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

The Dutch and French Ministers in the Province of New-York, having likewise about the same Time, their Judgment asked by the Chief Judge of that Province, who was then a Gentleman of New-England, They gave it in under their Hands, That if we Believe no Venefick Witchcraft, we must Renounce the Scripture of God, and the Consent of almost all the World; but that yet the Apparition of a Person Afflicting another, is a very Insufficient Proof of a Witch; nor is it Inconsistent with the Holy and Righteous Government of God over men, to permit the Affliction of the Neighbours, by Devils in the shape of Good men; and that a Good Name obtained by a Good Life, should not be Lost by Mere Spectral Accusations.

The Dutch and French Ministers in the Province of New-York, having likewise about the same Time, their Judgment asked by the Chief Judge of that Province, who was then a Gentleman of New-England, They gave it in under their Hands, That if we Believe no Venefick Witchcraft, we must Renounce the Scripture of God, and the Consent of almost all the World; but that yet the Apparition of a Person Afflicting another, is a very Insufficient Proof of a Witch; nor is it Inconsistent with the Holy and Righteous Government of God over men, to permit the Affliction of the Neighbours, by Devils in the shape of Good men; and that a Good Name obtained by a Good Life, should not be Lost by Meer Spectral Accusations.

Now upon a Deliberate Review of these Things, His Excellency first Reprieved, and then Pardoned many of them that had been Condemned; and there fell out several strange Things, that caused the Spirit of the Country to run, as vehemently upon the acquitting of all the Accused, as it by mistake ran at first upon the Condemning of them. Some that had been zealously of the Mind, that the Devil's could not in the Shapes of good Men, afflict other Men, were terribly Confuted, by having their own Shapes and the Shapes of their most intimate and valued Friends thus Abused. And though more than twice Twenty, had made such voluntary, and harmonious, and uncontrollable Confessions, that if they were all Sham, there was therein the greatest Violation made by the Efficacy of the Invisible World, upon the Rules of Understanding Humane Affairs, that was ever seen since God made Man upon the Earth, yet they did so recede from their Confessions, that it was every clear, some of them had been hitherto, in a sort of a Preternatural Dream,