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

The Afflicted People, many times, had never heard any thing before of the Persons appearing in Ghost, or of the Persons Accused by the Apparitions; and yet the Accused upon Examination have confessed the Murders of those very Persons, though these Accused also knew nothing of the Apparitions, that had come in against them; and the Afflicted Persons likewise without any private Agreement or Collusion, when successively brought into a Room, have all asserted the same Apparitions to be there before them: These Murders did seem to call for an Enquiry.

The Afflicted People, many times, had never heard any thing before of the Persons appearing in Ghost, or of the Persons Accused by the Apparitions; and yet the Accused upon Examination have confessed the Murders of those very Persons, though these Accused also knew nothing of the Apparitions, that had come in against them; and the Afflicted Persons likewise without any private Agreement or Collution, when successively brought into a Room, have all asserted the same Apparations to be there before them: These Murders did seem to call for an Enquiry.

On the other Part, there were many Persons of great Judgment, Piety, and Experience, who from the beginning were very much dissatisfied at these Proceedings; they feared, lest the Devil would get so far into the Faith of the People, that for the sake of many Truths, which they might find him telling of them, they would come, at length, to believe all his Lies, whereupon what a Desolation of Names, yea and of lives also, would ensue, a Man might without much Witchcraft be able to Prognosticate; and they feared, left in such an extraordinary Descent of Wicked Spirits from their High Places, upon us, there might such Principles be taken up, as, when put into Practice, would unavoidably cause the Righteous to perish wi•h the Wicked, and procure the Blood-shed of Persons like the Gibeonites, whom some learned Men suppose to be under a false Pretence of Witchcraft, by Saul exterminated.

On the other Part, there were many Persons of great Judgment, Piety, and Experience, who from the beginning were very much dissatisfied at these Proceedings; they feared, lest the Devil would get so far into the Faith of the People, that for the sake of many Truths, which they might find him telling of them, they would come, at length, to believe all his Lyes, whereupon what a Desolation of Names, yea and of lives also, would ensue, a Man might without much Witcheraft be able to Prognosticate; and they feared, left in such an extraordinary Descent of Wicked Spirits from their High Places, upon us, there might such Principles be taken up, as, when put into Practice, would unavoidably cause the Righteous to perish wih the Wicked, and procure the Blood-shed of Persons like the Gibeonites, whom some learned Men suppose to be under a false Pretence of Witcherast, by Saul exterminated.