Not by Bread Alone• 241God’s providence from Ezekiel 9 , 2 Kings 20 , and 2 Chronicles 16.^12 Psalm
91 , offering serenity in place of fear, became a staple of Reverend Patrick’s
sermons. “You would not expect to be free of robbers, war, suffering, or
fever,” he exhorted his listeners. “Why think you will be never without
plague?”^13
In June the bishop of London had drawn up the special services of propi-
tiation with the dean of Saint Paul’s. The prayer books, printed in old Gothic
script, were distributed throughout the diocese early in July. They were used
immediately in the 130 parishes of Greater London. By August, Reverend
Josselin at Earls Colne and his fellow priests in Colchester and country par-
ishes throughout the land were using them.^14
The order of service reminded worshipers to forgive their enemies if death
should approach and while they lived to give generously for the infected
poor. Prayers of supplication called on Almighty God to protect his earthly
creatures’ bodies and souls from harm and evil. But worshipers were also
warned by their pastors not to lapse into fatalistic resignation: faith should be
combined with physick, for the counsel of physicians as well as that of priests
came from God.^15
These pastor-shepherds needed to listen to their own counsel, for they
risked their lives by staying on to feed their flocks. The curate of Paddington
village, Reverend Foulis, held a newborn infant in his arms to administer
baptism, only to learn two days later that the infant was dead of the plague.
Reverend Josselin had a scare when a parish boy came back from Colchester
and died nearby of the infection.^16
Reverend Patrick recounted to Elizabeth Gauden his own close encounter
with death. The chaplain at Poultry Compter, a city prison, dropped by the
home of Reverend Outram, rector of Saint Mary Woolnoth parish in the
heart of the city, when Patrick was there. The conversation came around to
the recent death from plague of a minor cleric and all his family. Chaplain
Bastwick knew all the details. The evening wore on, and Reverend Patrick
took his leave after wishing them all well; Bastwick stayed on until late. Five
days later the chaplain was dead of the distemper. A badly shaken Dr. Out-
ram broke the news to Patrick, saying that the man’s countenance had
changed later in the evening, but Bastwick had said nothing to him. Symon
told the whole story to Elizabeth Gauden and concluded, “You see how
much we are beholden to God in keeping us from dangers to which we are
exposed.”^17
The dissenter John Allin’s spiritual anguish ran much deeper during that
terrible September in London. His old parish at Rye had been off-limits to