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

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 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 Witcherast, by Saul exterminated.

However uncommon it might be, for guil•less Pe• sons to come under such unaccountable Circumstances, ⟨p. 76⟩