ings? saith the Lord: and shall not My soul be avenged of such a
nation as this?'

These things, I say, lay upon my mind, and I went home very much grieved
and oppressed with the horror of these men's wickedness, and to think
that anything could be so vile, so hardened, and notoriously wicked as
to insult God, and His servants, and His worship in such a manner, and
at such a time as this was, when He had, as it were, His sword drawn in
His hand on purpose to take vengeance not on them only, but on the whole
nation.

I had, indeed, been in some passion at first with them--though it was
really raised, not by any affront they had offered me personally, but
by the horror their blaspheming tongues filled me with. However, I was
doubtful in my thoughts whether the resentment I retained was not all
upon my own private account, for they had given me a great deal of ill
language too--I mean personally; but after some pause, and having a
weight of grief upon my mind, I retired myself as soon as I came home,
for I slept not that night; and giving God most humble thanks for
my preservation in the eminent danger I had been in, I set my mind
seriously and with the utmost earnestness to pray for those desperate
wretches, that God would pardon them, open their eyes, and effectually
humble them.

By this I not only did my duty, namely, to pray for those who
despitefully used me, but I fully tried my own heart, to my fun
satisfaction, that it was not filled with any spirit of resentment as
they had offended me in particular; and I humbly recommend the method
to all those that would know, or be certain, how to distinguish between
their zeal for the honour of God and the effects of their private
passions and resentment.

But I must go back here to the particular incidents which occur to my
thoughts of the time of the visitation, and particularly to the time of
their shutting up houses in the first part of their sickness; for before
the sickness was come to its height people had more room to make their
observations than they had afterward; but when it was in the extremity
there was no such thing as communication with one another, as before.

During the shutting up of houses, as I have said, some violence was
offered to the watchmen. As to soldiers, there were none to be found.
The few guards which the king then had, which were nothing like the
number entertained since, were dispersed, either at Oxford with the
Court, or in quarters in