第38章 Part 3(16)

But the magistrates cannot be enough commended in this,that they kept such good order for the burying of the dead,that as fast as any of these they employed to carry off and bury the dead fell sick or died,as was many times the case,they immediately supplied the places with others,which,by reason of the great number of poor that was left out of business,as above,was not hard to do.This occasioned,that notwithstanding the infinite number of people which died and were sick,almost all together,yet they were always cleared away and carried off every night,so that it was never to be said of London that the living were not able to bury the dead.

As the desolation was greater during those terrible times,so the amazement of the people increased,and a thousand unaccountable things they would do in the violence of their fright,as others did the same in the agonies of their distemper,and this part was very affecting.Some went roaring and crying and wringing their hands along the street;some would go praying and lifting up their hands to heaven,calling upon God for mercy.I cannot say,indeed,whether this was not in their distraction,but,be it so,it was still an indication of a more serious mind,when they had the use of their senses,and was much better,even as it was,than the frightful yellings and cryings that every day,and especially in the evenings,were heard in some streets.I suppose the world has heard of the famous Solomon Eagle,an enthusiast.He,though not infected at all but in his head,went about denouncing of judgement upon the city in a frightful manner,sometimes quite naked,and with a pan of burning charcoal on his head.What he said,or pretended,indeed I could not learn.

I will not say whether that clergyman was distracted or not,or whether he did it in pure zeal for the poor people,who went every evening through the streets of Whitechappel,and,with his hands lifted up,repeated that part of the Liturgy of the Church continually,'Spare us,good Lord;spare Thy people,whom Thou has redeemed with Thy most precious blood.'I say,I cannot speak positively of these things,because these were only the dismal objects which represented themselves to me as I looked through my chamber windows (for Iseldom opened the casements),while I confined myself within doors during that most violent raging of the pestilence;when,indeed,as Ihave said,many began to think,and even to say,that there would none escape;and indeed I began to think so too,and therefore kept within doors for about a fortnight and never stirred out.But I could not hold it.Besides,there were some people who,notwithstanding the danger,did not omit publicly to attend the worship of God,even in the most dangerous times;and though it is true that a great many clergymen did shut up their churches,and fled,as other people did,for the safety of their lives,yet all did not do so.Some ventured to officiate and to keep up the assemblies of the people by constant prayers,and sometimes sermons or brief exhortations to repentance and reformation,and this as long as any would come to hear them.

And Dissenters did the like also,and even in the very churches where the parish ministers were either dead or fled;nor was there any room for making difference at such a time as this was.

It was indeed a lamentable thing to hear the miserable lamentations of poor dying creatures calling out for ministers to comfort them and pray with them,to counsel them and to direct them,calling out to God for pardon and mercy,and confessing aloud their past sins.It would make the stoutest heart bleed to hear how many warnings were then given by dying penitents to others not to put off and delay their repentance to the day of distress;that such a time of calamity as this was no time for repentance,was no time to call upon God.I wish Icould repeat the very sound of those groans and of those exclamations that I heard from some poor dying creatures when in the height of their agonies and distress,and that I could make him that reads this hear,as I imagine I now hear them,for the sound seems still to ring in my ears.

If I could but tell this part in such moving accents as should alarm the very soul of the reader,I should rejoice that I recorded those things,however short and imperfect.