A50149:217
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.
SECT. 19.
When Persons do by Studies full of Curiosity, seek to inform themselves of things, about which the God of Heaven hath forbidden our curious enquiries, there is a marvellous Impression, which the Demons do often make on the Minds of those their Votaries, about the Future or Secret Matters unlawfully enquired after, and at last ⟨p. 97⟩there is also an horrible Possession, which those Fatidic Daemons do take of them. The Snares of Hell, hereby laid for miserable Mortals have been such, that when I read the Laws, which Agellius affirms to have been made, even in Pagan Rome, against the Vaticinatores, I wonder that no English Nobleman, or Gentleman signalizes his regard unto Christianity, by doing what even a Roman Tully would have done, in promoting An Act of Parliament, against that Paganish Practice of Judicial Astrology, whereof, if such Men as Austin were now Living, they would Assert, The Devil first found it, and they that profess it, are Enemies of Truth and of God.
In the mean Time, I cannot but relate a wonderful Experience of Sir William Phips, by the Relation whereof something of an Antidote may be given against a Poison, which the Diabolical Figure-Fingers, and Fortune-Tellers that swarm all the World over, may insinuate into the Minds of Men. Long before Mr. Phips came to be Sir William, while he sojourned in London, there came into his Lodging an Old Astrologer, living in the Neighbourhood, who making some Observation of him, though he had small or no Conversation with him, did (howbeit by him wholly undesired) one Day send him a Paper, wherein he had, with Pretences of a Rule in Astrology for each Article, distinctly noted the most material Passages that were to befall this our Phips, in the remaining Part of his Life; it was particularly Asserted and Inserted, That he should be engaged in a Design, wherein by Reason of Enemies at Court, he should meet with much Delay; That nevertheless in the Thirty Seventh Year of his Life, he should find a mighty Treasure; That in the Forty First Year of his Life, his King should employ him, in as great a Trust beyond Sea, as a Subject could easily have: That soon after this, he should undergo an hard Storm from the Endeavours of his Adversaries to