Hypothesis in that Discourse of his new
Improvement of Planting, _&c._ and with no less Pursuit in his late
Pamphlet on the Plague at _Marseilles_; where in his Preface, _p._ 13, he
tells you, 'That to suppose this malignant Distemper is occasioned by
Vapours only arising from the Earth, is to lay aside our Reason, _&c._'

And it may be farther observed, That they are as remote from their Consent
to one another, as in the distant Place from whence they would trace its
Origin.

[16]Dr. _Mead_, from a bare Transcription of _Matthaeus Villanus_, does
affirm, That the Plague in the Year 1346, had its first Rise in _China_,
advancing through the _East-Indies_, _Syria_, _Turkey_, _&c._ and by
Shipping from the _Levant_, brought into _Europe_, which in the Year 1349.
seized _England_. This is directly against Dr. _Bradley_,[17] who suggests
the Plague is no where to be found in _India_, _China_, the South Parts of
_Africa_ and _America_, and has taken the Pains in filling up three Pages
in the Defence of this Assertion.

It would be well if their Opposition ended here; but when it affects us
more near, when their Difference becomes more wide in the very Means of
our Preservation, and what by one is laid down as a soveraign and real
Good, to be returned by another as the most fatal and destructive, is a
Weight of no small Consequence, nor a less melancholly Reflection, if it
should please God to inflict us with the same Calamities.

And as to those preservative Means which the Government have only a Power
to direct, the making of large Fires in the Streets, as has been practised
in the Times of Contagion, is a Point largely contested.

Dr. _Hodges_[18] seems inveterate against this Custom, and tells us, 'That
before three Days were expired after the Fires made in 1665, the most
fatal Night ensued, wherein more than 4000 expired; the Heavens both
mourn'd so many Funerals, and wept for the fatal Mistake, so as to
extinguish even the Fires with their Showers. May Posterity, (says he) be
warned by this Mistake, and not like Empericks, apply a Remedy where they
are ignorant of the Cause.'

And Dr. _Mead_[19] has an Eye to this Remark, when he tells us, 'The fatal
Success of the Trials in the last Plague is more than sufficient to
discourage any farther Attempts of this Nature.' Whereas on the contrary,
the making of Fires in the Streets were practised from the greatest
Antiquity, and supported by _Mayerne_, _Butler_, and _Harve