A50149:17
Pietas in patriam the life of His Excellency Sir William Phips, Knt. late Captain…
Pietas in patriam the life of His Excellency Sir William Phips, Knt. late Captain General and Governor in Chief of the province of the Massachuset-Bay, New England, containing the memorable changes undergone, and actions performed by him / written by one intimately acquainted with him.Pietas in patriam the life of His Excellency Sir William Phips, Knt. late Captain General and Governour in Chief of the province of the Massachuset-Bay, New England, containing the memorable changes undergone, and actions performed by him / written by one intimately acquainted with him.
London: printed by Sam. Bridge for Nath. Hiller, 1697
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
SECTION I.
IF such a Renowned Chemist, as Quercetanus, with a whole Tribe of Labourers in the Fire, since that Learned Man, find it no easy thing to make the common part of Mankind believe, That they can take a Plant in it's more vigorous Consistence, and after a due Maceration, Fermentation and Separation, extract the Salt of that Plant, which, as it were, in a Chaos, invisibly reserves the Form of the whole, with its vital Principle; and, that keeping the Salt in a Glass ⟨p. 2⟩Hermetically sealed, they can, by applying a Soft Fire to the Glass, make the Vegetable rise by little and little, out of its Ashes, to surprise the Spectators with a notable Illustration of that Resurrection, in the Faith whereof the Jews returning from the Graves of their Friends, pluck up the Grass from the Earth, using those Words of the Scripture thereupon, Your Bones shall flourish like an Herb: 'Tis likely, that all the Observations of such Writers, as the incomparable Borellus, will find it hard enough to produce our Belief, that the Essential Salts of Animals, may be so prepared and Preserved that an Ingenious man, may have the whole Ark of Noah in his own Study, and raise the fine shape of an Animal out of it's Ashes, at his pleasure: and, that by the like Method, from the Essential Salts of Humane Dust, a Philosopher may, without any Criminal Necromancy, call up the Shape of any Dead Ancestor from the Dust whereinto his Body has bin Incinerated. The Resurrection of the Dead, will be as Just, as Great an Article of our Creed, although the Relations of these Learned Men, should pass for Incredible Romances: But yet there is an Anticipation of that Blessed Resurrection, carrying in it some Resemblance of these Curiosities, which is performed, when we do in a Book, as in a Glass, reserve the History of our Departed Friends, and by bringing our Warm Affections unto such an History, we Revive, as it were out of their Ashes, the True Shape of those Friends, and bring to a fresh View, What was Memorable and Imitable in them.