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

Sir William Phips now beheld such Daemons hideously scattering Fire about the Country, in the Exasperations, which the Minds of Men were on these Things rising unto; and therefore when he had well Canvased a Cause, which perhaps might have puzzled the Wisdom of the Wisest Men on Earth to have managed, without any Error in their Administrations, he thought, if it would be any Error at all, it would certainly be the safest, for him, to put a stop unto all future Prosecutions as far as it lay in him to do it.

He did so; and for it, he had not only the Printed Acknowledgements of the New-Englanders, who publicly thanked him, As one of the Tribe of Zebulun, raised up from among themselves, and Spirited as well as Commissioned to be the Steers-man of a Vessel befogged in the Mare Mortuum of Witchcraft, who now so happily steered her Course, that she escaped Shipwreck, and was safely again Moored under the Cape of Good Hope; and cut asunder the Circaean Knot of Enchantment, more difficult to be Dissolved than the famous Gordian one of Old.

He did so; and for it, he had not only the Printed Acknowledgments of the New-Englanders, who publickly thanked him, As one of the Tribe of Zebulun, raised up from among themselves, and Spirited as well as Commissioned to be the Steers-man of a Vessel befogg'd in the Mare Mortuum of Witchcraft, who now so happily steered her Course, that she escaped Shipwrack, and was safely again Moored under the Cape of Good Hope; and cut asunder the Circaean Knot of Enchantment, more difficult to be Dissolved than the famous Gordian one of Old.

But the QUEEN also did him the Honour, to write unto him, those Gracious Letters, wherein Her Majesty commended his Conduct in these Inexplicable Matters. And I did right in calling these Matters Inexplicable. For if, after the Kingdom of Sweden (in the Year, 1669. and 1670.) had some Hundreds of their Children by Night often carried away by Spectres, to an Hellish Rendezvous, where the Monsters that so Spirited them, did every way Tempt them to Associate with them; and the Judges of the Kingdom after extraordinary Supplications to Heaven, upon a strict Enquiry, were so satisfied with the Confessions of more than Twenty of the Accused, agreeing exactly unto the Depositions of the Afflicted, that they put several scores of Witches to Death, whereupon the Confusions came unto a Period; yet after all the chiefest Persons in the Kingdom would Question whether there were any Witchcrafts at all, in the whole Affair; it must not be wondered at, if the People of New-England are, to this Hour, full of Doubts, about the steps which were taken, while a War from the Invisible World was Terrifying of them, and whether they did not kill some of their own side in the Smoke and Noise of this Dreadful War. And it will be yet less wondered at, if we consider, that we have seen the whole English Nation alarumed with a Plot, and both Houses of Parliament upon good Grounds, Voting their Sense of it, and many Persons most justly Hanged, Drawn and Quartered, for their share in it: When yet there are enough, who to this Day, will pretend that they cannot comprehend how much of it, is to be accounted Credible. However having related these wonderful Passages, whereof, if the Veracity of the Relator in any one Point be contested, there are whole Clouds of Witnesses to vindicate it, I will take my leave of the Matter with an wholesome Caution of Lactantius, which, it may be, some other Parts of the World besides New-England may have occasion to think upon; Efficiunt Daemones, ut