e impudence of the men, though not at all
discomposed at their treatment of me. However, I kept my temper. I told
them that though I defied them or any man in the world to tax me with
any dishonesty, yet I acknowledged that in this terrible judgement of
God many better than I were swept away and carried to their grave. But
to answer their question directly, the case was, that I was mercifully
preserved by that great God whose name they had blasphemed and taken in
vain by cursing and swearing in a dreadful manner, and that I believed
I was preserved in particular, among other ends of His goodness, that
I might reprove them for their audacious boldness in behaving in such
a manner and in such an awful time as this was, especially for their
jeering and mocking at an honest gentleman and a neighbour (for some
of them knew him), who, they saw, was overwhelmed with sorrow for the
breaches which it had pleased God to make upon his family.

I cannot call exactly to mind the hellish, abominable raillery which
was the return they made to that talk of mine: being provoked, it seems,
that I was not at all afraid to be free with them; nor, if I could
remember, would I fill my account with any of the words, the horrid
oaths, curses, and vile expressions, such as, at that time of the day,
even the worst and ordinariest people in the street would not use; for,
except such hardened creatures as these, the most wicked wretches that
could be found had at that time some terror upon their minds of the hand
of that Power which could thus in a moment destroy them.

But that which was the worst in all their devilish language was, that
they were not afraid to blaspheme God and talk atheistically, making
a jest of my calling the plague the hand of God; mocking, and even
laughing, at the word judgement, as if the providence of God had no
concern in the inflicting such a desolating stroke; and that the people
calling upon God as they saw the carts carrying away the dead bodies was
all enthusiastic, absurd, and impertinent.

I made them some reply, such as I thought proper, but which I found was
so far from putting a check to their horrid way of speaking that it made
them rail the more, so that I confess it filled me with horror and a
kind of rage, and I came away, as I told them, lest the hand of that
judgement which had visited the whole city should glorify His vengeance
upon them, and all that were near them.

They received all reproof with t