blishment was
conducted with the regularity of clockwork, it being the aim of its
master not to pass a single hour of the day unprofitably.

The ordinary prayers gone through, Stephen Bloundel offered up along and
fervent supplication to the Most High for protection against the
devouring pestilence with which the city was then scourged. He
acknowledged that this terrible visitation had been justly brought upon
it by the wickedness of its inhabitants; that they deserved their doom,
dreadful though it was; that, like the dwellers in Jerusalem before it
was given up to ruin and desolation, they "had mocked the messengers of
God and despised His word;" that in the language of the prophet, "they
had refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their
ears that they should not hear; yea, had made their heart like an
adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which the
Lord of Hosts had sent in his spirit by the former prophets." He
admitted that great sins require great chastisement, and that the sins
of London were enormous; that it was filled with strifes, seditions,
heresies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and every kind of
abomination; that the ordinances of God were neglected, and all manner
of vice openly practised; that, despite repeated warnings and
afflictions less grievous than the present, these vicious practices had
been persisted in. All this he humbly acknowledged. But he implored a
gracious Providence, in consideration of his few faithful servants, to
spare the others yet a little longer, and give them a last chance of
repentance and amendment; or, if this could not be, and their utter
extirpation was inevitable, that the habitations of the devout might be
exempted from the general destruction--might be places of refuge, as
Zoar was to Lot. He concluded by earnestly exhorting those around him to
keep constant watch upon themselves; not to murmur at God's dealings and
dispensations; but so to comport themselves, that "they might be able to
stand in the day of wrath, in the day of death, and in the day of
judgment." The exhortation produced a powerful effect upon its hearers,
and they arose, some with serious, others with terrified looks.

Before proceeding further, it may be desirable to show in what manner
the dreadful pestilence referred to by the grocer commenced, and how far
its ravages had already extended. Two years before, namely, in 1663,
more than a third of the popul