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

But His Majesty was too well informed of Sir William's Integrity, to permit such a sort of Procedure; and therefore He signified unto His most Honourable Council, that nothing should be done against Sir William, until he had Opportunity to clear himself; and thereupon He sent His Royal Commands unto Sir William to come over. To give any retorting Accounts of the Principal Persons, who thus adversaried him, would be a Thing so contrary to the Spirit of Sir William Phips himself, who, at his leaving of New-England, bravely declared, that he freely forgave them all, and if he had returned thither again, would never have taken the least revenge upon them, that This alone would oblige me, if I had no other Obligations of Christianity upon me, to forbear it; and it may be for some of them, it would be to throw Water upon a drowned Mouse.

Nor need I to produce any more about the Articles which these Men exhibited against him, than This; that it was by most Men believed, that if he would have connived at some Arbitrary Oppressions too much used by some kind of Officers, on the Kings ⟨p. 102⟩Subjects, Few perhaps, or None of those Articles, had ever been formed; and that he apprehended himself to be provided with a full Defence against them all.

Nor need I to preduce any more about the Articles which these Men exhibited against him, than This; that it was by most Men believed, that if he would have connived at some Arbitrary Oppressions too much used by some kind of Officers, on the Kings ⟨p. 102⟩Subjects, Few perhaps, or None of those Articles, had ever been formed; and that he apprehended himself to be provided with a full Defence against them all.