XVIII. LAW TO THEMSELVES.

SOME sixty years since, in the University of Cambridge, it was solemnly debated betwixt the heads, to debar young scholars of that liberty allowed them in Christmas, as inconsistent with the discipline of students. But some grave governors maintained the good use thereof, because thereby in twelve days they may more discover the dispositions of scholars than in twelve months before. That is a vigilant virtue indeed, which would be early up at prayers and study, when all authority to punish lay asleep.

Vice, these late years, hath kept open house in England. Welcome all comers without any examination. No penance for the adulterer, stocks for the drunkard, whip for the petty larcener, brand for the felon, gallows for the murderer.

God all this time tries us as he did Hezekiah, that he might know all that is in our hearts. [2 Chron. xxxii. 31.] Such as now are chaste, sober, just, true, show themselves acted with a higher principle of piety than the bare avoiding of punishment.