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The main conflict that Cotton Mathers faces during this series of diary entries is the fact that he seems to take some responsibility for what is happening with the smallpox epidemic, and he feels responsible for helping everyone get through it. The people who listen to him preach – his “flock,” he calls them – have turned on him, as he predicted these events a few months before the epidemic struck, and they view him to be …

…keep people pious during the time of strife, while at the same time investigating the smallpox inoculation. Once he is confident in the smallpox inoculation, and confident that God is backing his decision (a conclusion drawn when the granado did not explode and kill him) he finally resolves to spread the news of the smallpox inoculation. He reaches this conclusion because he is sure that it will save lives and that God supports this action.