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

But the worst part of this astonishing Tragedy is yet behind; wherein Sir William Phips, at last, being dropped, as it were from the Machine of Heaven, was an Instrument of casing the Distresses of the Land, now so darkened by the Wrath of the Lord of Hosts. There were very worthy Men upon the spot, where the assault from Hell was first made, who apprehended themselves called from the God of Heaven, to ⟨p. 72⟩sift the business unto the bottom of it; and, indeed, the continual Impressions, which the out-cries and the havocs of the afflicted People that lived nigh unto them, caused on their Minds, gave no little Edge to this Apprehension.

But the worst part of this astonishing Tragedy is yet behind; wherein Sir William Phips, at last, being dropt, as it were from the Machin of Heaven, was an Instrument of casing the Distresses of the Land, now so darkned by the Wrath of the Lord of Hosts. There were very worthy Men upon the spot, where the assault from Hell was first made, who apprehended themselves call'd from the God of Heaven, to ⟨p. 72⟩sift the business unto the bottom of it; and, indeed, the continual Impressions, which the out-cries and the havocks of the afflicted People that lived nigh unto them, caused on their Minds, gave no little Edge to this Apprehension.

The Persons were Men eminent for Wisdom and Virtue, and they went about their enquiry into the matter as driven unto it, by a Conscience of Duty to God and the World. They did in the first Place, take it for granted, that there are Witches, or, wicked Children of Men, who upon Covenanting with, and Commissioning of Evil Spirits, are attended by their Ministry to accomplish the Things desired of them: To satisfy them in which Persuasion, they had not only the Assertions of the Holy Scripture; Assertions, which the Witch-Advocates cannot evade without shifts, too foolish for any Prudent, or too profane for any Honest Man, to use; and they had not only the well-attested Relations of the gravest Authors from Bodin to Bovet, and from Binsfeld to Bromhal and Baxter, to deny all which, would be as reasonable as to turn the Chronicles of all Nations into Romances, of Don Quixote, and the seven Champions; but they had also an Ocular Demonstration in one, who a little before had been executed for Witchcraft, when Joseph Dudley Esquire was the Chief Judge. There was one whose Magical Images were found, and who confessing her Deeds, (when a Jury of Doctors returned her, Compos Mentis) actually showed the whole Court, by what Ceremonies used unto them, she directed her Familiar Spirits, how and where to Cruciate the Objects of her Malice; and the Experiments being made over and over again, before the whole Court, the Effect followed exactly, in the Hurts done to People at a distance from her. The Existence of such Witches, was now taken for granted by those good Men, wherein so far the generality of reasonable Men have