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

Now many good Men took up an Opinion, That the Providence of God would not permit an Innocent Person to come under such a Spectral Representation; and that a concurrence of so many Circumstances, would prove an Accused Person to be in a Confederacy with the Daemons thus afflicting of the Neighbours; they judged, that except these Things might amount unto a Conviction, it would scarce be possible ever to Convict a Witch; and they had some Philosophical Schemes of Witchcraft, and or the Method and Manner, wherein Magical Poisons operate, which further supported them in their Opinion.

Now many good Men took up an Opinion, That the Providence of God would not permit an Innocent Person to come under such a Spectral Representation; and that a concurrence of so many Circumstances, would prove an Accused Person to be in a Confederacy with the Daemons thus afflicting of the Neighbours; they judged, that except these Things might amount unto a Conviction, it would scarce be possible ever to Convict a Witch; and they had some Philosophical Schemes of Witcheraft, and or the Method and Manner, wherein Magical Poisons operate, which further supported them in their Opinion.

Sundry of the Accused Persons were brought unto their Trial, while this Opinion was yet prevailing in the Minds of the Judges, and the Juries, and perhaps the most of the People in the County, then mostly Suffering; and though against some of them that were Tried, there came in so much other Evidence of their Diabolical Compacts, that some of the most Judicious and yet vehement Opposers of the Notions then in Vogue, publicly declared, Had they themselves been on the Bench, they could not have Acquitted them; nevertheless, divers were Condemned, against whom the chief Evidence was founded in the Spectral Exhibitions.

Sundry of the Accused Persons were brought unto their Trial, while this Opinion was yet prevailing in the Minds of the Judges, and the Juries, and perhaps the most of the People in the County, then mostly Suffering; and though against some of them that were Tried, there came in so much other Evidence of their Diabolical Compacts, that some of the most Judicious and yet vehement Opposers of the Notions then in Vogue, publickly declared, Had they themselves been on the Bench, they could not have Acquitted them; nevertheless, divers were Condemned, against whom the chief Evidence was founded in the Spectral Exhibitions.