Pietas in patriam the life of His Excellency Sir William Phips, Knt. late Captain…

Now the Arrival of Sir William Phips to the Government of New-England, was at a Time, when a Governor would have had Occasion for all the Skill in Sorcery, that was ever necessary to a Jewish Councillor; A Time when Scores of poor people had newly fallen under, a prodigious Possession of Devils, which it was then generally thought had been by Witchcrafts introduced. ⟨p. 68⟩It is to be confessed and Bewailed, That many Inhabitants of New-England, and Young people especially, had been Led away with Little Sorceries, wherein they did Secretly those Things that were not Right against the Lord their God; They would often cure Hurts with Spells, and practise detestable Conjurations with Sieves, and Keys, and Pease, and Nails and Horseshoes, and other Implements, to Learn the Things, for which they had a forbidden and impious Curiosity. Wretched Books had stolen into the Land, wherein Fools were instructed, how to become able Fortune-Tellers: Among which, I wonder that a blacker Brand is not set upon that Fortune-telling Wheel, which that Sham-Scribbler, that goes under the Letters of R. B. has proposed in his Delights for the Ingenious, as an honest and pleasant Recreation: And by these Books, the minds of many had been so poisoned, that they studied this Finer Witchcraft; until, 'tis well, if some of them were not betrayed, into what is grosser, and more sensible and Capital. Although these Diabolical Divinations are more ordinarily committed perhaps all over the whole World, than they are in the Country of New-England, yet, That being a Country Devoted unto the Worship and Service of the Lord JESUS CHRIST above the Rest of the World. He signalized his Vengeance against these wickednesses, with such extraordinary Dispensations, as have not been often seen in others Places.

Now the Arrival of Sir William Phips to the Government of New-England, was at a Time, when a Governour would have had Occasion for all the Skill in Sorcerie, that was ever necessary to a Jewish Councellor; A Time when Scores of poor people had newly fallen under, a prodigious Possession of Devils, which it was then generally thought had been by Witchcrafts introduced. ⟨p. 68⟩It is to be confessed and Bewailed, That many Inhabitants of New-England, and Young people especially, had been Led away with Little Sorceries, wherein they did Secretly those Things that were not Right against the Lord their God; They would often cure Hurts with Spells, and practise detestable Conjurations with Sieves, and Keys, and Pease, and Nails and Horseshoes, and other Implements, to Learn the Things, for which they had a forbidden and impious Curiosity. Wretched Books had stoln into the Land, wherein Fools were instructed, how to become able Fortune-Tellers: Among which, I wonder that a blacker Brand is not set upon that Fortune-telling Wheel, which that Sham-Scribler, that goes under the Letters of R. B. has proposed in his Delights for the Ingenious, as an honest and pleasant Recreation: And by these Books, the minds of many had been so poisoned, that they studied this Finer Witchcraft; until, 'tis well, if some of them were not betray'd, into what is grosser, and more sensible and Capital. Although these Diabolical Divinations are more ordinarily committed perhaps all over the whole World, than they are in the Country of New-England, yet, That being a Country Devoted unto the Worship and Service of the Lord JESƲS CHRIST above the Rest of the World. He signalized his Vengeance against these wickednesses, with such extraordinary Dispensations, as have not been often seen in others Places.