WHEN THE PLAGUE BEGAN TO ABATE

The first of December, I say, he walked out, but suffered none of his family to stir but himself

he continued till the February following; for all the months of December and January the plague continued in the city, and at the latter end of December it began to increase again, which was believed to be by the people's returning faster than ordinary to their dwellings; so that the third week in December the number increased was 83, and there died of the plague still 281, the whole bill being 525.

But by the beginning of February, the family being well recovered and refreshed, and all in perfect health, and the city being filled again with people, and in pretty good state of health, he removed all back again, and came to his house, opened his doors, and carried on his business as before.

Thus, next under the protection of God's providence, a complete retirement from the street, and from conversing on any account whatever with the rest of the people, separating from them, and having, as we may say, nothing to do with them, neither to buy or sell, or speak or sit with or near them, has been approved to be capable of effectually preserving a man or a family in the time of an infection.

I will not suppose this man or his family, who were so severe in fasting and humbling themselves before God all the time they were under apprehensions of the distemper, and surrounded with daily experience of the dreadful calamity that lay upon the city, could so far forget themselves now as not to give God thanks in the most solemn manner possible for their deliverance. That part I take for granted; they could not be rational creatures any more than Christians and retain no sense of so signal preservation. I