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

However, as the Cyprians buried their Friends in Honey, to whom they gave Gall when they were Bo•n; thus whatever Gall might be given to this Gentleman while he lived, I hope none will be so base, as to put any thing but Honey into their Language of him now after his Decease. And indeed, since 'tis a frequent thing among Men, to wish for the Presence of our Friends, when they are Dead and gone, whom, while they were present with us, we undervalued; there is no way for us to fetch back our Sir William Phips, and make him yet Living with us, but by setting up a Statue for him, as 'tis done in these Pages, that may out-last an ordinary Monument.

Such was the original Design of erecting Statues, and if in Venice, there were at once, no less than an Hundred and sixty two Marble, and Twenty three Brazen Statues, erected by the Order, and at the Expense, of the Public, in Honour of so many Valiant Soldiers, who had merited well of that Common-Wealth, I am sure New-England has had those, whose Merits call for as good an acknowledgement, and, whatever they did before, it will be well, if after Sir William Phips, they find many as meritorious as he to be so acknowledged.

Such was the original Design of erecting Statues, and if in Venice, there were at once, no less than an Hundred and sixty two Marble, and Twenty three Brazen Statues, erected by the Order, and at the Expence, of the Publick, in Honour of so many Valiant Souldiers, who had merited well of that Common-Wealth, I am sure New-England has had those, whose Merits call for as good an acknowledgment, and, whatever they did before, it will be well, if after Sir William Phips, they find many as meritorious as he to be so acknowledged.

Now I cannot my self provide a better Statue for this Memorable Person, then the Words uttered on the occasion of his Death in a very great Assembly, by a Person of so diffused and Embalmed a Reputation in the Church of God, that such a Character from him, were enough to Immortalize the Reputation of the Person upon whom he should bestow it.