, religion and " loyalty, which had flouri!hed there, and that the fucceeding ill huf– •. bandry, and unfkil ful cultivation, would have made it fruitful only in " ignorance, profanenefs, atheifm and rebellion, yet by God's wonder• ." ful providence that fruitful foil could notlbe made barren by all that fiu~ " pidity and negligence; it choaked the weed;;, and would not fuffer the " poifonous feeds that were fown with indufl:ry enough, to fpring up, but " after feveral tyrannical governors mutually fucceeding each other, and ,., with the fame malice and perverf~nefs, endeavouring to extinguifh all " good literature and allegiance, it yielded an harvefl: of extraordinary " good knowledge in all parts of learning; and many who were wickedly " introduced, applied themfelves to the fiudy of good learning, and the '"' practice of virtue, and had inclinations to that duty and obedience they " had never been taught, that when it pleafed God to bring king Charles " II. back to his throne, he found the univerfity abounding in excellent " learning, and devoted to duty and obedience· little inferior to what it " was before its defolation." Conlidering the ill-nature that runs througn this paragraph, it mufi be acknowledged to be an unanfwerable tefiimo– ny to the learning and application of the new profej[ors; and with equal jufiice may it be added, that the univerfity was in a much better ftate for learning, reUgion, and good fenfe, at the refi:oration, than before the civil wars, as all the eminent philofophers and divines of the eftablifhment who
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