he was found, but overwhelmed with the Calamity of his Family, and the like, they turned their Anger into ridiculing the Man, and his Sorrow for his Wife and Children; taunted him with want of Courage to leap into the great Pit, and go to Heaven, as they jeeringly expreſs'd it, along with them, adding ſome very profane, and even blaſphemous Expreſſions.
They were at this vile Work when I came back to the Houſe, and as far as I could ſee, tho' the Man ſat ſtill, mute and diſconſolate, and their Affronts could not divert his Sorrow, yet he was both griev'd and offended at their Diſcourſe: Upon this; I gently reprov'd them, being well enough acquainted with their Characters, and not unknown in Perſon to two of them.
They immediately fell upon me with ill Language and Oaths; ask'd me what I did out of my Grave, at ſuch a Time when ſo many honeſter Men were carried into the Church-Yard? and why I was not at Home ſaying my Prayers, againſt the Dead-Cart came for me? and the like.
I was indeed aſtoniſhed at the Impudence of the Men, tho' not at all diſcompoſed at their Treatment of me; however I kept my Temper; I told them, that tho' I defy'd them, or any Man in the World to tax me with any Diſhoneſty, yet I acknowledg'd, that in this terrible Judgment of God, many better than I was 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 preſerv'd 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, fortheir
