lament the Deſolation of their Families, who, when they came back, were many of them in their Graves; yet they had room to be thankful, that they were carried out of the Reach of it, tho’ ſo much againſt their Wills; we indeed had a hot War with the Dutch that Year, and one very great Engagement at Sea, in which the Dutch were worſted; but we loſt a great many Men and ſome Ships. But, as I obſerv’d, the Plague was not in the Fleet, and when they came to lay up the Ships in the River, the violent part of it began to abate.
I would be glad, if I could cloſe the Account of this melancholy Year with ſome particular Examples hiſtorically; I mean of the Thankfulneſs to God our Preſerver for our being delivered from this dreadful Calamity; certainly the Circumſtances of the Deliverance, as well as the terrible Enemy we were delivered from, call’d upon the whole Nation for it; the Circumſtances of the Deliverance were indeed very remarkable, as I have in part mention’d already, and particularly the dreadful Condition, which we were all in, when we were, to the Surprize of the whole Town, made joyful with the Hope of a Stop of the Infection.
Nothing, but the immediate Finger of God, nothing, but omnipotent Power could have done it; the Contagion deſpiſed all Medicine, Death rag’d in every Corner; and had it gone on as it did then, a few Weeks more would have clear’d the Town of all, and every thing that had a Soul: Men every where began to deſpair, every Heart fail’d them for Fear, People were made deſperate thro’ the Anguiſh of their Souls, and the Terrors of Death ſat in the very Faces and Countenances of the People.
In that very Moment, when we might very well ſay, Vain was the Help of Man; I ſay in that very
