"the Scriptural necessity of such meetings in times of [plague]"

"But here we are obliged to add with great concern, that we find ourselves brought in guilty in a thing which we had looked upon as having produced many blessed effects; we are charged of having done considerable damage by our public worship:  in evidence of this charge they allege the great number of deaths, in our congregation, above all others in the city; and what is of the greatest consequence, they attempt to prove our guilt from Scripture.

[Answer to the charge respecting the holding of Public Worship.]

     "This charge having repeatedly been made against us, it is our duty to give a short answer to it in these sheets.  Take it as follows:

     "We know that the Most High doth not dwell in temples made with men's hands; but that he dwells in a contrite and humble mind; but we know likewise, that few people have a contrite and humble heart at the time of the judgments of God, and that the Lord makes use of his word, to produce in them this blessed disposition:  we know that the public preaching of the Gospel, and common means of edification, promote the same very much; we know that the Lord dwells with such really contrite souls particularly then, when they unite in a church or in any other house for his worship; for has he not said, 'The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling-places of Jacob.'  Has our Blessed Saviour given this promise?  Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.  Has he not called to us through his Apostle, Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.  Has there been any exception made in any part of Scripture with respect to sickness, or the time of plague?  Do we blame the first Christians, when they assembled together for the common adoration of Jesus Christ at the utmost hazard of their of [sic] lives?  was it not in these meetings where the blessed martyrs gathered courage and strength, joyfully to shed their blood for Christ's sake?  Do we believe that the law of self-preservation would have excused them if they had for that reason neglected the opportunities, which prepared the way for them to a glorious death?  The narrow compass of this small pamphlet will not allow us to say any more of the blessings of God upon such associations of his people; and even of the Scriptural necessity of such meetings in times of calamity; we will only add a few remarks concerning our meetings themselves, from whence it will appear that we were extremely cautious, and endeavored to render them not only harmless, but even useful."

     Justus Henry Christian Helmuth, A short account of the yellow fever in Philadelphia, for the reflecting Christian, trans. Charles Erdmann (Philadelphia:  Jones, Hoff & Derrick, 1794), 43-44 =Kurze Nachricht von dem sogenannten gelben Fieber in Philadelphia für den nachdenkenden Christen (Philadelphia:  Steiner und Kämmerer, 1793), 81-83.  Among the precautions taken (45 =85),

Those who had sick people at home, or did not feel well themselves, were particularly requested not to come to our meetings; all who attended were advised to sit as far apart as the numbers of hearers would permit.  The service itself lasted seldom longer than half or three quarters of an hour.

I was put onto this by Ephraim Radner, A profound ignorance:  modern pneumatology and its anti-modern redemption (Waco, TX:  Baylor University Press, 2019), 387n50.