true, but I had a family of servants whom I kept at my business; had a
house, shop, and warehouses filled with goods; and, in short, to leave
them all as things in such a case must be left (that is to say, without
any overseer or person fit to be trusted with them), had been to hazard
the loss not only of my trade, but of my goods, and indeed of all I had
in the world.

I had an elder brother at the same time in London, and not many years
before come over from Portugal: and advising with him, his answer was
in three words, the same that was given in another case quite different,
viz., 'Master, save thyself.' In a word, he was for my retiring into the
country, as he resolved to do himself with his family; telling me what
he had, it seems, heard abroad, that the best preparation for the plague
was to run away from it. As to my argument of losing my trade, my goods,
or debts, he quite confuted me. He told me the same thing which I argued
for my staying, viz., that I would trust God with my safety and health,
was the strongest repulse to my pretensions of losing my trade and my
goods; 'for', says he, 'is it not as reasonable that you should trust
God with the chance or risk of losing your trade, as that you should
stay in so eminent a point of danger, and trust Him with your life?'

I could not argue that I was in any strait as to a place where to go,
having several friends and relations in Northamptonshire, whence our
family first came from; and particularly, I had an only sister in
Lincolnshire, very willing to receive and entertain me.

My brother, who had already sent his wife and two children into
Bedfordshire, and resolved to follow them, pressed my going very
earnestly; and I had once resolved to comply with his desires, but at
that time could get no horse; for though it is true all the people did