nd
doubtless if they that give to the poor lend to the Lord, and he will
repay them, those that hazard their lives to give to the poor, and to
comfort and assist the poor in such misery as this, may hope to be
protected in the work.

Nor was this charity so extraordinary eminent only in a few; but (for I
cannot lightly quit this point) the charity of the rich, as well in the
city and suburbs as from the country, was so great, that in a word a
prodigious number of people, who must otherwise have perished for want
as well as sickness, were supported and subsisted by it; and though I
could never, nor I believe any one else, come to a full knowledge of
what was so contributed, yet I do believe, that, as I heard one say that
was a critical observer of that part,[289] there was not only many
thousand pounds contributed, but many hundred thousand pounds, to the
relief of the poor of this distressed, afflicted city. Nay, one man
affirmed to me that he could reckon up above one hundred thousand pounds
a week which was distributed by the churchwardens at the several parish
vestries, by the lord mayor and the aldermen in the several wards and
precincts, and by the particular direction of the court and of the
justices respectively in the parts where they resided, over and above
the private charity distributed by pious hands in the manner I speak of;
and this continued for many weeks together.

I confess this is a very great sum; but if it be true that there was
distributed, in the parish of Cripplegate only, seventeen thousand eight
hundred pounds in one week to the relief of the poor, as I heard
reported, and which I really believe was true, the other may not be
improbable.

It was doubtless to be reckoned among the many signal good providences
which attended this great city, and of which there were many other worth
recording. I say, this was a very remarkable one, that it pleased God
thus to move the hearts of the people in all parts of the kingdom so
cheerfully to contribute to the relief and support of the poor at
London; the good consequences of which were felt many ways, and
particularly in preserving the lives and recovering the health of so
many thousands, and keeping so many thousands of families from perishing
and starving.

And now I am talking of the merciful disposition of Providence in this
time of calamity, I cannot but mention again, though I have spoken
several times of it already on other accounts (I mean tha