Old Saint Pauls | Page 2

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 population of Amsterdam was carried off
by a desolating plague. Hamburgh was also grievously afflicted about
the same time, and in the same manner. Notwithstanding every effort to
cut off communication with these states, the insidious disease found its
way into England by means of some bales of merchandise, as it was
suspected, at the latter end of the year 1664, when two persons died
suddenly, with undoubted symptoms of the distemper, in Westminster.
Its next appearance was at a house in Long Acre, and its victims two
Frenchmen, who had brought goods from the Levant. Smothered for a
short time, like a fire upon which coals had been heaped, it broke out
with fresh fury in several places.
The consternation now began. The whole city was panic-stricken:
nothing was talked of but the plague--nothing planned but means of
arresting its progress--one grim and ghastly idea possessed the minds of
all. Like a hideous phantom stalking the streets at noon-day, and
scaring all in its path, Death took his course through London, and
selected his prey at pleasure. The alarm was further increased by the
predictions confidently made as to the vast numbers who would be
swept away by the visitation; by the prognostications of astrologers; by
the prophesyings of enthusiasts; by the denunciations of preachers, and

by the portents and prodigies reported to have occurred. During the
long and frosty winter preceding this fatal year, a comet appeared in the
heavens, the sickly colour of which was supposed to forebode the
judgment about to follow. Blazing stars and other meteors, of a lurid
hue and strange and preternatural shape, were likewise seen. The sun
was said to have set in streams of blood, and the moon to have shown
without reflecting a shadow; grisly shapes appeared at night--strange
clamours and groans were heard in the air--hearses, coffins, and heaps
of unburied dead were discovered in the sky, and great cakes and clots
of blood were found in the Tower moat; while a marvellous double tide
occurred at London Bridge. All these prodigies were currently reported,
and in most cases believed.
The severe frost, before noticed, did not break up till the end of
February, and with the thaw the plague frightfully increased in violence.
From Drury-lane it spread along Holborn, eastward as far as Great
Turnstile, and westward to Saint Giles's Pound, and so along the
Tyburn-road. Saint Andrew's, Holborn, was next infected; and as