againſt: It is very certain, that a great many of the Clergy, who were in Circumſtances to do it, withdrew, and fled for the Safety of their Lives; but ’tis true alſo, that a great many of them ſtaid, and many of them fell in the Calamity, and in the Diſcharge of their Duty.
It is true, ſome of the Diſſenting turn’d out Miniſters ſtaid, and their Courage is to be commended, and highly valued, but theſe were not abundance; it cannot be ſaid that they all ſtaid, and that none retir’d into the Country, any more than it can be ſaid of the Church Clergy, that they all went away; neither did all thoſe that went away, go without ſubſtituting Curates, and others in their Places, to do the Offices needful, and to viſit the Sick, as far as it was practicable; ſo that upon the whole, an Allowance of Charity might have been made on both Sides, and we ſhould have conſider’d, that ſuch a time as this of 1665, is not to be parallel’d in Hiſtory, and that it is not the ſtouteſt Courage that will always ſupport Men in ſuch Caſes; I had not ſaid this, but had rather choſen to record the Courage and religious Zeal of thoſe of both Sides, who did hazard themſelves for the Service of the poor People in their Diſtreſs, without remembring that any fail’d in their Duty on either ſide. But the want of Temper among us, has made the contrary to this neceſſary; ſome that ſtaid, not only boaſting too much of themſelves, but reviling thoſe that fled, branding them with Cowardice, deſerting their Flocks, and acting the Part of the Hirleing, and the like: I recommend it to the Charity of all good People to look back, and reflect duly upon the Terrors of the Time; and whoever does ſo will ſee, that it is not an ordinary Strength that cou’d ſupport it, it was not like appearing in the Head of an Army, or charging a Body of Horſe in the Field; but it was charging Death it ſelf
