Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/134

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126
Memoirs of

Well, ſaid I, and have you given it them yet?

No, ſaid he, but I have called, and my Wife has anſwered, that ſhe cannot come out yet, but in Half an Hour ſhe hopes to come, and I am waiting for her: Poor Woman! ſays he, ſhe is brought ſadly down; ſhe has a Swelling, and it is broke, and I hope ſhe will recover; but I fear the Child will die; but it is the Lord! ——— Here he ſtopt, and wept very much.

Well, honeſt Friend, ſaid I, thou haſt a ſure Comforter, if thou haft brought thy ſelf to be reſign'd to the will of God, he is dealing with us all in Judgment.

Oh, Sir, ſays he, it is infinite Mercy, if any of us are ſpar'd; and who am I to repine!

Sayeſt thou ſo, ſaid I, and how much leſs is my Faith than thine? And here my Heart ſmote me, ſuggeſting how much better this Poor Man’s Foundation was, on which he ſtaid in the Danger, than mine; that he had no where to fly; that he had a Family to bind him to Attendance, which I had not; and mine was meer Preſumption, his a true Dependance, and a Courage reſting on God: and yet, that he uſed all poſſible Caution for his Safety.

I turn’d a little way from the Man, while theſe Thoughts engaged me, for indeed, I could no more refrain from Tears than he.

At length, after ſome farther Talk, the poor Woman opened the Door, and call’d, Robert, Robert; he anſwered and bid her ſtay a few Moments, and he would come; ſo he ran down the common Stairs to his Boat, and fetch’d up a Sack in which was the Proviſions he had brought from the Ships; and when he returned, he hallooed again; then he went to the great Stone which he ſhewed me, and emptied the Sack, and laid all out, every Thing by themſelves, and then retired; and his Wife came with a little Boy to fetch them away; and he calld, and ſaid, ſuch a Captain had ſent ſuch a Thing, and ſuch a Captain ſuch a Thing, and at the End adds, God has ſent it all,