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

And I do most solemnly Profess, that I have most conscientiously endeavoured the utmost Sincerity and Veracity of a Christian as well as an Historian in the History, which I have now given of him. I have not written of Sir William Phips, as they say Xenophon did of Cyrus, Non ad Historiae Fidem, sed ad Effigiem veri imperii; what should have been, rather than what really was. If the Envy of his few Enemies, be not now Quiet; I must freely say it, That for many Weeks before he died, there was not one Man among his personal Enemies, whom he would not readily and cheerfully have done all the kind Offices of a Friend unto: Wherefore though the Gentleman in England, that once published a Vindication of Sir William Phips against some of his Enemies, chose to put the Name of Publicans upon them, they must in this be counted worse than the Publicans of whom our Saviour says, They Love those that Love them.

And I do most solemnly Profess, that I have most conscientiously endeavoured the utmost Sincerity and Veracity of a Christian as well as an Historian in the History, which I have now given of him. I have not written of Sir William Phips, as they say Xenophon did of Cyrus, Non ad Historiae Fidem, sed ad Effigiem veri imperii; what should have been, rather than what really was. If the Envy of his few Enemies, be not now Quiet; I must freely say it, That for many Weeks before he died, there was not one Man among his personal Enemies, whom he would not readily and chearfully have done all the kind Offices of a Friend unto: Wherefore though the Gentleman in England, that once published a Vindication of Sir William Phips against some of his Enemies, chose to put the Name of Publicans upon them, they must in this be counted worse than the Publicans of whom our Saviour says, They Love those that Love them.

And I will say this further; That when certain Persons had found the Skull of a Dead Man, as a Greek Writer of Epigrams has told us, they all fell a Weeping, but only one of the Company, who Laughed and Flouted, and through an unheard of Cruelty, threw Stones at it, which Stones wonderfully rebounded back upon the Face of him that threw ⟨p. 107⟩