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.  Discite Virtutem ex Hoe, verumque Laborem. 
LONDON: Printed by Sam. Bridge in Austin-friars-s, for Nath. Hiller at the Princes-Arms in Leaden-Hall Street, over against St. Mary-Ax, 1697.   

To his Excellency the Earl of Bellomont, Baron of Coloony in Ireland, General Governor of the Province of Massachusets in New England, and the Provinces annexed.  
May it please your Excellency.  
THE Station in which the Hand of the God of Heaven hath disposed His Majesty's Heart to place your Honour, doth so manifestly entitle your Lordship to this ensuing Narrative, that its being thus Presented to your Excellency's Hand is thereby both Apologized for and Justified. I believe, had the Writer of it, when he Penned it, had any Knowledge of your Excellency, he would himself have done it, and withal would have amply and publicly Congratulated the People of New England, on account of their having such a Governor, and your Excellency on account of your being made Governor over them. For though as to some other things it may possibly be a place to some Persons not so desirable, yet I believe this Character may be justly given of them, that they are the best People under Heaven; there being among them, not only less of open Profaneness, and less of Lewdness, but also more of the serious Profession, Practice, and Power of Christianity in proportion to their number, then is among any other People upon the Face of the whole Earth. Not but I doubt, there are many bad Persons among them, and too many distempered Humours, perhaps even among those who are truly good. It would be a wonder, if it should be otherwise; for it hath of late Years on various accounts, and some very singular and unusual ones, been a Day of sore Temptation with that whole People. Nevertheless, as I look upon it as a Favour from God to those Plantations that he hath set your Excellency over them, so I do account it a Favour from God to your Excellency, that he hath committed and trusted in your Hand, so great a part of his peculiar Treasure and precious Jewels, as are among that People. Besides, that on other accounts the Lord Jesus hath more of a visible Interest in New England, then in any of the outgoings of the English Nation in America. They have at their own Charge not only set up Schools of lower Learning up and down the Country; but have also erected an University, which hath been the happy Nursery of many useful, Learned, and excellently accomplished Persons. And moreover, from them hath the blessed Gospel been Preached to the poor barbarous savage Heathen there, and it hath taken such root among them, that there were lately four and twenty Assemblies in which the Name of the Lord Jesus was constantly called on, and celebrated in their own Language. In these things New England outshineth all the Colonies of the English in those go down of the Sun. I know your Excellency will Favour and Countenance their University, and also the Propagating of the Gospel among the Natives; for the Interest of Christ in that Part of the Earth is much concerned in them. That the God of the Spirits of all Flesh would abundantly replenish your Excellency with a suitable Spirit for the Service to which he hath called your Lordship, that he would give your Honour a prosperous Voyage thither, and when there, make your Excellency a rich Blessing to that People, and them a rejoicing to your Excellency, is the Prayer of  
April 27. 1697. My Lord, Your Excellencies most Humble Servant. Nath. Mather.   

THE CONTENTS OF THE SECTIONS.  

SEct. 1. The Introduction. The Author's Ends in Writing this Remarkable History, Page 1.  
Sect. 2. Some great Men with whom Sir William Phips might be paralleled. An Account of his Birth in New-England, and his Parentage, 3.  
Sect. 3. He was early inspired with great Hopes. Yet puts himself Apprentice to a Shipwright. He Marries a Merchant's Widow. Builds a Ship. Saves his Neighbours from the cruelty of the Indians, 5.  
Sect. 4. He strangely foretells his future Advancement. An Account of his Genius and Disposition. He goes to Sea in quest of a Spanish Wreck. Sails to England for Assistance. Is made Captain of one of the King's Frigates, 6.  
Sect. 5. His Conduct and Courage when his Men Mutinyed. He gets Intelligence of the Place where the Spanish Wreck lay. Sails to England again for farther help, 7.  
Sect. 6. His admirable Patience, Diligence, etc. in prosecuting his Business. Returns to Port de la Plata in America. Happily finds out the Wreck which had been cast away Fifty Years before. An Account how he fished and brought up two and thirty Tuns of Silver, besides Gold and Jewels. His Seamen Mutiny. He quiets them. Brings his Treasure, being about 300000 l. Sterling to London. His Honesty both to his Employers, and to his Seamen. He is Rewarded, and Knighted, Page 10.  
Sect. 7. His generous Temper, and great Love to his Native Country. Some Account of the sad State of New-England, by the loss of its Charter, and by an ill Governor. Sir William Phips his endeavours at Court to serve New-England. He is made High Sheriff of that Country. Sails a second time to the Wreck, with Sir John Narborough, 15.  
Sect. 8. A large Account of New-englands' Sufferings and Oppressions under their bad Governor. For redress whereof Sir William Phips makes a Voyage to England. King James offers him the Government of New-England on Terms which He could not accept. He returns to New-England. Finds his Country in new troubles from the Indians. News is brought thither of the Prince of Orange's Success in England. An Account how the Revolution was brought about in New-England, their Governor imprisoned, etc. 19  
Sect. 9 Sir William Phips joins himself to a Church in New-England. His own Account of his Conversion to God, Page 26.  
Sect. 10. His great Zeal to serve his Country. His Expedition against the French at L'Acady, and Nova Scotia. He recovers that Country from them, Anno 1690. 30.  
Sect. 11. A large Account of his Expedition against the French at Canada with a Fleet of 32 Ships, in the same Year. The Story out of Bradwardine of an Angel and Hermit, that traveled together, 32.  
Sect. 12. Bills of Credit passed a little while in New-England instead of Money. Some farther Matters relating to the Canada Expedition. A wonderful Relation of a Shipwreck, and how some of the Men were strangely preserved: With the great hardships and difficulties they underwent for six or seven Months, 43.  
Sect. 13. Sir William Phips makes a Voyage to England, to obtain help for another Expedition against Canada. His Reasons presented to the King, 52.  
Sect. 14. Some Account of Mr. Increase Mather 's Negotiations at White-Hall on the behalf of New-England. Sir William Phips joins with him. A new Charter is obtained. Sir William is made Captain General and Governor of New-England. He and Mr. Mather return home, 54.  
Sect. 15. How wisely and uprightly Sir William governed New-England, Page 62.  
Sect. 16. A remarkable History of the strange Witchcrafts and Possessions in New-England, 66.  
Sect. 17. Governor Phips raiseth an Army, and marcheth against the Indians. Builds a Fort to bridle them. They sue for Peace, and own Subjection to the Crown of England. His laborious endeavours for his Country. His Care to send a Preacher to the Indians. He dispatches a Frigate to St. John 's against the French. The Indians assisted by the French make a new War, 82.  
Sect. 18. A Description and Character of Governor Phips, 88  
Sect. 19 The Predictions of an ginger concerning Sir William. And the Event, 96.  
Sect. 20. Governor Phips, as good as he was, yet met with some Enemies. They Article against Him at White-Hall. The King sends for Him. He Sails to England where he meets with Favour, and was like to have soon returned Governor of New-England. But Dies at London, and is there Buried, and with Him, Great Hopes and Designs for the good of both England's; some of which are recounted, 99  
Sect. 21. Some farther Things by way of Character and Elegy. A Poem upon his Death, 105.    

THE Author of the following Narrative, is a Person of such well known Integrity, Prudence and Veracity, that there is not any cause to Question the Truth of what he here Relates. And moreover, this Writing of his is adorned with a very grateful Variety of Learning, and doth contain such surprising workings of Providence, as do well deserve due Notice and Observation. On all which accounts, it is with just Confidence recommended to the Public by  
April 27. 1697. 

Nath. Mather,  
John How,  
Matth. Mead.     

THE LIFE Of His Excellency Sir William PHIPS, Knt. LATE GOVERNOR OF New England.  

SECTION I.  
IF such a Renowned Chemist, as Quercetanus, with a whole Tribe of Labourers in the Fire, since that Learned Man, find it no easy thing to make the common part of Mankind believe, That they can take a Plant in it's more vigorous Consistence, and after a due Maceration, Fermentation and Separation, extract the Salt of that Plant, which, as it were, in a Chaos, invisibly reserves the Form of the whole, with its vital Principle; and, that keeping the Salt in a Glass Hermetically sealed, they can, by applying a Soft Fire to the Glass, make the Vegetable rise by little and little, out of its Ashes, to surprise the Spectators with a notable Illustration of that Resurrection, in the Faith whereof the Jews returning from the Graves of their Friends, pluck up the Grass from the Earth, using those Words of the Scripture thereupon, Your Bones shall flourish like an Herb: 'Tis likely, that all the Observations of such Writers, as the incomparable Borellus, will find it hard enough to produce our Belief, that the Essential Salts of Animals, may be so prepared and Preserved that an Ingenious man, may have the whole Ark of Noah in his own Study, and raise the fine shape of an Animal out of its Ashes, at his pleasure: and, that by the like Method, from the Essential Salts of Humane Dust, a Philosopher may, without any Criminal Necromancy, call up the Shape of any Dead Ancestor from the Dust whereinto his Body has been Incinerated. The Resurrection of the Dead, will be as Just, as Great an Article of our Creed, although the Relations of these Learned Men, should pass for Incredible Romances: But yet there is an Anticipation of that Blessed Resurrection, carrying in it some Resemblance of these Curiosities, which is performed, when we do in a Book, as in a Glass, reserve the History of our Departed Friends, and by bringing our Warm Affections unto such an History, we Revive, as it were out of their Ashes, the True Shape of those Friends, and bring to a fresh View, What was Memorable and Imitable in them. Now, in as much as Mortality has done its part upon a Considerable Person, with whom I had the Honour to be Well-acquainted, and a Person, as Memorable for the Wonderful Charges which befell him, as Imitable for his Virtues and Actions under those Charges, I shall endeavour with the Chemistry of an Impartial Historian to raise my Friend so far out of his Ashes as to show him again unto the World, and if the Character of Heroic Virtue be for a Man to deserve well of Markind, and be great in the Purpose and Success of Essays, to do so, I may Venture to Promise my Reader such Example of Heroic Virtue, in the Story whereto I Invite him, that he shall say, it would have been little short of a Vice in me, to have withheld it from him. Nor is it any Partiality for the Memory of my Deceased Friend or any other Sinister Design whatsoever, that has Invited me to this Undertaking; but I have undertaken this Matter from a sincere Desire, that the Ever-Glorious Lord JESUS CHRIST may have the Glory of his Power and Goodness, and of his Providence in what he did for such a Person, and in what He disposed and Assisted that Person to Do for Him. Now, May He assist my writing, even He that prepared the Subject, whereof I am to write!   

SECT. 2.  
SO obscure was the Original of that Memorable Person, whose Actions I am going to relate, that I must, in a way of Writing, like that of Plutarch, prepare my Reader for the Intended Relation, by first searching the Archives of Antiquity for a Parallel. Now, because we will not Parallel him with Eumenes, who, though he were the Son of a poor Carrier, became a Governor of Mighty Provinces; Nor with Marius, whose mean Parentage did not hinder his becoming a Glorious Defender of his Country, and Seven Times the chief Magistrate of the chiefest City in the Universe: Nor with Iphicrates, who became a Successful and Renwoned General of a Great People, though his Father were a Cobbler: Nor with Dioclesian, the Son of a poor Scrivener: Nor with Bonosus, the Son of a poor Schoolmaster, who yet came to sway the Sceptre of the Roman Empire: Nor last, will I compare him to the more late Example of the Celebrated Mazarini, who though no Gentleman by his Extraction, and one so sorily Educated, that he might have wrote Man, before he could write at all; yet ascended unto that Grandeur, in the Memory of many yet living, as to Umpire the most Important Affairs of Christendom: We will decline looking any further in that Haemisphere of the World, and make the Hue and Cry throughout the Regions of America, the New World, which He, that is becoming the subject of our History, by his Nativity, belonged unto. And in America, the first that meets me, is Francisco Pizarro, who, though a Spurious Offspring, exposed when a Babe, in a Church-Porch, at a sorry Village of Navarre, and afterwards employed while he was a Boy, in keeping of , yet, at length, stealing into America, he so thrived upon his Adventures there, that upon some Discoveries, which with an handful of Men, he had in a Desperate Expedition made of Peru, he obtained the King of Spain's Commission for the Conquest of it, and at last, so incredibly enriched himself by the Conquest, that he was made the first Viceroy of Peru, and created Marquis of Anatilla.  
To the Latter and Highest Part of that Story, if any thing hindered His Excellency Sir WILLIAM PHIPS from affording of a Parallel, it was not the want either of Design, or of Courage, or of Conduct in himself, but it was the Fate of a Praemature Mortality. For my Reader now being satisfied, That a Person's being Obscure in his Original, is not always a Just Prejudice to an Expectation of Considerable Matters from him; I shall now inform him, That this our PHIPS was Born Feb. 2. A. Dom. 1650. at a despicable Plantation on the River of Kennebeck, and almost the furthest Village of the Eastern Settlement of New-England. And as the Father of that Man, which was as great a Blessing as England had in the Age of that Man, was a Smith, so a Gun-Smith, namely, James Phips, once of Bristol, had the Honour of being the Father to him, whom we shall presently see, made by the God of Heaven, as Great a Blessing to New-England, as that Country could have had, if they themselves had pleased. His fruitful Mother, yet living, had no less than Twenty Six Children, whereof Twenty One were Sons; but equivalent to them all was WILLIAM, one of the youngest, whom his Father dying, left young with his Mother, and with her he lived, keeping of Sheep in the Wilderness, until he was Eighteen Years Old; at which Time, he began to feel some further Dispositions of Mind from that Providence of God which took him from the Sheepfolds, from following the Ewes great with young, and brought him to feed his People. Reader, Inquire no further who was his Father? Thou shalt anon see, that he was, as the Italians express it. A Son to his own Labours!   

SECT. 3.  
HIS Friends earnestly solicited him to settle among them in a Plantation of the East; but he had an Unaccountable Impulse upon his Mind, persuading him, as he would privately hint unto some of them, That he was Born to Greater Matters. To come at those Greater Matters, his first Contrivance was to bind himself an Apprentice unto a Ship-Carpenter for Four Years; in which Time, he became a Master of the Trade, that once in a Vessel of more than Forty Thousand Tuns, Repaired the Ruins of the Earth. He then betook himself an Hundred and Fifty Miles further a Field, even to Boston, the chief Town of New-England; which being a Place of the most Business and Resort in those parts of the World; he expected there more commodiously to pursue the Spes Majorum & Meliorum, Hopes which had Inspired him. At Boston, where it was that he now learned, first of all, to Read and Writ; be followed his Trade for about a Year; and, by a laudable Deportment, so recommended himself, that he Married a Young Gentlewoman of Good Repute, who was the Widow of one Mr. John Hull, a well-bred Merchant, but the Daughter of one Captain Roger Spencer, a Person of good Fashion, who having suffered much damage in his Estate, by some unkind and unjust actions, which he bore with such Patience, that for fear of thereby injuring the Public, he would not seek satisfaction, Posterity might afterwards see the reward of his patience, in what Providence hath now done for one of his own Posterity. Within a little while after his Marriage, he Indented with several persons in Boston, to build them a Ship at Sheeps-coat River, two or three Leagues Eastward of Kennebeck; where having Launched the Ship, he also provided a Lading of Lumber to bring with him, which would have been to the advantage of all concerned. But just as the Ship was hardly finished, the barbarous Indians on that River, broke forth into an Open and Cruel War upon the English; and the miserable People, surprised by so sudden a storm of Blood, had no Refuge from the Infidels, but the Ship now finishing in the Harbour. Whereupon, he left his intended Lading behind him, and instead thereof, carried with him, his Old Neighbours and their Families, free of all Charges to Boston; So, the First Action that he did, after he was his own Man, was to Save his Father's House, with the rest of the Neighbourhood, from Ruin; but the Disappointment which befell him from the Loss of his other Lading, plunged his Affairs into greater Embarassments with such as had employed him.   

SECT. 4.  
BUT he was hitherto, no more than beginning to make Scaffolds for further and higher Actions! He would frequently tell the Gentlewoman his Wife, That he should yet be Captain of a King's Ship; That he should come to have the Command of better Men than he was now accounted himself; And, That he should be Owner of a Fair Brick-House in the Green-Lane of North-Boston; and, That it may be, this would not be all that the Providence of God would bring him to. She entertained these Passages with a sufficient Incredulity; but he had so serious and positive an Expectation of them, that it is not easy to say, what was the Original thereof. He was of an Enterprizing Genius, and naturally disdained Littleness: But his Disposition for Business was of the Dutch Mould, where, with a little show of Wit, there is as much Wisdom demonstrated, as can be shown by any Nation. His Talon lay not in the Airs, that serve chief for the pleasant and sudden Turns of Conversation; but, he might say, as Themistocles, Though he could not play upon a Fiddle, yet he knew how to make a little City become a Great One. He would prudently contrive a weighty Undertaking, and then patiently pursue it unto the End. He was of an Inclination, cutting rather like a Hatchet, than like a Razor; he would propose very Considerable Matters to himself, and then so cut through them, that no Difficulties could put by the Edge of his Resolutions. Being thus of the True Temper, for doing of Great Things, he betakes himself to the Sea, the Right Scene for such Things; and upon Advice of a Spanish Wreck about the Bahamas, he took a Voyage thither; but with little more success, than what just served him a little to furnish him for a Voyage to England; whither he went in a Vessel, not much unlike that, which the Dutchmen stamped on their First Coin, with these Words about it, Incertum quo Fata ferant. Having first informed himself, that there was another Spanish Wreck, wherein was lost a mighty Treasure, hitherto undiscovered, he had a strong Impression upon his Mind, that He must be the Discoverer; and he made such Representations of his Design at White-Hall, that by the Year 1683, he became the Captain of a King's Ship, and arrived at New-England, Commander of the Algier-Rose, a Frigate of Eighteen Guns, and Ninety five Men.   

SECT. 5.  
TO Relate all the Dargers through which he passed, both by Sea and Land, and all the Tiresome Trials of his Patience, as well as of his Courage, while Year after Year, the most vexing Accidents imaginable, delayed the Success of his Design, it would even Tyre the patience of the Reader: For very great was the Experiment that Captain Phips made of the Italian Observation, He that can't suffer both Good and Evil, will never come to any great Preferment. Wherefore I shall supersede all Journal of his Voyages to and fro, with reciting one Instance of his Conduct, that showed him to be a Person of no contemptible Capacity. While he was Captain of the Algier-Rose, his Men growing weary of their unsuccessful Enterprise, made a Mutiny, wherein they approached him on the Quarter-Deck, with Drawn Swords in their Hands, and required him to join with them in Running away with the Ship, to drive a Trade of Piracy on the South Seas. Captain Phips, though he had not so much of a Weapon, as an Ox-Goad, or a Jawbone in his Hands, yet like another Shamgar or Samson, with a most undaunted Fortitude, he rushed in upon them, and with the Blows of his bare Hands, Felled many of them, and Quelled all the Rest. But this is not the Instance which I intended: That which I intent is, That (as it has been related unto me) One Day, while his Frigate lay Careening, at a desolate Spanish Island, by the side of a Rock, from whence they had laid a Bridge to the Shoar, the Men, whereof he had about an Hundred, went all but about Eight or Ten, to divert themselves, as they pretended, in the Woods: Where, they all entered into an Agreement, which they Signed in a Ring, That about seven a Clock that Evening, they would seize the Captain, and those Eight or Ten, which they knew to be True unto him, and leave them to perish on this Island, and so be gone away unto the South Sea to seek their Fortune. Will the Reader now imagine, that Captain Phips having Advice of this Plot, but about an Hour and half before it was to be put in Execution, yet within Two Hours brought all these Rogues down upon their Knees, to beg for their lives? But so it was! For these Knaves considering, that they should want a Carpenter with them in their Villainous Expedition, sent a Messenger to fetch unto them the Carpenter, who was then at Work upon the Vessel; and unto him they showed their Articles, telling him what he must look for, if he did not subscribe among them. The Carpenter being an honest Fellow, did with much importunity, prevail for one half hours Time to consider of the Matter; and returning to Work upon the Vessel, with a Spy by them set upon him, he feigned himself taken with a Fit of the Colic, for the Relief whereof he suddenly run unto the Captain in the Great  for a Dram; where, when he came, his business was only in brief, to tell the Captain of the horrible Distress which he was fallen into; but the Captain bid him as briefly, return to the Rogues in the Woods, and Sign their Articles, and leave him to provide for the Rest. The Carpenter was no sooner gone, but Captain Phips calling together the few Friends (it may be seven or eight) that were left him aboard, whereof the Gunner was one, demanded of them, whether they would stand by him in the Extremity, which he informed them was now come upon him; whereto they replied, They would stand by him, if he could save them; And he Answered, By the help of God, he did not fear it. All their Provisions had been carried a shore to a Tent, made for that purpose there; about which they had placed several Great Guns to defend it, in case of any Assault from Spaniards, that might happen to come that way. Wherefore Captain Phips, immediately ordered those Guns to be silently Drawn and Turned; and so, pulling up the Bridge, he charged his Great Guns aboard, and brought them to Bear on every side of the Tent. By this Time the Army of Rebels comes out of the Woods; but as they ●rew near to the Tent of Provisions, they saw such a change of Circumstances, that they cried out, We are Betrayed! and they were soon confirmed in it, when they heard the Captain with a stern Fury call to them, Stand off, ye Wretches at your Peril! He quickly saw them cast into a more than ordinary confusion, when they saw Him ready to Fire his Great Guns upon them, if they offered one Step further than he permitted them: And, when he had signified unto them his Resolve to abandon them unto all the Desolation which they had purposed for him; he caused the Bridge to be again laid, and his Men begun to take the Provisions aboard. When the Wretches beheld what was coming upon them, they fell to very humble Entreaties; and at last, fell down upon their Knees, protesting, That they never had any thing against him, except only his unwillingness to go away with the King's Ship upon the South-Sea Design: But upon all other Accounts, they would choose rather to Live and Die with him, than with any Man in the World; however, since they saw how much he was dissatisfied at it, they would insist upon it no more, and humbly begged his Pardon. And when he judged, that he had kept them on their Knees long enough, he having first secured their Arms, received them aboard; but he immediately weighed Anchor, and arriving at Jamaica, he Turned them off. Now with a small Company of other Men, he sailed from thence to Hispaniola, where, by the Policy of his Address, he fished out of a very old Spaniard, (or Portuguese) a little advice about the true Spot where lay the Wreck, which he had been hitherto seeking, as unprosperously, as the Chemists have their Aurifick Stone: That it was upon a Reef of Shoals, a few Leagues to the Northward of Port de la Plata, upon Hispaniola, a Port so called, it seems, from the Landing of some of the Shipwrecked Company, with a Boat full of Plate, saved out of their Sinking Frigate: Nevertheless, when he had searched very narrowly the Spot, whereof the Old Spaniard had advised him, he not hitherto exactly lit upon it. Such Thorns did vex his Affairs, while he was in the Rose-Frigat; but none of all these things could retund the Edge of his Expectations to find the Wreck; with such Expectations he returned then into England, that he might there better furnish himself to Prosecute a New Discovery; for though he judged, he might, by proceeding a little further, have come at the right Spot, yet he found his present Company too ill a Crew to be confided in.   

SECT. 6.  
SO proper was his Behaviour, that the best Noble Men in the Kingdom, now admitted him into their Conversation; but yet he was opposed by powerful Enemies, that Clogged his Affairs with such Demurrages, and such Disappointments, as would have wholly Discouraged his Designs, if his Patience had not been Invincible. He who can wait, hath what he desireth. This his Indefatigable Patience, with a proportionable Diligence, at length overcame the Difficulties that had been thrown in his way; and prevailing with the Duke of Albemarl, and some other Persons of Quality, to fit him out, he set Sail for the Fishing-Ground, which had been so well baited, half an Hundred Years before: And as he had already discovered his Capacity for business, in many considerable Actions, he now added unto those Discoveries, by not only providing all, but also by inventing many of the Instruments necessary to the prosecution of his intended Fishery. Captain Phips arriving with a Ship and a Tender, at Port de la Plata, made a stout Canoe of a stately Cotton Tree, so large as to carry Eight or Ten Oars, for the making of which Periaga (as they call it) he did, with the same industry that he did every thing else, employ his own Hand and Adse, and endure no little hardship, lying abroad in the Woods many Nights together. This Periaga, with the Tender, being Anchored at a place convenient, the Periaga kept Busking to and again, but could only discover a Reef of Rising Shoals thereabouts, called The Boilers, which Rising to be within Two or Three Foot of the Surface of the Sea, were yet so steep, that a Ship striking on them, would immediately sink down, who could say, how many Fathom? into the Ocean. Here they could get no other Pay for their long peeping among the Boilers, but only such as caused them to think upon returning to their Captain, with the bad News of their total Disappointment. Nevertheless, as they were upon the Return, one of the Men looking over the side of the Periaga, into the calm Water, he spied a Sea Feather, growing as he judged, out of a Rock; whereupon they bade one of their Indians to Dive, and fetch this Feather, that they might however carry home something with them, and make, at least, as fair a Trinmph as Caligula's. The Diver, bringing up the Feather, brought therewithal a surprising story, That he perceived a Number of Great Guns in the Watery World where he had found his Feather; the Report of which Great Guns exceedingly astonished the whole Company; and at once, turned their Despondencies for their ill success, into Assurances, that they had now lit upon the True spot of Ground which they had been looking for; and they were further confirmed in these Assurances, when upon further Diving, the Indian fetched up a Sow, as they styled it, or a Lump of Silver, worth perhaps, Two or Three Hundred Pounds. Upon this they prudently Buoyed the place, that they might readily find it again; And they went back unto their Captain, whom for some while, they distressed with nothing but such Bad News, as they formerly thought they must have carried him: Nevertheless they so slipped in the Sow of Silver, on one side under the Table, where they were now sitting with the Captain, and hearing him express his Resolutions to wait still patiently upon the Providence of God under these Disappointments, that when he should look on one side, he might see that Odd Thing before him. At last he saw it; seeing it, he cried out with some Agony, Why? What is this? Whence comes this? And then, with changed Countenances, they told him how, and where they got it: Then, said he, Thanks be to God We are made; And so, away they went, all hands to Work; wherein they had this one further piece of Remarkable Prosperity, that whereas, if they had first fallen upon that part of the Spanish Wreck, where the Pieces of Eight had been stowed in Bags among the Ballast, they had seen a more laborious, and less enriching time of it: Now, most happily, they first fell upon that Room in the Wreck, where the Bullion had been stored up; and they so prospered in this New Fishery, that in a little while they had, without the loss of any Man's Life, brought up Thirty Two Tuns of Silver; for it was now come to measuring of Silver by Tuns. Besides which, one Adderly of Providence, who had formerly been very helpful to Captain Phips in the Search of this Wreck, did upon former Agreement meet him now, with a little Vessel here; and he, with his few hands, took up about Six Tuns of Silver; whereof nevertheless, he made so little use, that in a year or two, he died at Bermudas, and as I have heard, he ran Distracled some while before he died. Thus did there once again, come into the Light of the Sun, a Treasure which had been half an Hundred Years groaning under the Waters: And in this time, there was grown upon the Plate, a Crust like limestone, to the thickness of several Inches; which Crust being broken open, by Irons contrived for that purpose, they knocked out whole Bushels of rusty Pieces of Eight, which were grown thereinto. Besides that incredible Treasure of Plate in various forms, thus fetched up, from seven or eight Fathom under Water, there were vast Riches of Gold and Pearls and Jewels, which they also lit upon; and indeed, for a more Comprehensive Invoice, I must but summarily say, All that a Spanish Frigate uses to be enriched withal. Thus did they continue Fishing till their Provisions failing them, 'twas time to be gone; but before they went, Captain Phips caused Adderly and his Folk to swear, That they would none of them Discover the place of the Wreck, or come to the Place any more till the next Year, when he expected again to be there himself. And it was also Remarkable, that though the Sows came up still so fast, that on the very last Day of their being there, they took up Twenty, yet it was afterwards found, that they had in a manner wholly cleared that Room of the Ship, where those Massy things were Stowed.  
But there was one extraordinary Distress which Captain Phips now found himself plunged into: For his Men were come out with him upon Seamens Wages, at so much per Month; and when they saw such vast Litters of Silver Sows and Pigs, as they call them, come on Board them, at the Captains Call, they knew not how to bear it, that they should not share all among themselves, and be gone to lead a short life and a merry, in a Climate, where the Arrest of those that had hired them, should not reach them. In this terrible Distress, he made his Vows unto Almighty God, that if the Lord would carry him safe home to England, with what he had now given him, to suck of the abundance of the Seas, and of the Treasures hid in the Sands, he would for ever Devote himself unto the Interests of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of his People, especially in the Country which he did himself Originally belong unto. And he than used all the obliging Arts imaginable, to make his Men true unto him, especially by assuring them, that besides their Wages, they should have ample Requitals made unto them; which if the rest of his Employers would not agree unto, he would himself distribute his own share among them. Relying upon the Word of One, whom they had ever found worthy of their Love, and of their Trust, they declared themselves Content: But still keeping a most careful Eye upon them, he hastened back for England, with as much Money as he thought he could then safely Trust his Vessel withal; not counting it safe to supply himself with necessary Provisions at any nearer Port, and so return unto the Wreck, by which delays, he wisely feared lest all might be lost, more ways than one. Though he also left so much behind him, that many from divers parts made very considerable Voyages of Glean after his Harvest: which came to pass by certain Bermudians, compelling of Adderly's Boy, whom they spirited away with them, to tell them the exact place where the Wreck was to be found. Captain Phips now coming up to London, in the Year 1687. with near Three Hundred Thousand Pounds sterling aboard him, did acquit himself with such an Exemplary Honesty, that partly by his fulfilling his Assurances to the Scamen, and partly by his exact and punctual Care to have his Employers defrauded of nothing that might conscientiously belong unto them, he had less than sixteen Thousand pounds left unto himself: As an acknowledgement of which Honesty in him, the Duke of Albemarl made unto his Wife, whom he never saw, a Present of a Golden Cup, near a Thousand Pound in value. The Character of an Honest Man, he had so merited in the whole Course of his Life, and especially in this last act of it, that this, in conjunction with his other serviceable Qualities, procured him the Favours of the Greatest Persons in the Nation; And He that had been so diligent in his Business, must now stand before Kings, and not stand before mean Men, There were indeed, certain mean Men, if base, little, dirty Tricks will entitle Men to Meanness, who urged the King, to seize his whole Cargoe, instead of the Tenths, upon his first Arrival; on this pretence, that he had not been rightly informed of the True state of the Case, when he Granted the Patent, under the Protection whereof these particular Men had made themselves Masters of all this Mighty Treasure; but the King replied, That he had been rightly informed by Captain Phips of the whole matter, as it now proved, and that it was the slanders of one then present, which had, unto his Damage, hindered him from harkening to the Information: Wherefore he would give them, he said, no Disturbance, they might keep what they had got; but Captain Phips, he saw, was a Person of that Honesty, Fidelity and Ability, that he should not want his Countenance. Accordingly the King, in consideration of the Service done by him, in bringing such a Treasure into the Nation, conferred upon him the Honour of Knighthood; And if we now reckon him, A Knight of the Golden Fleece, the Style might pretend unto some circumstances that would justify it. Or call him, if you please, The Knight of Honesty; for it was Honesty with Industry, that Raised him; and he became a Mighty River, without the running in of Muddy Water to make him so. Reader, Now make a Pause, and behold, One Raised by God   

SECT. 7.  
I am willing to Employ the Testimonies of others, as much as may be, to support the Credit of my History: And therefore, as I have hitherto related ●o more than what there are Others enough to avouch; Thus I shall choose the Words of an Ingenious Person Printed at London some Years ago, to express the Sum of what remains, whose Words are these, It has always been Sir William Phips' Disposition to seek the Wealth of his People with as great Zeal and Unweariedness, as our Publicans use to seek their Loss and Ruin. At first it seems, they were in hopes to gain this Gentleman to their Party, as thinking him Good-natured, and easy to be flattered out of his Understanding; and the more, because they had the advantage of some, no very good Treatment that Sir William had formerly met with, from the People and Government of New-England. But Sir William soon shown them, that what they expected would be his Temptation to lead them into their little Tricks, he embraced as a Glorious Opportunity to show his Generosity and Greatness of Mind; for, in Imitation of the Greatest Worthies that have ever been, he rather chose to join in the Defence of his Country, with some Persons, who formerly were none of his Friends, t●a● become the Head of a Faction, to its Ruin and desolation. It seems this Noble Disposition of Sir William, joined with that Capacity and good Success wherewith he hath been attended, in Raising himself by such an Occasion, as it may be, all things considered, has never happened to any before him, makes these Men apprehensive;— And it must needs heighten their trouble to see, that he neither hath, nor doth spare himself, nor any thing that is near and dear unto him, in promoting the Good of his Native Country.  
When Sir William Phips was per ardua & aspera, thus Raised into an Higher Orb, it might easily be thought that he could not be without Charming Temptations to take the way on the left hand. But as the Grace of God kept him in the midst of none of the strictest Company, unto which his Affairs daily led him, from abandoning himself to the lewd Vices of Gaming, Drinking, Swearing and Whoring, which the Men that made England to sin, debauched so many of the Gentry into, and he deserved the salutations of the Roman Poet: 
Cum Tu, inter scabiem tantam, & Contagia Lucri,  
Nil parvum sapias, & adhuc Sublimia cures:   
Thus, he was worthy to pass among the Instances of Heroic Virtue for that Humility that still Adorned him: He was Raised, and though he prudently accommodated himself to the Quality whereto he was now Raised, yet none could perceive him to be Lifted up. Or, if this were not Heroic, yet I will Relate one Thing more of him, that must certainly be accounted so. He had in his own Country of New-England, met with Provocations, that were enough to have Alienated any man Living that had no more than Flesh and Blood in him, from the Service of it; and some that were Enemies to that Country, now lay hard at him to join with them, in their Endeavours to Ravish away their Ancient Liberties. But this Gentleman had studied another way to Revenge himself upon his Country, and that was to serve it, in all ●ts Interests, with all of his, even with his Estate, ●●s Time, his Care, his Friends, and his very Life! The Old Heathen Virtue of PIETAS IN PATRIAM, or, LOVE TO ONES COUNTRY, he turned into Christian; and so notably exemplified it, in all the Rest of his Life, that it will be an Essential Thread which is to be now interwoven into all that remains of his History, and his Character. Accordingly though he had the Offers of a very Gainful Place among the Commissioners of the Navy, with many other Invitations to settle himself in England, nothing but a Return to New-England would content him. And whereas the Charters of New-England being taken away, there was a Governor Imposed upon the Territories with as Arbitrary, and as Treasonable a Commission perhaps, as ever was heard of; a Commission, by which the Governor, with Three or Four more, none of whom were chosen by the People, had Power to make what Laws they would, and Levy Taxes, according to their own Humours, upon the people; and he himself had Power to send the Best men in the Land, more than Ten Thousand miles out of it, as he pleased: And in the Execution of his Power, the Country was every day suffering Intolerable Invasions upon their Proprieties, yea, and the Lives of the Best Men in the Territory began to be practised upon: Sir William Phips applied himself to Consider what was the most significant Thing that could be done by him for that poor people, in their present Circumstances. Indeed, when King James offered, as he did, unto Sir William Phips an Opportunity to Ask what he pleased of Him, Sir William Generously prayed for nothing but This, That New-England might have its Lost Privileges Restored. The King then Replied, Any Thing but that! whereupon he set himself to Consider what was the Next Thing, that he might Ask for the service, not of himself but of his Country. The Result of his Consideration was, That by Petition to the King, he Obtained, with Expense of some Hundreds of Guinea's, a Patent, which constituted him The High Sheriff of that Country; Hoping, by his Deputies. in that Office, to supply the Country still with Conscientious Juries, which was the Only Method that the New-Englanders had left them, to secure any thing that was Dear unto them. Furnished with this Patent after he had in Company with Sir John Narborough, made a Second Visit unto the Wreck (not so advantageous as the former, for a Reason already mentioned) in his way he Returned unto New-England, in the Sumaner of the Year 1688. able, after Five Years Absence, to Entertain his Lady with some Accomplishment of his Predictions; and then Built himself a Fair Brick House in the very place, which we foretold, the Reader can tell how many Sections ago. But the Infamous Government then Rampant there, found a way wholly to put by the Execution of this Patent; yea, he was like to have had his Person assassinated in the face of the Sun, before his own Door, which, with some further Designs then in his Mind, caused him, within a few Weeks to take another Voyage for Ergland.   

SECT. 8.  
IT Would require a long Summers-Day to Relate the miseries which were come, and coming in upon poor New-England, by reason of the Arbitrary Government then Imposed on them; A Government wherein, as Old Wendover says of the Time, when Strangers were domineering over Subjects in England, Judicia committebantur Injustis, Leges Exlegibus, Pax Discordantibus, Justitia Injuriosis; and Foxes were made the Administrators of Justice to the Poultry; yet some Abridgement of them is necessary for the better understanding of the Matters yet before us. Now, to make this Abridgement Impartial, I shall only have Recourse unto a Little Book, Printed at London, under the Title of The Revolution of New-England Justisied; wherein we have a Narrative of the Grievances under the Male Administrations of that Government, written and signed by the chief Gentlemen of the governor's Council; together with the Sworn Testimonies of many Good men, to prove the Several Articles of the Declaration, which the New-Englanders published against their Oppressors. It is in that Book demonstrated.  
That, the Governor neglecting the Greater Number of his Council, did Adhere principally to the Advice of a few Strangers, who were persons without any Interest, in the Country, but of Declared Prejudice against it, and had plainly laid their Designs to make an Unreasonable Profit of the poor people: and four or five persons had the Absolute Rule over a Territory, the most Considerable of any belorging to the Crown.  
That when Laws were proposed in the Council, though the major part at any time Dissented from them, yet, if the Governor were positive, there was no fair Counting the Number of Councillors Consenting, or Dissenting, but the Laws were immediately Engrossed, published and Executed.  
That, This Junto made a Law, which prohibited the Inhabitants of any Town, to meet about their Town-Affairs, above once in a year; for fear, you must Note, of their having any opportunity to Complain of Grievances.  
That they made another Law, requiring all Masters of Vessels, even Shallops, and Wood-boats to give Security, that no Man should be Transported in them, except his name had been so many Days posted up: whereby the Pockets of a few Leeches had been filled with Fees, but the whole Trade of the Country destroyed; and all Attempts to obtain a Redress of these Things obstructed; And when this Act had been strenuously opposed in Council at Boston, they carried it as far as New-York, where a Crew of them enacted it.  
That, without any Assembly, they Levied on the People, a penny in the pound of all their Estates, and Twenty-pences per Head, as Poll-money, with a penny in the Pound for Goods Imported, besides a Vast Exeise on Wine, Rum and other Liquors.  
That, when among the Inhabitants of Ipswich, some of the Principal Persons modestly gave Reasons, why they could not choose a Commissioner to Tax the Town, until the King should first be Petitioned for the Liberty of an Assembly, they were committed unto Gaol for it, as an High Misdemeanour, and were denied an Habeas Corpus, and were dragged many Miles out of their own County to answer it at a Court in Boston; where Jurors were picked for the Turn, that were not Freeholders, nay, that were mere sojourners; and when the Prisoners pleaded the Privileges of Englishmen, That they should not be Taxed without their own consent, they were told, That those things would not follow them to the ends of the earth: As it had been before told them in open Council, no one in the Council contradicting it, You have no more Privileges left you, but this, that you are not bought and sold for Slaves: And in fine, they were all fined severely, and laid under great Bonds for their Good Behaviour; besides all which, the hurgry Officers extorted Fees from them that amounted unto an Hundred and Threescore Pounds, whereas in England, upon the like Prosecution, the Fees would not have been Ten Pounds in all. After which fashion the Townsmen of many other Places were also served.  
That These Men giving out, That the Charters being lost, all the Title that the People had unto their Lands, was lost with them; they began to compel the People every where, to take Patents for their Lands: And accordingly Writs of Intrusion were issued out against the chief Gentlemen in the Territory, by the Terror whereof, many were actually driven to Petition for Patents, that they might quietly enjoy the Lands that had been fifty or sixty Years in their possession, But for these Patents, there were such exorbitant Prices demanded, that Fifty Pounds could not purchase for its Owner, an Estate not worth Two Hundred, nor could all the Money and Movables in the Territory have defrayed the Charges of Patenting the Lands, at the Hands of these Crocodiles: besides the considerable Quitrents for the King. Yea, the Governor caused the Lands of particular persons to be measured out, and given to his Creatures: And some of his Council Petitioned for the Commons belonging to several Towns; and the Agents of the Towns, going to get a voluntary Subscription of the Inhabitants to maintain their Title at Law, they have been dragged Forty or Fifty Miles, to answer as Criminals at the next Assizes; the Officers, in the mean time, extorting three Pounds per Man, for fetching them.  
That, if these Harpies, at any Time, were a little out of Money, they found ways to Imprison the best men in the Country; and there appeared not the least Information of any Crime exhibited against them, yet they were put unto Intolerable Expenses by these Greedy Oppressors, and the Benefit of an Habeas Corpus not allowed unto them.  
That packed and picked Juries were Commonly made use of, when under a Pretended Form of Law, the Trouble of some Honest and Worthy Men, was aimed at; and these also were hurried out of their own Counties to be tried, when Juries for the Turn, were not like to be found there. The Greatest Rigour being used still towards the soberest sort of people whilst in the mean time the most horrid Enormities, in the World committed by Others, were overlooked.  
That, The public Ministry of the Gospel, and All Schools of Learning, were discountenanced unto the Utmost.  
And several more such abominable things, too notorious to be denied, even by a Randolphian impudence itself, are in that Book proved against that unhappy Government. Nor did that most Ancient Sett of the Phoenician Shepherds, who screwed the Government of Egypt into their Hands, as Old Manethon tells us, by their Villainies, during the Reigns of those Tyrants, make a Shepherd more of an Abomination to the Egyptians in all after-Ages, than these Wolves under the Name of Shepherds have made the Remembrance of their French Government, an Abomination to all Posterity among the New-Englanders: A Government, for which, now, Reader, as fast as thou wilt, get ready this Epitaph: Nulla quaesita Scelere Potentia diuturna.  
It was under the Resentments of these Things, that Sir Williom Phips, returned into England, in the year 1688. In which Twice-Wonderful-Year, such a Revolution was wonderfully accomplished upon the whole Government of the English Nation, that New-England, which had been a Specimen of what the whole Nation was to look for, might justly hope for a share in the General Deliverance. Upon this Occasion Sir William offered his best Assistances unto that Eminent Person, who a little before this Revolution, betook himself unto White-Hall, that he might there lay hold on all Opportunities to procure some Relief unto the Oppressions of that afflicted Country. But seeing the New-English Affairs in so able an Hand, he thought the best Stage of Action for him would now be New-England itself; and so with certain Instructions from none of the least considerable Persons at White-Hall, what Service to do for his Country, in the Spring of the Year 1689 he hastened back unto it. Before he left London, a Messenger from the Abdicated King tendered him the Government of New-England, if he would accept it: But as that excellent Attorney General Sir William Jones, when it was proposed that the Plantations might be Governed without Assemblies, told the King, That he could no more Grant a Commission to levy Money on his Subjects there, without their consent by an Assembly, than they could Discharge themselves from their Allegiance to the English Crown. So Sir William Phips thought it his Duty to refuse a Government without an Assembly, as a thing that was Treason in the very Essence of it, and instead of Petitioning the succeeding Princes, that his Patent for High Sheriff might be rendered Effectual, he joined in Petitions, that New-England might have its own Old Patent so Restored, as to render Ineffectual that, and all other Grants that might cut short any of its Ancient Privileges. But when Sir William arrived at New-England, he found a New Face of Things; For about an Hundred Indians in the Eastern parts of the Country, had unaccountably begun a War upon the English, in July, 1688. and though the Governor then in the Western Parts, had immediate Advice of it, yet he not only delayed and neglected all that was necessary for the Public Defence, but also when he at Last returned, he manifested a most Furious Displeasure against those of the Council, and all others that had forwarded any one thing for the security of the Inhabitants; while at the same time, he dispatched some of his Creatures upon secret Errands unto Canada, and set at Liberty some of the most Murderous Indians which the English had seized upon.  
This Conduct of the Governor, which is in a Printed Remonstrance of some of the Best Gentlemen in the Council, complained of, did extremely dissatisfy the Suspicious People: Who were doubtless more extreme in some of their Suspicions, than there was any real Occasion for: But the Governor at length raised an Army of a Thousand Erglish to Conquer this Hundred Indians; and this Army, whereof some of the chief Commanders were Papists, underwent the Fatigues of a Long, and a cold Winter, in the most Caucasaean Regions of the Territory, till, without the Killing of One Indian, there were more of the poor People Killed, than they had Enemies there Alive! This added, not a Little to the Dissatisfaction of the People, and it would much more have done so if they had seen what the World had not yet seen of the Suggestions made by the Irish Catholics unto the Late King, published in the Year 1691, In the Account of the State of the Protestants in Ireland, Licenced by the Earl of Nottingham, whereof one Article runs in these Express Terms, That if any of the Irish cannot have their Lands in Specie, but money in Lieu, some of them may Transport themselves into America, possibly near New-England, to check the Growing Independants of that Country: Or if they had seen what was afterwards seen, in a Letter from K. James to His Holiness, (as they style His Foolishness) the Pope of Rome; That it was his Full purpose to have Set up Roman-Catholick Religion, in the English Plantations of America: Tho after all, there is cause to think, that there was more made of the Suspicions then flying like Wildfire about the Country, than a strong Charity would have Countenanced. When the People were under these Frights, they had got by the Edges a Little Intimation of the then Prince of Orange's glorious Undertaking to deliver England, from the Feared Evils, which were already felt by New-England; but when the Person, who brought over a Copy of the Prince's Declaration, was Imprisoned for bringing into the Country a Treasonable Paper, and the Governor, by his Proclamation, Required all Persons, to use their utmost-Endeavours to hinder the Landing of any whom the Prince might send thither, This put them almost out of Patience. And One thing, that plunged the more Considerate Persons in the Territory, into uneasy Thoughts, was the Faulty Action of some Soldiers, who upon the Common Suspicions, deserted their Stations in the Army, and caused their Friends to gather together here and there in Little Bodies, to protect from the Demands of the Governor, their poor Children and Brothers, whom they thought bound for a Bloody Sacrifice: and there were also belonging to the Rose-Frigat some that Buzzed surprising stories about Boston, of many mischiefs to be thence expected. Wherefore, some of the Principal Gentlemen in Boston consulting what was to be done in this Extraordinary Juncture, They all agreed that they would, if it were possible, extinguish all Essays, in the People towards an Insurrection; in daily Hopes of Orders from England for their Safety: but that if the Country People, by any violent motions pushed the matter on so far, as to make a Revolution unavoidable, Then, to prevent the shedding of Blood by an ungoverned Mobile, some of the Gentlemen present, should appear at the Head of the Action, with a Declaration accordingly prepared. By the eighteenth of April 1689. Things were pushed on so far by the People, that certain Persons first Seized the Captain of the Frigate, and the Rumour thereof running like Lightning through Boston, the whole Town was immediately in Arms, with the most unanimous Resolution perhaps, that ever was known to have Inspired any People. They then seized those Wretched Men, who by their innumerable Extortions and Abuses, had made themselves the Objects of Universal Hatred; not giving over till the Governor himself was become their Prisoner: The whole Action being managed without the least Bloodshed or Plunder, and with as much Order as ever attended any Tumult, it may be, in the World. Thus did the New-Englanders assert their Title to the Common Rights of Englishmen; and except the Plantations are willing to Degenerate from the Temper of True Englishmen, or except the Revolution of the whole English Nation be condemned, their Action must so far be justified. On their late Oppressors, now under just Confinement, they took no other satisfaction, but sent them over unto White-Hall, for the Justice of the King and Parliament. And when the Day for the Anniversary Election, by their vacated Charter drew near, they had many Debates into what Form they should cast the Government, which was till then, Administered by a Committee for the Conservation of the Peace, composed of Gentlemen, whose Hap it was to appear in the Head of the late Action; But their Debates Issued in this Conclusion, That the Governor and Magistrates, which were in Power, before the late Usurpation, should Resume their Places, and apply themselves unto the Conservation of the Peace, and put forth what Acts of Government the Emergencies might make needful for them, and thus to wait for further Directions from the Authority of England. So was there Accomplished a Revolution, which delivered New-England from grievous Oppressions, and which was most Graciously Accepted by the King and Queen, when it was Reported unto Their Majesties. But there were New Matters for Sir William Phips, in a little while, now to think upon.   

SECT. 9  
BEHOLD the great Things which were done by the Sovereign God, for a Person, once, as little in his own Eyes, as in other Men's. All the Returns which he had hitherto made unto the God of his Mercies, were but Preliminaries to what remain to be Related. It has been the Custom in the Churches of New-England, still to expect from such Persons, as they admitted unto constant Communion with them, That they do not only Publicly and Solemnly Declare their Consent unto the Covenant of Grace, and particularly to those Duties of it, wherein a particular Church-state is more immediately concerned, but also first Relate unto the Pastors, and by them unto the Brethren, the special Impressions which the Grace of God has made upon their Souls in bringing them to this Consent. By this Custom and Caution, though they cannot keep Hypocrites from their Sacred Fellowship, yet they go as far as they can, to render and preserve themselves Churches of Saints, and they do further very much Edify one another. When Sir William Phips was now returned unto his own House, he began to bethink himself, like David, concerning the House of the God, who had surrounded him with so many Favours in his own; and accordingly he applied himself unto the North Church in Boston, that with his open Profession of his hearty Subjection to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, he might have the Ordinances and the Privileges of the Gospel, added unto his other Enjoyments. One thing that quickened his Resolution to do what might be in this Matter expected from him, was a Passage which he heard from a Minister, Preaching on the Title of the Fifty First Psalms: To make a public and an open Profession of Repentance, is a thing not mis-becoming the greatest Man alive. It is an Honour to be found among the Repenting People of God, though they be in Circumstances never so full of Suffering. A famous Knight going with other Christians to be Crowned with Martyrdom, observed, That his Fellow-Sufferers were in Chains, from which the Sacrificers had, because of his Quality, excused him; whereupon he demanded, that he might wear Chains as well as they. For, said he, I would be a Knight of that Order too; There is among ourselves a repenting People of God, who by their Concessions at their Admissions to His Table, do signalise their being so; and Thanks be to God, that we have so little of suffering in our Circumstances. But if any Man count himself grown too big to be a Knight of that Order, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, will one Day be ashamed of that Man! Upon this Excitation, Sir William Phips made his Address unto a Corgregational-Church, and he had therein One Thing to propound unto himself, which few Persons of his Age, so well satisfied in Infant-Baptism as he was, have then to Ask for. Indeed, in the Primitive Times, although the Lawfulness of Infant-Baptism, or the Precept and Pattern of Scripture for it, was never so much as once made a Question, yet we find Baptism was frequently delayed by Persons, upon several superstitious and unreasonable Accounts, against which we have such Fathers as Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory Nyssen, Basil, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and others, employing a variety of Argument. But Sir William Phips had hitherto delayed his Baptism, because the Years of his Childhood were spent where there was not settled Minister, and therefore, he was now not only willing to attain a good Satisfaction of his own Internal and Practical Christianity, before his receiving that Mark thereof, but he was also willing to receive it among those Christians, that seemed most sensible of the Bonds which it laid them under. Offering himself therefore, first unto the Baptism, and then unto the Supper of the Lord, he presented unto the Pastor of the Church, with his own Handwriting, the following Instrument; which because of the Exemplary Devotion therein expressed, and the Remarkable History which it gives of several Occurrences in his Life, I will here Faithfully Transcribe it, without adding so much as one Word unto it.  
The First of God's making me sensible of my Sins, was in the year 1674. by Hearing your Father Preach concerning, the Day of Trouble near. It pleased Almighty God to smite me with a Deep sense of my miserable Condition, who had Lived until then, in the World, and had Done nothing for God. I did then begin to think What I should Do to be saved? and did bewail my Youthful Days, which I had spent in vain: I did think that I would begin to mind The Things of God. Being then some time, under your Father's Ministry, much troubled with my Burden, but thinking on that Scripture, Come unto me, you that are weary and heavy Laden, and I will Give you Rest. I had some Thoughts of Drawing as near to the Communion of the Lord Jesus as I could, But the Ruins, which the Indian Wars brought on my Affairs, and the Entanglements which my following the Sea, laid upon me, hindered my pursuing the welfare of my own Soul, as I ought to have done. At length God was pleased to smile upon my Outward Concerns. The various Providences both Merciful and Afflictive, which attended me in my Travels were sanctified unto me, to make me Acknowledge God in all my Ways. I have Divers Times been in Danger of my Life, and I have been brought to see that I own my Life to Him that has given a Life so often to me: I thank God, He hath brought me to see myself altogether unhappy, without an Interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to close hearty with him, desiring Him to Execute All His Offices on my Behalf. I have now, for some Time, been under serious Resolutions, that I would avoid whatever I should know to be Displeasing unto God, and that I would Serve Him all the Days of my Life. I Believe No man will Repent the Service of such a Master. I find myself unable to Keep such Resolutions, but my Serious Prayers are to the Most High, that He would enable me. God hath done so much for me that I am sensible, I own myself to Him; To Him would I give myself, and all that He has given to me. I can't express His Mercies to me. But, as soon as ever God had smiled upon me, with a Turn of my Affairs, I laid myself under the VOWS of the Lord That I would set myself to serve His People, and Churches here unto the Utmost of my Capacity. I have had great Offers made me in England; But the Churches of New-England were those, which my Heart was most set upon. I knew, that if God had a People any where, it was here: and I Resolved To Rise and fall with them; neglecting very Great Advantages for my Worldly Interest, that I might come and enjoy the Ordinances of the Lord Jesus here. It has been my Trouble, that since I came home I have made no more Hast to get into the House of God, where I desire to be: Especially having Herd so much about the Evil of that Omission. I can Do little for God, but I desire to Wait upon Him in His Ordinances, and to Live to His Honour and Glory. My being Born in a part of the Country, where I had not in my Infancy enjoyed the First Sacrament of the New-Testement, has been something of a Stumbling Block unto me. But though, I have had Proffers of Baptism elsewhere made unto me, I Resolved rather to Defer it, until I might enjoy it in the Communion of these Churches, And I have had awful Impressions from those Words of the Lord Jesus, in Matth. 8.38. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my Words, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed. When God had Blessed me with something of the World, I had no Trouble so Great as this; Lest it should not be in Mercy; and I Trembled at Nothing more than being put off with a Portion here. That I may make sure of Better Things I now offer myself unto the Communion of this ' Church of the Lord JESUS.  
Accordingly on March 23. 1690. after he had in the Congregation of North-Boston given himself up, first unto the Lord, and then unto His People, he was Baptised, and so Received into the Communion of the Faithful there.   

SECT. 10.  
SEVERAL Times, about, before and after this Time, did I hear him express himself unto this purpose: I have no need at all, to look after any further Advantages for myself in this World; I may sit still at home, if I will, and enjoy my Ease for the rest of my Life; but I believe that I should offend God in my doing so: For I am now in the prime of my Age and Strength, and, I thank God, I can undergo Hardship: He only knows how long I have to live; but I think 'tis my Duty to venture my Life in doing of Good, before an useless Old Age comes upon me: Wherefore I will now expose myself, while I am able, and as far as I am able, for the Service of my Country: I was born for Others, as well as myself. I say, many a time have I heard him so express himself: And agreeable to this Generous Disposition and Resolution, was all the rest of his Life. About this time New-England was miserably Briared, in the Perplexities of an Indian War; and the Savages, in the East part of the Country, Issuing out from their Inaccessible Swamps, had for many Months made their cruel Depredations upon the poor English Planters, and Surprised many of the Plantations on the Frontiers, into Ruin. The New-Erglanders found, that while they continued only on the Defensive part, their People were thinned, and their Treasures wasted, without any hopes of seeing a Period put unto the Indian Tragedies; nor could an Army greater than Xerxes' have easily come at the seemingly contemptible Handful of Tawnies, which made all this Disturbance; Or, Tamerlain, the greatest Conqueror that ever the World saw, have made it a Business of no Trouble to have Conquered them: They found; that they were like to make no Weapons reach their Enswamped Adversaries, except Mr. Milton could have shown them how 
To have plucked up the Hills with all their Load,  
Rocks, Waters, Woods, and by their shaggy tops,  
Vp-lifting, bore them in their hands, I herewith  
The Rebel Host to'v overwhelmed—  So it was thought that the English Subjects, in these Regions of America, might very properly take this occasion, to make an attempt upon the French, and by Reducing them under the English Government, put an Eternal Period at once, unto all their Troubles from the Frenchified Pagans. This was a Motion urged by Sir William Phips, unto the General Court of the Massachuset-Colony; and he then made unto the Court a brave Offer of his own Person and Estate, for the Service of the Public in their present Extremity, as far as they should see cause to make use thereof. Whereupon they made a First Essay against the French, by sending a Naval Force, with about Seven Hundred Men, under the Conduct of Sir William Phips, against L'Acady and Nova Scotia; of which Action we shall give only this General and Summary Account; That Sir William Phips set Sail from Nantascot, April 28. 1690. Arriving at Port-Royal, May 11. and had the Fort quickly Surrendered into his Hands by the French Enemy, who despaired of holding out against him. He then took Possession of that Province for the English Crown, and having Demolished the Fort, and sent away the Garrison, Administered unto the Planters an Oath of Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary, he left what Order he thought convenient for the Government of the Place, until further Order should be taken by the Governor and Council of the Massachuset-Colony, unto whom he returned May 30, with an acceptable Account of his Expedition, and accepted a Place among the Magistrates of that Colony, to which the Freemen had chosen him, at their Anniversary Election, two Days before,  
Thus the Country, once given by King James the First, unto Sir William Alexander, was now by another Sir William, recovered out of the Hands of the French, who had afterwards got the Possession of it; and there was added unto the English Empire, a Territory, whereof no Man can Read Monsieur Denies Description Geographique & Historique des Costes de l' Amerique Septentrionale, but he must reckon the Conquest of a Region so Improvable, for Lumber, for Fishing, for Mines, and for Furs, a very considerable Service. But if a smaller Service has, e'er-now, ever merited a Knighthood, Sir William was willing to Repeat his Merits, by Actions of the greatest Service possible: Nil Actum credens, si quid superesset agendum.   

SECT. 11.  
THE Addition of this French Colony to the English Dominion, was no more than a little step towards a greater Action, which was first in the Design of Sir William Phips, and which was, indeed, the Greatest Action that ever the New-Englanders Attempted. There was a time, when the Philistines had made some Inroads and Assaults from the Northward, upon the Skirts of Goshen, where the Israelites had a Residence, before their coming out of Egypt, The Israelites, and especially that Active Colony of the Ephraimites, were willing to Revenge these Injuries upon their wicked Neighbours; they presumed themselves Powerful and Numerous enough to Encounter the Canaanites, even in their own Country; and they form a brisk Expedition, but came off unhappy Losers in it; the Jewish Rabbins tell us, they lost no less than Eight Thousand Men. The Time was not yet come; there was more Hast than good Speed in the Attempt; they were not enough concerned for the Counsel and Presence of God in the Undertaking; they mainly propounded the Plunder to be got among a People, whose Trade was that, wherewith Beasts enriched them; so the Business miscarried. This History the Psalmist going to recite, says, I will utter dark Say of old. Now that what befell Sir William Phips, with his whole Country of New-England, may not be almost forgotten among the dark Say of old, I will here give the true Report of a very memorable Matter.  
It was Canada that was the chief Source of New-England's Miseries. There was the main Strength of the French; There the Indians were mostly supplied with Ammunition; Thence Issued Parties of Men, who uniting with the Savages, barbarously murdered many Innocent New-Enlanders, without any Provocation on the New-English part, except this, that New-England had Proclaimed King William, and Q. Marry, which they said were Usurpers; And, as Cato could make no Speech in the Senate, without that Conclusion, Delenda est Carthago; so it was the general Conclusion of all that Argued sensibly, about the safety of that Country, Canada must be Reduced. It than became the concurring Resolution of all New-England, with New-York, to make a Vigorous Attack upon Canada at once, both by Sea and Land.  
And a Fleet was accordingly fitted out from Boston, under the Command of Sir William Phips, to fall upon Quebeque, the chief City of Canada. They waited until August for some Stores of War from England, whither they had sent for that purpose, early in the Spring; but none at last arriving, and the Season of the Year being so far spent, Sir William could not, without many Discouragements upon his Mind, proceed in a Voyage, for which he found himself so poorly provided. However, the Ships being taken up, and the Men on board, his usual Courage would not permit him to Desist from the Enterprise; but he set Sail from Hull near Boston, August 9 1690. with a Fleet of Thirty two Ships and Tenders; whereof one, called the Six Friends, carrying Forty Four great Guns, and Two Hundred Men, was Admiral. Sir William dividing the Fleet into several Squadrons, whereof there was the Six Friends, Captain Gregory Sugars Commander, with Eleven more of the Admiral's Squadron, of which one was also a Capital Ship, namely, The John and Thomas, Captain Thomas Carter Commander; Of the Vice-admirals', the Swan, Captain Thomas Gilbert Commander, with Nine more; Of the Rearadmirals', the America-Merchant, Captain Joseph Eldridge Commander, with Nine more; and above Twenty Hundred Men on Board the whole Fleet: He so happily managed his Charge, that they every one of them Arrived safe at Anchor before Quebeck, although they had as dangerous, and almost untrodden a Path, to take Vn-Piloted, for the whole Voyage, as ever any Voyage was undertaken with. Some small French Prizes he took by the way, and set up English Colours upon the Coast, here and there, as he went along; and before the Month of August was out, he had spent several Days as far onward of his Voyage, as between the Island of Antecosta, and the Main. But when they entered the mighty River of Canada, such adverse Winds encountered the Fleet, that they were Three Weeks dispatching the way, which might otherwise have been gone in Three Days, and it was the Fifth of October, when a fresh Breeze coming up at East, carried them along by the North Shore, up to the Isle of Orleans; and then haling Southerly, they passed by the East end of that Island, with the whole Fleet approaching the City of Quebeck. This loss of Time, which made it so late before the Fleet could get into the Country, where a cold and fierce Winter was already very far advanced, gave not very good Prospect of Success to the Expedition; but that which gave a much worse, was a most horrid Mismanagement, which had, the mean while, happened in the West. For a Thousand English from New-York, and Albany, and Connecticut, with Fifteen Hundred Indians, were to have gone over-Land, in the West, and fallen upon Mount-Royal, while the Fleet was to Visit Quebeck in the East; and no Expedition could have been better laid than This, which was thus contrived. But those English Companies in the West, marching as far as the great Lake that was to be passed, found their Canoes not provided, according to expectation; and the Indians also were [How? God knows, and will one Day Judge!] dissuaded from Joining with the English; and the Army met with such Discouragements, that they returned.  
Had this Western Army done but so much as continued at the Lake, the Diversion thereby given to the French Quartered at Mount-Royal, would have rendered the Conquest of Quebeck ca●e and certain; but the Governor of Canada being Informed of the Retreat made by the Western-Army, had opportunity, by the cross Winds that kept back the Fleet, unhappily to get the whole Strength of all the Country into the City, before the Fleet could come up unto it. However, none of these Difficulties hindered Sir William Phips from sending on Shoar the following Summons, on Monday, the Sixth of October.  
Sir William Phips Knight, General and Commander in Chief, in and over Their Majesty's Forces of New-England, by Sea and Land;  
To Count Frontenac, Lieutenent-General and Governor for the French King, at Canada; or in his Absence to his Deputy, or Him, or Them, in Chief Command at Quebeck.  
THE War between the Two Crowns of England and France, doth not only sufficiently Warrant, but the Destruction made by the French and Indians, under your Command and Encouragement, upon the Persons and Estates of Their Majesty's Subjects of New-England, without Provocation on their part, hath put them under the Necessity of this Expedition, for their own Security and Satisfaction. And although the Cruelties and Barbarities used against them, by the French and Indians, might upon the present Opportunity, prompt unto a severe Revenge, yet being desirous to avoid all Inhuman and Unchristianlike Actions, and to prevent shedding of Blood, as much as may be;  
I the aforesaid Sir William Phips, Knight, do hereby, in the Name, and in the Behalf of Their Most Excellent Majesties, William and Mary, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith; and by Order of Their said Majesty's Government of the Massachuset-Colony, in New-England, Demand a present Surrender of your Forts and Castles, undemolished, and the King's, and other Stores unimbezzelled, with a seasonable Delivery of all Captives; together with a Surrender of all your Persons and Estates, to my Dispose: Upon the doing whereof you may expect Mercy from me, as a Christian, according to what shall be found for Their Majesty's Service, and the Subjects Security. Which if you Refuse forthwith to do. I am come provided, and am Resolved by the help of God, in whom I trust, by Force of Arms, to Revenge all Wrongs and Injuries offered, and bring you under Subjection to the Crown of England; and when too late, make you wish, you had accepted of the Favour tendered.  
Your Answer Positive in an Hour, returned by your own Trumpet, with the Return of mine, is Required, upon the Peril that will ensue.  
The Summons being Delivered unto Count Frontenac, his Answer was;  
That Sir William Phips, and those with him, were Heretics, and Traitors to their King, and had taken up with that Usurper, the Prince of Orange, and had made a Revolution, which if it had not been made, New-England and the French had been all One; and that no other Answer was to be expected from him, but what should be from the Mouth of his Cannon.  
General Phips, now saw, that it must cost him Dry Blows, and that he must Roar his Persuasions out of the Mouths of Great Guns, to make himself Master of a City, which had certainly Surrendered itself unto him, if he had arrived but a little sooner, and Summoned it before the coming down of Count Frontenac with all his Forces, to command the oppressed People there, who would have been, many of them, gladder of coming under the English Government. Wherefore on the Seventh of October, the English, that were for the Land-Service, went on Board their lesser Vessels, in order to Land; among which there was a Bark, wherein was Captain Ephraim Savage, with sixty Men, that ran a Ground upon the North-Shoar, near two Miles from Quebeck, and could not get off, but lay in the same Distress that Scaeva did, when the Britan's poured in their Numbers upon the Bark, wherein he, with a few more Soldiers of Caesar's Army, were by the disadvantage of the Tide, left ashore: The French, with Indians, that saw them lie there, came near, and Fired thick upon them, and were bravely Answered; and when two or three Hundred of the Enemy, at last planted a Field-Piece against the Bark, while the Wind blew so hard, that no help could be sent unto his Men, the General Advanced so far, as to Level two or three great Guns, conveniently enough to make the Assailants Fly; and when the Flood came, the Bark happily got off, without the hurt of one Man aboard. But so violent was the Storm of Wind all this Day, that it was not possible for them to Land, until the Eighth of October; when, the English counting every Hour to be a Week, until they were come to Battle, vigorously got ashore, designing to enter the East-end of the City. The Smallpox had got into the Eleet, by which Distemper prevailing, the number of Effective Men which now went ashore, under the Command of Lieutenant General Walley, did not amount unto more than Fourteen Hundred; but Four Companies of these were drawn out as Forlorns, whom, on every side, the Enemy fired at; nevertheless, the English Rushing with a shout, at once upon them, caused them to Run, as fast as Legs could carry them: So that the whole English Army, expressing as much Resolution as was in Caesar's Army, when they first landed on Britai●, in spite of all opposition from the Inhabitants, marched on until it was dark, having first killed many of the French, with the loss of but four Men of their own; and frighted about seven or eight Hundred more of the French from an Ambuscado, where they lay ready to fall upon them. But some thought, that by staying in the Valley, they took the way never to get over the Hill: And yet for them to stay where they were, till the smaller Vessels came up the River, before them, so far as by their Guns to secure the Passage of the Army, in their getting over, was what the Council of War had ordered. But the Violence of the Wether, with the General's being sooner plunged into the heat of Action than was intended, hindered the smaller Vessels from attending that Order. And this Evening, a French Deserter coming to them, assured them, that Nine Hundred Men were on their March from Quebeck to meet them, already passed a little Rivulet that lay at the end of the City, but seeing them Land so suddenly, and so valiantly run down those that first Encountered them, they had Retreated: Nevertheless, That Count Frontenac was come down to Quebeck, with no fewer than Thirty Hundred Men to defend the City, having left but fifty Soldiers to defend Mount Real, because they had understood, that the English Army on that side, were gone back to Albany. Notwithstanding this dispiriting Information, the common Soldiers did with much vehemency Beg and Pray, that they might be Led on, professing, that they had rather lose their Lives on the spot, than fail of taking the City; but the more wary Commanders, considered how rash a thing it would be, for about Fourteen Hundred Raw Men, tired with a long Voyage, to assault more than Twice as many Expert Soldiers, who were Galli in suo sterquilinio, or Cocks Crowing on their own Dunghill. They were, in truth, now gotten into the grievous Case, which Livy describes, when he says, Ibi grave est Bellum gerere, ubi non consistendi aut procedendi locus; quocunque aspexeris Hostilia sunt omnia; Look on one side or tother, all was full of Hostile Difficulties. And indeed, whatever Popular Clamour has been made against any of the Commanders, it is apparent, that they acted considerately, in making a Pause upon what was before them; and they did a greater kindness to their Soldiers than they have since been thanked for. But in this time, General Phips and his Men of War, with their Canvas, Wings, flew close up unto the West-end of the City, and there he behaved himself with the Greatest Bravery imaginable; nor did the other Men of War forbear to follow his brave Example: who never discovered himself more in his Element, than when (as the Poet expresseth it,) 
The Slaughter-Breathing Brass grew hot, and spoke  
In Flames of Lightning, and in Clouds of Smoke:   
He lay within Pistol-shot of the Enemy's Cannon, and beat them from thence, and very much Battered the Town, having his own Ship shot through in an hundred places, with four and twenty Pounders, and yet, but one Man was killed, and only two mortally wounded aboard him, in this hot Engagement, which continued the greatest part of that Night, and several hours of the Day ensuing. But wondering, that he saw no Signal of any Effective Action ashore, at the East end of the City, he sent that he might know the condition of the Army there; and received Answer, That several of the Men were so frozen in their Hands and Feet, as to be disabled from service, and others were apace falling sick of the Smallpox. Whereupon he ordered them on Board immediately to refresh themselves, and he intended then, to have renewed his Attack upon the City, in the Method of Landing his Men in the face of it, under the shelter of his Great Guns; having to that purpose, provided also, a consderable number of well-shaped Wheel-Barrows, each of them carrying Two Petarraro's a piece, to March before the Men and make the Enemy fly, with as much Contempt as overwhelmed the Philistines, when undone by Foxes with Torches in their Tails; (remembered in an Anniversary Diversion, every April, among the Ancient Romans, taught by the Phoenicians.)  
While the Measures to be further taken, were debating, there was made an Exchange of Prisoners, the English having taken several of the French in divers actions, and the French having in their Hands divers of the English, whom the Indians had brought Captives unto them. The Army now on Board, continued still Resolute and Courageous, and on fire, for the Conquest of Quebeck, or if they had miss of doing it by storm, they knew that they might, by possessing themselves of the Isle of Orleans, in a little while, have starved them out. Incredible Damage they might indeed, have done to the Enemy, before they Embarked, but they were willing to preserve the more undefensible parts of the Country, in such a condition, as might more sensibly encourage the Submission of the Inhabitants, unto the Crown of England, whose Protection was desired by so many of them. And still they were loath to Play for any lesser Game than the immediate Surrender of Quebeck itself. But e'er a full Council of War could conclude the next steps to be taken, a violent Storm arose, that separated the Fleet, and the Snow and the Cold became so extreme, that they could not continue in those Quarters any longer.  
Thus, by an evident Hand of Heaven, sending one unavoidable Disaster after another, as well-formed an Enterprise, as perhaps was ever made by the New-Englanders, most unhappily miscarried; and General Phips underwent a very mortifying Disappointment of a Design, which his Mind was, as much as ever any, set upon. He arrived Nov, 19 at Boston, where, although he found himself, as well as the Public, thrown into very uneasy circumstances, yet he had this to comfort him, That neither his Courage, nor his Conduct could reasonably have been Taxed, nor could it be said that any Man could have done more than he did, under so many Embarassments of his Business, as he was to fight withal. He also relieved the uneasiness of his Mind, by considering, that his Voyage to Canada, diverted from his Country an Horrible Tempest from an Army of Boss-Lopers, which had prepared themselves, as 'tis affirmed, that Winter, to fall upon the New-English Colonies, and by falling on them, would probably have laid no little part of the Country desolate. And he further considered, That in this matter, like Israel engaging against Benjamin, it may be, we saw yet, but the beginning of the matter: And that the way to Canada now being learned, the foundation of a Victory over it might be laid, in what had been already done. Unto this purpose likewise, he was heard sometimes applying the Remarkable Story, reported by Bradwardine.  
There was an Hermit, who being vexed with blasphemous Injections about the Justice and Wisdom of Divine Providence, an Angel in Human Shape, invited him to Travel with him, That he might see the hidden Judgements of God. Lodging all Night at the House of a Man, who kindly entertained them, the Angel took away a valuable Cup from their Host, at their going away in the Morning, and bestowed this Cup upon a very wicked Man, with whom they Lodged the Night ensuing. The third Night they were most lovingly Treated, at the House of a very Godly Man, from whom, when they went in the Morning, the Angel meeting a Servant of his, threw him over the Bridge into the Water, where he was drowned. And the Fourth, being in like manner, most courteously Treated, at the House of a very Godly Man, the Angel before Morning, did unaccountably kill his only Child. The Companion of the Journey, being wonderfully offended at these things, would have left his Guardian. But the Angel then thus addressed him, Understand now, the secret Judgements of God The first man that entertained us, did inordinately affect that Cup, which I took from him; 'twas for the advantage of his interior, that I took it away, and I gave it unto the impious man, as the present reward of his good Works, which is all the reward that he is like to have. As for our Third Host, the Servant which I slew, had form a bloody Design, to have slain his Master, but now, you see, I have saved the Life of the Master, and prevented something of growth unto the eternal punishment of the Murderer. As for our Fourth Host, before his Child was Born unto him, he was a very liberal and bountiful Person, and he did abundance of good with his Estate; but when he saw he was like to leave such an Heir, he grew covetous; wherefore the Soul of the Infant is Translated into Paradise, but the occasion of sin is, you see, mercifully taken away from the Parent.  
Thus General Phips, though he had been used unto Diving in his time, would say, That the things which had befallen him in this Expedition, were too deep to be Dived into!   

SECT. 12.  
FROM The time that General Pen made his Attempt upon Hispaniola, with an Army that, like the New English Forces, against Canada, miscarried after an Expectation of having Little to Do, but to Possess and Plunder; Even to this Day, the General Disaster which hath attended, almost every Attempt of the European Colons in America, to make any Considerable Encroachments upon their Neighbours, is a matter of some close Reflection. But of the Disaster, which now befell poor New-England, in particular, every one will easily Conclude, none of the least Consequences to have been, the Extreme Debts, which that Country was now plunged into; there being Forty Thousand pounds, more or less, now to be paid, and not a Penny in the Treasury to pay it withal. In this Extremity, they presently found out an Expedient, which may serve as an Example, for any People, in other parts of the World, whose Distresses may call for a sudden supply of Money to carry them through any Important Expedition. The General Assembly first passed an Act, for the Levying of such a sum of Money as was wanted, within such a Term of Time, as was judged convenient; and this Act was a Fund, on which the Credit of such a Sum, should be rendered passable among the people. Hereupon, there was appointed an Able and Faithful Committee of Gentlemen, who printed from Copper-Plates, a just Number of Bills, and Flourished, Indented, and Contrived them, in such a manner, as to make it Impossible to Counterfeit any of them, without a Speedy Discovery of the Counterfeit: besides which, they were all Signed by the Hands of Three, belonging to that Committee. These Bills being of several Sums, from Two-shillings, to Ten pounds, did confess the Massachuset-Colony, to be Indebted unto the Person, in whose Hands they were, the Sums therein expressed; and Provision was made, that if any particular Bills, were Irrecoverably Lost or Torn, or Worn by the Owners, they might be Recruited without any Damage to the whole in General. The public Debts to the Sailors and Soldiers, now upon the point of Mutiny, (for, Arma Tenenti, Omnia dat, qui Justa negat!) were in these Bills paid immediately: but that further Credit might be given thereunto, it was Ordered that they should be Accepted by the Treasurer, and all Officers that were Subordinate unto him, in all public Payments, at Five per cent. more than the Value expressed in them. The People knowing that the Tax-Act, would, in the Space of Two years at Least, fetch into the Treasury, as much as all the Bills of Credit, thence emitted would amount unto, were willing to be furnished with Bills, wherein, 'twas their Advantage to pay their Taxes, rather than in any other Specie, and so the Sailors and Soldiers put off their Bills, instead of Money, to those, with whom they had any Deal, and they circulated through all the Hands in the Colony, pretty Comfortably. Had the Government been so Settled, that there had not been any Doubt of any Obstruction, or Diversion to be given to the Prosecution of the Tax-Act, by a Total Change of their affairs, then Depending at White-Hall, 'Tis very certain, that the Bills of Credit had been better than so much ready Silver; yea, the Invention had been of more Use to the New-Englanders, than if all their Copper Mines had been opened, or the Mountains of Peru had been Removed into these parts of America. The Massachuset Bills of Credit, had been like the Bank-Bills of Venice, where though there were not, perhaps, a Ducat of Money in the Bank, yet the Bills were esteemed more than Twenty per cent. better than Money, among the Body of the People, in all their Deal. But many People being afraid, that the Government would in Half a year, be so Overturned, as to Convert their Bills, of Credit altogether into Wast-paper, the Credit of them was thereby very much impaired; and they, who first received them, could make them yield little more than fourteen or sixteen shillings in the Pound; from whence there arose those Idle Suspicions in the Heads of many more Ignorant and Unthinking Folks concerning the Use thereof, which to the Incredible Detriment of the Province, are not wholly laid aside unto this Day. However, this Method of paying the Public Debts, did no less than save the Public, from a perfect Ruin: and e'er many Months were expired, the Governor and Council had the pleasure of seeing the Treasurer burn before their Eyes, many a Thousand pounds' Worth of the Bills, which had passed about until they were again Returned unto the Treasury, but before their being returned, had happily and honestly, without a farthing of silver Coin, discharged the Debts, for which they were intended. But that which helped these Bills unto much of their Credit, was the generous offer of many worthy men in Boston, to run the Risque of selling their Goods reasonably for them: and of these, I think, I may say, that General Phips was in some sort the Leader; who at the very Beginning, merely to Recommend the Credit of the Bills unto other Persons, cheerfully laid down a Considerable Quantity of ready Money for an equivalent parcel of them. And thus in a little time, the Country waded through the Terrible Debts which it was fallen into: In this, though unhappy enough, yet not so unhappy, as in the Loss of men, by which the Country was at the some Time consumed. 'Tis True, there was very Little Blood spilt in the Attacque made upon Quebeck; and there was a Great Hand of Heaven seen in it. The Churches, upon the Call of the Government, not only observed a General Fast through the Colony, for the Welfare of the Army sent unto Quebeck, but also kept the Wheel of Prayer in a Continual motion, by Repeated and Successive Agreements, for Days of Prayer with Fasting, in their several Vicinities. On these Days the Ferventest Prayers were sent up to the God of Armies, for the safety and success of the New-English Army gone to Canada; and though I never understood that any of the Faithful did in their Prayers arise to any assurance, that the Expedition should prosper in all respects, yet they sometimes in their Devotions on these Occasions, uttered their Persuasion, that Almighty God had heard them in this thing, that the English Army should not fall by the hands of the French Enemy. Now they were marvellously delivered from doing so; though the Enemy had such unexpected Advantages over them, yea, and though the horrid Winter was come on so far, that it is a Wonder the English Fleet, then Riding in the River of Canada, fared any better than the Army which a while since, besieged Poland, wherein, of seventy thousand Invaders, no less than forty thousand suddenly perished by the severity of the cold, albeit it were but the Month of November with them. Nevertheless, a kind of Camp-Fever, as well as the Smallpox, got into the Fleet, whereby some Hundreds came short of Home. And besides this Calamity, it was also to be lamented, That although the most of the Fleet arrived safe at New-England, whereof some Vessels indeed were driven off by Cross-Winds as far as the West-Indies, before such Arrival; yet there were three or four Vessels which totally miscarried: One was never heard of, a second was Wrecked, but most of the Men were saved by another in company; a third was Wrecked so, that all the Men were either starved or drowned, or slain by the Indians, except one, which a long while after, was, by means of the French, restored: And a fourth, met with Accidents, which it may be, my Reader will, by and by pronounce, not unworthy to have been Related.  
A Brigantine, whereof Captain John Rainsford was Commander, having about Threescore Men aboard, was in a very stormy Night, Octob. 28, 1690, stranded upon the desolate and hideous Island of Antecosta, an Island in the mouth of the Mighty River of Canada; but through the singular Mercy of God unto them, the Vessel did not, immediately, stave to pieces, which if it had happened, they must have, one way or another quickly perished. There they lay for divers days, under abundance of bitter Wether, trying and hoping to get off their Vessel; and they solemnly set apart, one Day for Prayer with Fasting, to obtain the smiles of Heaven upon them, in the midst of their Distresses; and this especially, That if they must go ashore, they might not by any stress of Storm, lose the Provisions which they were to carry with them. They were, at last convinced, that they must continue no longer on Board, and therefore, by the seventh of November, they applied themselves, all Hands, to get their Provisions ashore upon the dismal Island, where they had nothing but a sad and cold Winter before them; which being accomplished, their Vessel oversett so, as to take away from them all expectation of getting off the Island in it. Here they now built themselves Nine small Chimney-less things that they called Houses; to this purpose employing such Board's and Planks as they could get from their shattered Vessel, with the help of Trees, whereof that squalid Wilderness had enough to serve them; and they built a particular Storehouse, wherein they carefully Lodged and Locked the poor quantity of Provisions, which though scarce enough to serve a very abstemious Company for one Month, must now be so stinted, as to hold out six or seven, and the Allowance agreed among them could be no better than for One Man, Two Biscuits, half a pound of Pork, half a pound of Flower, one Pint and a quarter of Pease, and two Salt Fishes per Week. This little Handful of Men, were now a sort of Commonwealth, extraordinarily, and miserably separated from all the rest of Mankind; (but I believe, they thought little enough of an Utopia:) Wherefore, they consulted and concluded such Laws among themselves, as they judged necessary to their subsistence, in the doleful Condition, whereinto the Providence of God had cast them; now — penitùs toto divisos Orb.  
They set up Good Orders, as well as they could among themselves and, besides their daily Devotions, they Observed the Lord's Days, with more solemn Exercises of Religion.  
But it was not long before they began to feel the more mortal effects of the Straits, whereinto they had been Reduced: Their short Commons, Their Drink of Snow-Water, Their Hard and Wet, and Smoky Lodgings, and their Grievous Despair of Mind, overwhelmed some of them, at such a Rate, and so ham-stringed them, that sooner than be at the pains to go abroad, and cut their one Fuel, they would lie after a Sottish manner in the Cold; these things quickly brought Sicknesses among them. The first of their Number who Died, was their Doctor, on the 20th of December; and then they dropped away, one after another, till between thirty and forty of the sixty, were buried by their disconsolate Friends, whereof every one looked still to be the next that should lay his Bones in that Forsaken Region. These poor Men did therefore, on Monday the Twenty Seventh of January, keep a Sacred Fast (as they did, in some sort, a civil one, every day, all this while) to beseech of Almighty God, that his Anger might be turned from them, That he would not go on to cut them off in his Anger, That the Extremity of the Season might be mitigated, and, That they might be prospered in some Essay to get Relief as the Spring should Advance upon them; and they took Notice, That God gave them a Gracious Answer to every one of these Petitions.  
But while the Hand of God was killing so many of this little Nation (and yet uncapable to become a Nation, for it was, Res unius A●tatis, populus virorum!) they apprehended, that they must have been under a most uncomsortable Necessity to kill One of their Company.  
Whatever Penalties they Enacted for other Crimes, there was One, for which, like that of Parricide among the Ancients, they would have promised themselves, that there should not have been Occasion for any Punishments; and that was, the Crime of Stealing from the Common-Stock of their Provisions. Nevertheless, they found their Store-House divers times broken open, and their provisions therefrom stolen, by divers unnatural Children of the Leviathan, while it was not possible for them to preserve their feeble Store-House from the Stone-Wall-breaking Madness of these unreasonable Creatures. This Trade of stealirg, if it had not been stopped, by some exemplary Severity, they must in a little while, by Lot or Force have come to have Canibally devoured One Another; for there was nothing to be done, either at Fishing or Fowling or Hunting upon that Rueful Island, in the Depth of a Frozen Winter; and though they sent, as far as they could upon Discovery, they could not find, on the Island, any Living thing in the World, besides themselves. Wherefore, though by an Act, they made stealing to be so Criminal, that Several did Run the Gauntlet for it, yet, they were not far from being driven after all, to make One Degree and Instance of it, Capital. There was a wicked Irishman among them, who had such a Voracious Devil in him, that after divers Burglaries upon the Storehouse, committed by him, at last, he stole, and Eat with such a Pamphagous' Fury, as to Cram himself with no less than Eighteen Biscuits, at one stolen meal, and he was fain to have his Belly stroked and Bathed before the Fire, lest he should otherwise have burst. This Amazing and indeed murderous Villainy of the Irishman, brought them all to their Wit's Ends, how to defend themselves from the Ruin therein threatened unto them; and whatever methods were proposed, it was feared, that there could be no stop given to his Furacious Exorbitancies, any Way but One; He could not be past Stealing, unless he were past Eating too. Some think therefore, they might have Sentenced the Wretch to Die, and after they had been at pains, upon Christian and Spiritual Accounts, to prepare him for it, have executed the Sentence, by shooting him to Death: concluding matters come to that pass, that if they had not shot him, he must have Starved them unavoidably. Such an Action if it were done, will doubtless meet with no harder a Censure, than that of the seven English men, who being in a Boat carried off to Sea, from St. Christopher's, with but one Days Provision aboard for Seventeen, Singled out some of their Number by Lot and slew them, and Eat them; for which, when they were afterwards accused of Murder, the Court, in consideration of the inevitable Necessity, acquitted them. Truly, the inevitable necessity of Starving, without such an Action, sufficiently grievous to them all, will very much plead for what was done (whatever it were!) by these poor Antecostians. And starved indeed, they must have been, for all this, if they had not Contrived and Performed a very desperate Adventure, which now remains to be Related. There was a very diminutive kind of Boat belonging to their Brigantine, which they recovered out of the Wreck, and cutting this Boat in Two, they made a shift with certain odd Materials preserved among them, to lengthen it so far, that they could therein form a little Cuddy, where Two or Three Men might be stowed, and they set up a little Mast, whereto they fastened a little Sail, and accommodated it with some other little circumstances, according to their present poor Capacity.  
On the Twenty Fifth of March, Five of the Company Shipped themselves upon this Doughty Flyboat, intending, if it were possible, to carry unto Boston, the Tidings of their woeful Plight upon Antecosta, and by help from their Friends there, to return with seasonable succours for the rest. They had not Sailed long, before they were Hemmed in by prodigious Cakes of Ice, whereby their Boat sometimes was horribly wounded, and it was a Miracle, that it was not Crushed into a Thousand pieces, if indeed a thousand pieces could have been Splintred out of so minute a Cockboat. They kept labouring, and fearfully Weatherbeaten, among enormous Rands of Ice, which would ever now and then rub formidably upon them, and were enough to have broken the Ribs of the strongest Frigate that ever ●ut the Seas; and yet the signal Hand of Heaven so preserved this petty Boat, that by the Eleventh of April, they had got a quarter of their way, and came to an Anchor under Cape St. Laurence, having seen Land but once before, and that about seven Leagues off, ever since their first setting out; and yet, having seen the open and Ocean Sea, not so much as once, in all this while, for the Ice that still encompassed them. For their support in this Time, the little Provisions they brought with them, would not have kept them alive; only they killed Seal upon the Ice, and they melted the upper  of the Ice for Drink; but fierce, wild, ugly Sea-Horses, would often so approach them upon the Ice, that the fear of being devoured by them, was not the least of their Exercises. The Day following, they weighed Anchor, betimes in the Morning; but the northwest Winds persecuted them, with the raised and raging Waves of the Sea, which almost continually poured into them; and monstrous Islands of Ice, that seemed almost as big as Antecosta itself, would ever now and then come athwart them. In such a Sea they lived by the special assistance of God, until by the thirteenth of April, they got into an Island of Land, where they made a Fire, and killed some Fowl, and some Seal, and found some Goose-Eggs, and supplied themselves with what Billets of Wood were necessary and carriageable for them; and there they stayed until the seventeenth. Here, their Boat lying near a Rock, a great Sea have it upon the Rock, so that it was upon the very point of oversetting, which if it had, she had been utterly disabled for any further service, and they must have called that Harbour by the Name, which, I think, one a little more Northward bears, The Cape without Hope. There they must have ended their weary days! But here, the good Hand of God again interposed for them; they got her off, and though they lost their Compass in this Hurry, they sufficiently Repaired another defective one, that they had aboard. Sailing from thence, by the Twenty Fourth of April, they made Cape Brittoon; when a thick Fog threw them into a new Perplexity, until they were safely gotten into the Bay of Islands, where they again Wooded and Watered, and killed a few Fowl, and catched some Fish, and began to reckon themselves as good as half way home. They reached Cape Sables by the Third of May, but by the fifth, all their Provision was again spent, and they were out of sight of Land; nor had they any prospect of catching any thing that lives in the Atlantic: which, while they were lamenting one unto another, a stout Halibut comes up to the top of the Water, by their side; whereupon they threw out the Fishing-Line, and the Fish took the Hook, but he proved so heavy, that it required the help of several Hands, to hale him in, and a thankful Supper they made on't. By the seventh of May, seeing no Land, but having once more spent all their Provision, they were grown almost wholly hopeless of Deliverance, but then a Fishing Shallop of Cape Ann, came up with them, fifteen Leagues to the Eastward of that Cape. And yet, before they got in, they had so Tempestuous a Night, that they much feared perishing upon the Rocks, after all: But God carried them into Boston Harbour the Ninth of May, unto the great surprise of their Friends, that were in Mourning for them: And there furnishing themselves with a Vessel fit for their Undertaking, they took a Course in a few Weeks more to fetch home their Brethren, that they left behind them at Antecosta.  
But it is now time for us to return unto Sir William!   

SECT. 13.  
ALL this while CANAD A was as much written upon Sir William's Heart, as CALAIS, they said once, was upon Queen Maries. He needed not one to have been his daily Monitor about Canada: It lay down with him, it risen up with him, it engrossed almost all his Thoughts; he thought the subduing of Canada, to be the greatest service that could be done for New-England, or for the Crown of England in America. In parsuance whereof, after he had been but a few Weeks at Home, he took another Voyage for England, in the very depth of Winter, when Satling was now dangerous; conflicting with all the Difficulties of a tedious and a terrible Passage, in a very little Vessel, which indeed, was like enough to have perished, if it had not been for the help of his Generous Hand aboard, and His Fortunes in the bottom.  
Arriving— per tot Discrimina, at Bristol, he hastened up to London; and made his Applications to Their Majesties, and the Principal Ministers of State, for assistance to Renew an Expedition against Canada, concluding his Representation to the King, with such Words as these:  
If Your Majesty shall graciously please to Commission and Assist me, I am ready to venture my Life again in your Service. And I doubt not, but by the Blessing of God, Canada may be added unto the rest of your Dominions, which will (all circumstances considered) be of more advantage to the Crown of England, than all the Territories in the West-Indies are.  

The Reasons here subjoined, are humbly Offered unto Your Majesty's Consideration.  
First, The Success of this Design, will greatly add to the Glory and Interest of the English Crown and Nation; by the Addition of the Bever-Trade, and securing the Hudson's Bay Company, some of whose Factories have lately fallen into the Hands of the French; and increase of English Shipping and Seamen, by gaining the Fishery of Newfoundland, and by consequence diminish the number of French Scamen, and cut off a great Revenue from the French Crown.  
Secondly, The Cause of the English in New-England, their failing in the late Attempt upon Canada, was their waiting for a Supply of Ammunition from England until August; their long Passage up that River; the cold Season coming on; and the Smallpox and Fevers being in the Army and Fleet; so that they could not stay fourteen days longer; in which time probably they might have taken Quebeck; yet, if a few Frigates be speedily sent, they doubt not of an happy Success; the strength of the French being small, and the Planters desirous to be under the English Government.  
Thirdly, The Jesuits endeavour to seduce the Maquas, and other Indians (as is by them affirmed) suggesting the Greatness of King Lewis, and the inability of King William, to do any thing against the French in those Parts, thereby to Engage them in their Interests: In which, if they should succeed, not only New-England, but all our American Plantations, would be endangered by the Great Increase of Shipping, for the French (built in New-England at easy Rates) to the Infinite Dishonour and Prejudice of the English Nation.  
But now, for the Success of these Applications, I must entreat the Patience of my Reader, to wait until we have gone through a little more of our History.    

SECT. 14.  
THE Reverend INCREASE MATHER, beholding his Country of New-England in a very Deplorable Condition, under a Governor that acted by an jilegal, Arbitrary, Treasonable Commission, and Invaded Liberty and Property, after such a manner, as that no man could say any thing was his own, he did with the Encouragement of the Principal Gentlemen in the Country, but not without much Trouble and Hazard unto his own Person, go over to White-Hall, in the Summer of the Year 1688. and wait upon King James, with a full Representation of their Miseries. That King did give him Liberty of Access unto him, whenever he desired it, and with many Good Words promised him to Relieve the Oppressed People in many Instances that were proposed: But when the Revolution had brought the Prince and Princess of Orange to the Throne, Mr. Mather having the Honour divers Times to Wait upon the King, he still prayed for no less a Favour to New-England, than the full Restoration of their Charter-Priviledges: And Sr. William Phips happening to be then in England, very Generously joined with Mr. Mather, in some of those Addresses: Whereto, his majesty's Answers were always very expressive of his Gracious Inclinations. Mr. Mather, herein assisted also, by the Right Worshipful Sir Henry Ashurst, a most Hearty Friend of all such Good Men, as those that once filled New-England, solicited the Leading Men of both Houses in the Convention-Parliament, until a Bill for the Restoring of the Charters belonging to New-England, was sully Passed by the Commons of England; but that Parliament being Prorogued, and then Dissolved, all that Sisyphaean Labour came to nothing. The Disappointments which afterwards most wonderfully Blasted all the hopes of the Petitioned Restoration, obliged Mr. Mather, not without the Concurrence of other Agents, now also come from New-England, unto that Method of Petitioning the King for a New Charter, that should contain more than all the Privileges of the Old; and Sir William Phips, now being again returned into England, lent his utmost Assistance hereunto.  
The King taking a Voyage for Holland, before this Petition was answered. Mr. Mather, in the mean while, not only waited upon the greatest part of the Lords of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council, offering them a Paper of Reasons for the Confirmation of the Charter-Priviledges granted unto the Massachuset Colony; but also, having the Honour to be Introduced unto the Queen; he assured Her Majesty, That there were none in the World better affected unto Their Majesty's Government, than the People of New-England, who had indeed been exposed unto great Hardships for their being so; and entreated, That since the King had referred the New-English Affair unto the Two Lord Chief Justices, with the Attorney and Solicitor General, there might be granted unto us, what They thought was Reasonable. Whereto the Queen replied, That the Request was Reasonable; and that She had spoken divers times to the King on the behalf of New-England; and that for Her own Part, She desired that the People there, might not merely have Justice, but Favour done to them. When the King was returned, Mr. Mather, being by the Duke of Devonshire brought into the King's Presence on April 28. 1691. Humbly Prayed His Majesty's Favour to New-England; urging, That if their Old Charter-Priviledges might be restored unto them, his Name would be Great in those Parts of the World, as long as the World should stand; adding,  
Sir,  
Your Subjects there, have been willing to venture their Lives, that they may enlarge Your Dominions; The Expedition to Canada, was a great and Noble Undertaking.  
May it Please Your Majesty, In your great Wisdom also, to consider the circumstances of that People, as in Your Wisdom you have considered the circumstances of England, and of Scotland. In New-England they differ from other Plantations; they are called Congregational and Presbyterian. So that such a Governor will not suit with the People of New-England, as may be very proper for other English Plantations.  
Two Days after this, the King, upon what was proposed by certain Lords, was very inquisitive, whether He might without breach of Law, set a Governor over New-England; whereto the Lord Chief Justice, and some others of the Council, answered, That whatever might be the Merit of the Cause, inasmuch as the Charter of New-England, stood vacated by a Judgement against them, it was in the King's Power to put them under what Form of Government He should think best for them.  
The King then said, That He believed it would be for the Advantage of the People, in that Colony, to be under a Governor appointed by Himself: Nevertheless (because of what Mr. Mather had spoken to Him) He would have the Agents of New-England nominate a Person, that should be agreeable unto the Inclinations of the People there; and notwithstanding this, He would have Charter-Priviledges restored and confirmed unto them.  
The Day following, the King began another Voyage to Holland; and when the Attorney General's Draught of a Charter, according to what he took to be his Majesty's Mind, as expressed in Council, was presented at the Council-Board, on the eighth of June, some Objections then made, procured an Order to prepare Minutes for another Draught, which deprived the New-Englanders of several Essential Privileges in their other Charter. Mr. Mather put in his Objections, and vehemently protested, that he would sooner part with his Life, than consent unto those Minutes, or any thing else, that should infringe any Liberty or Privilege of Right belonging unto his Country; but he was answered, That the Agents of New-England were not Plenipotentiaries from another Sovereign State, and that, if they would not submit unto the King's Pleasure in the settlement of the Country, they must take what would follow.  
The dissatisfactory Minutes were, by Mr. Mather's Industry, sent over unto the King in Flanders; and the Ministers of State then with the King were earnestly applied unto, that every mistake about the good Settlement of New-England might be prevented; and the Queen Herself, with Her own Royal Hand, wrote unto the King, that the Charter of New-England might either pass as it was drawn by the Attorney General, or be deferred until His own Return.  
But after all, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State received a Signification of the King's Pleasure, That the Charter of New-England should run in the Main Points of it, as it was now granted: Only there were several Important Articles, which Mr. Mather by his unwearied Solicitations obtained afterwards to be inserted.  
There were some now of the Opinion, That instead of submitting to this New Settlement, they should, in Hopes of getting a Reversion of the Judgement against the Old Charter, declare to the Miinisters of State, That they had rather have no Charter at all, than such an one as was now proposed unto Acceptance. But Mr. Mather, advising with many unprejudiced Persons, and Men of the greatest Abilities in the Kingdom, Noblemen, Gentlemen, Divines, and Lawyers, they all agreed, That it was not only a lawful, but all Circumstances then considered, a needful Thing, and a part of Duty and Wisdom, to accept what was now offered, and that a peremptory Refusal, would not only bring an Inconveniency, but a Fatal, and perhaps a Final Ruin upon the Country; whereof Mankind would lay the blame upon the Agents.  
It was argued, That such a Submission was no Surrender of any thing; That the Judgement, not in the Court of King's Bench, but in Chancery against the Old Charter, standing on Record, the Patent was thereby Annihilated; That all attempts to have the Judgement against the Old Charter, taken off, would be altogether in vain, as Men and Things were then disposed.  
It was further argued. That the Ancient Charter of New-England, was in the Opinion of the Lawyers, very Defective, as to several Powers, which yet were absolutely necessary to the subsistence of the Plantation: It gave the Government there no more Power, than the Corporations have in England; Power in Capital Cases was not therein particularly expressed.  
It mentioned not, an House of Deputies, or, an Assembly of Representatives; the Governor and Company had thereby (they said) no Power to impose Taxes on the Inhabitants, that were not Freemen, or to erect Courts of Admiralty. Without such Powers, the Colony could not subsist, and yet the best Friends that New-England had, of Persons most learned in the Law, professed, that suppose the Judgement against the Massachuset-Charter might be Reversed, yet, if they should again Exert such Powers, as they did before the Quo Warranto against their Charter, a new Writ of Scire Facias would undoubtedly be issued out against them.  
It was yet further argued, That if an Act of Parliament should have Reversed the Judgement against the Massachuset-Charter, without a grant of some other Advantages, the whole Territory had been, on many Accounts, very miserably Incommoded: The Province of Main, with Hampshire would have been taken from them; and Plymouth would have been annexed unto New-York; so, that this Colony would have been squeezed into an Atom, and not only have been rendered Insignificant in its Trade, but by having its Militia also, which was vested in the King, taken away, its Insignificancies would have become, out of measure, humbling; whereas now, instead of seeing any Relief by Act of Parliament, they would have been put under a Governor, with a Commission, whereby ill Men, and the King's and Country's Enemies, might probably have crept into Opportunities to have done ten thousand ill Things, and have treated the best Men in the Land, after a very uncomfortable Manner.  
It was lastly, argued, That by the New Charter very great Privileges were granted unto New-England; and, in some respects greater, than what they formerly enjoyed. The Colony is now made a Province, and their General Court, has, with the King's Approbation, as much Power, in New-England, as the King and Parliament have in England. They have all English Liberties, and can be touched by no Law, by no Tax, but of their own making. All the Liberties of their Holy Religion are for ever secured, and their Titles to their Lands, once, for want of some Forms of legal Conveyance, contested, are now confirmed unto them. If an ill Governor should happen to be imposed on them, what Hurt could he do to them? None, except they themselves pleased; for he cannot make one Counsellor, or one Judge, or one Justice, or one Sheriff to serve his Turn: Disadvantages enough, one would think, to discourage any ill Governor from desiring to be Stationed in those uneasy Regions. The People have a Negative upon all the Executive Part of the Civil Government, as well as the Legislative, which is a vast Privilege, enjoyed by no other Plantation in America, nor by Ireland, no, nor hitherto by England itself. Why should all of this Good be refused, or despised, because of somewhat not so Good attending it? The Despisers of so much Good, will certainly deserve a Censure, not unlike that of Causabon, upon some who did not value what that learned Man counted highly valuable, Vix illis optari quid. quam pejus potest, quam ut fatuitate sua fruantur: Much good may do them with their Madness! All of this being well considered, Sir William Phips, who had made so many Addresses for the Restoration of the Old Charter, under which he had seen his Country many Years flourishing, will be excused, by all the World from any thing of a Fault, in a most unexpected passage of his Life, which is now to be related.  
Sir Henry Ashurst, and Mr. Mather, well knowing the agreeable Disposition to do God, and the King, and his Country Service, which was in Sir William Phips, whom they now had with them, all this while prosecuting his Design for Canada, they did unto the Council-Board, nominate Him, for the GOVERNOR of New-England. And Mr. Mather, being by the Earl of Nottingham introduced unto His Majesty, said,  
Sir,  
I do, in the behalf of New-England, most humbly thank your Majesty, in that you have been pleased by a Charter, to restore English Liberties unto them, to con 〈…〉 them in their Properties, and, to grant them some peculiar Privileges. I doubt not, but that your Subjects there, will demean themselves with that dutiful Affection and Loyalty to your Majesty, as that you will see cause to enlarge your Royal Favours towards them. And I do most humbly thank your Majesty, in that you have been pleased to give leave unto those that are concerned for New-England, to nominate their Governor.  
Sir William Phips has been accordingly nominated by us, at the Council-Board. He hath done a good Service for the Crown, by enlarging your Dominions, and reducing of Nova Scotia to your Obedience. I know that He will faithfully serve your Majesty to the utmost of his Capacity; and if your Majesty shall think sit to confirm him in that Place, it will be a further Obligation on your Subjects there.  
The Effects of all this was, that Sir William Phips was now invested with a Commission under the King's Broad-Seal to be Captain General, and Governor in Chief, over the Province of the Massachuset-Bay in New-England: Nor do I know a Person in the World, that could have been proposed, more acceptable to the Body of the People throughout New-England, and on that score, more likely, and able to serve the King's Interests among the People there, under the Changes, in some things unacceptable, now brought upon them. He had been a Gideon, who had more than once ventured his Life to save his Country from their Enemies; and they now, with universal Satisfaction said, Thou shalt Rule over us. Accordingly, having, with Mr. Mather, kissed the King's Hand on January 3d. 1691. he hastened away to his Government; and arriving at New-England, the fourteenth of May following, attended with the Non-such-Frigate, both of them were welcomed with the Loud Acclamations of the long shaken and shattered Country, whereto they were now returned with a Settlement so full of Happy Privileges.   

SECT. 15.  
WHEN Titus Flaminius had freed the poor Grecians from the Bondage which had long oppressed them, and the Herald Proclaimed among them the Articles of their Freedom, they cried out, A Saviour! a Saviour! with such loud Acclamations, that the very Birds fell down from Heaven, astonished at the Cry. Truly, when Mr. Mather brought with him unto the poor New-Englanders, not only a Charter, which though in divers points wanting what both he and they had wished for, yet for ever delivers them from oppressions on their Christian and English Liberties, or, on their Ancient Possessions, wherein ruining Writs of Intrusion had begun to Invade them all, but also a GOVERNOR who might call New-England his own Country, and who was above most Men in it, full of Affection to the Interests of his Country; the sensible part of the People, than caused the sense of the Salvations thus brought them, to reach as far as Heaven itself. The various little Humours then working among the People, did not hinder the Great and General Court of the Province, to appoint a Day of Solemn THANKS GIVING to Almighty God for Granting (as the Printed Order expressed it) a Safe Arrival to His Excellency our Governor, and the Reverend Mr. Increase Mather, who have industriously endeavoured the Service of this People, and have brought over with them, a Settlement of Government, in which Their Majesties have Graciously given us distinguishing Marks of Their Royal Favour and Goodness.  
And as the Obliged People thus gave Thanks unto the God of Heaven, so they sent an Address of Thanks unto Their Majesties, with other Letters of Thanks unto some Chief Ministers of State, for the Favourable Aspect herein cast upon the Province.  
Nor were the People mistaken, when they promised themselves all the Kindness imaginable from this Governor, and expected, Under his shadow we shall live easy among the Heathen: Why might they not look for Halcyon-days, when they had such a Kings-Fisher for their Governor?  
Governor Phips had, as every Raised and Useful Person must have, his envious Enemies; but the palest Envy of them, who turned their worst Enmity upon him, could not hinder them from confessing, That according to the best of his Apprehension, he ever sought the good of his Country: His Country quickly felt this on innumerable Occasions; and they had it eminently demonstrated, as well in his promoting and Approving the Councils Choice of good Judges, Justices and Sheriffs, which being once established, no Successor could remove them, as in his urging the General Assembly to make themselves happy by preparing a Body of Good Laws, as fast as they could, which being passed by him in his Time, could not be nulled by any other after him.  
He would often speak to the Members of the General Assembly, in such Terms as these, gentlemans, you may make yourselves, as easy as you will for ever; consider what may have any tendency to your welfare; and you may be sure that whatever Bills you offer to me consistent with the Honour and Interest of the Crown, I'll pass them readily; I do but seek Opportunities to serve you; had it not been for the sake of this thing, I had never accepted the Government of this Province; and when ever you have settled such a Body of good Laws, that no Person coming after me, may make you uneasy, I shall desire not one Day longer to continue in the Government. Accordingly, he ever passed every Act for the welfare of the Province proposed unto him; and instead of ever putting them upon Buying his Assent unto any good Act, he was much forwarder to give it, than they were to ask it: Nor indeed, had the Hunger of a Salary, any such Impression upon him, as to make him decline doing all possible Service, for the Public while he was not sure of having any proportionable, or honourable acknowledgements.  
But yet he minded the Preservation of the King's Rights, with as careful and faithful a Zeal, as became a good Steward for the Crown: And, indeed, he studied nothing more, than to observe such a Temper in all things, as to extinguish what others have gone to distinguish; even the Pernicious Notion of a separate Interest. There was a Time, when the Roman Empire, was infested with a vast number of Governors, who were infamous for Infinite Avarice and Villainy; and referring to this Time, the Apostle John had a Vision of, People killed with the Beasts of the Earth.  
But Sir William Phips was none of those Governors; wonderfully contrary to this wretchedness, was the Happiness of New-England, when they had Governor Phips, using the tenderness of a Father towards the People, and being of the Opinion, Ditare magis esse Regium quàm Ditescere, that it was a braver Thing to enrich the People, than to grow rich himself. A Father, I said; and what if I had said, an Angel too. If I should from Clemens Alexandrinus from Theodoret, and from Jerom, and others among the Ancients, as well as from Calvin and Bucan, and Peter Martyr, and Chemnitius and Bullinger, and a thousand more among the Moderns, bring Authorities for the Assertion, That each Country and Province, is under the special care of some Angel, by a singular Deputation of Heaven assigned thereunto, I could back them with a far greater Authority than any of them all. The Scripture itself does plainly assert it: And hence the most Learned Grotius, writing of Commonwealths, has a passage to this purpose, His singulis, suos Attributos, esse Angelos, ex Daniele, magno consensu, & Judaei & Christiani veteres colligebant.  
But New-England had now, besides the Guardian-Angel, who more invisibly intended its welfare, a Governor, that became wonderfully agreeable thereunto, by his whole Imitation of such a Guardian-Angel. He employed his whole Strength, to guard his People from all Disasters, which threatened them either by Sea, or Land; and it was remarked, that nothing remarkably Disastrous did befall that People, from the Time of his Arrival to the Government, until there arrived an Order for his leaving it: (Except one Thing which was begun before he entered upon the Government:) But instead thereof, the Indians were notably defeated, in the Assaults, which they now made upon the English, and several French Ships did also very advantageously fall into his Hands; yea, there was by his means a Peace restored unto the Province, that had been divers Years languishing under the Hectic Fever of a Lingering War.  
And there was this one thing more, that rendered his Government the more desirable; That whereas 'tis impossible for a mere Man to govern without some Error, when ever, this Governor was advised of any Error in any of his Administrations, he would immediately retract it, and revoke it, with all possible ingenuity; so that if any occasion of just complaint arose, it was usually his endeavour, that it should not long be complained of 
— O, Faelices nimium, sua si Bona, norânt,  
Nou-angli.—   
But having in a Parenthesis, newly intimated, that His Excellency, when he entered on his Government, found one Thing, that was remarkably Disastrous begun upon it: Of that one Thing, we will now give some Account.  
Reader, prepare to be entertained, with as Prodigious Matters, as can be put into any History! And let him that writes the next Thaumatographia Pneumatica, allow to these Prodigies the chief Place among the wonders.   

SECT. 16.  
ABOUT the Time of our Blessed Lords coming to Reside on Earth, we read of so many possessed with Devils, that it is commonly thought the Number of such Miserable Energumen was then increased above what has been usual in other Ages; and the Reason of that Increase, has been made a Matter of some Enquiry. Nowthough the Devils might herein design by Preternatural Operations to Blast the Miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ, which Point they Gained among the Blasphemous Pharisees; and the Devils might herein also design a villainous Imitation of what was coming to pass in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein God came to dwell in Flesh; yet I am not without suspicion that there may be something further in the Conjecture of the Learned Bartholinus hereupon, who says, It was Quod judaei praeter modum, Artibus Magicis dediti Daemonem Advocaverint, the Jews, by the frequent use of Magical Tricks, called in the Devils among them.  
It is very certain, there were hardly any People in the World grown more fond of Sorceries, than that unhappy People: The Talmuds tell us of the little Parchments with Words upon them, which were their common Annulets, and of the Charms which they muttered over Wounds, and of the various Enchantments which they used against all sorts of Disasters whatsoever. It is affirmed in the Talmuds, that no less than Twenty four Scholars in one School, were killed by Witchcraft; and that no less than fourscore Persons were Hanged for Witchcraft by one Judge in one Day. The Gloss adds upon it, That the Women of Israel had generally fallen to the Practice of Witchcrafts; and therefore it was required. That there should be still chosen into the Council, One skilful in the Arts of Sorcerers, and able thereby to discover who might be guilty of those Black Arts among such as were accused before them.  
Now the Arrival of Sir William Phips to the Government of New-England, was at a Time, when a Governor would have had Occasion for all the Skill in Sorcery, that was ever necessary to a Jewish Councillor; A Time when Scores of poor people had newly fallen under, a prodigious Possession of Devils, which it was then generally thought had been by Witchcrafts introduced. It is to be confessed and Bewailed, That many Inhabitants of New-England, and Young people especially, had been Led away with Little Sorceries, wherein they did Secretly those Things that were not Right against the Lord their God; They would often cure Hurts with Spells, and practise detestable Conjurations with Sieves, and Keys, and Pease, and Nails and Horse-shoes, and other Implements, to Learn the Things, for which they had a forbidden and impious Curiosity. Wretched Books had stolen into the Land, wherein Fools were instructed, how to become able Fortune-Tellers: Among which, I wonder that a blacker Brand is not set upon that Fortune-telling Wheel, which that Sham-Scribler, that goes under the Letters of R. B. has proposed in his Delights for the Ingenious, as an honest and pleasant Recreation: And by these Books, the minds of many had been so poisoned, that they studied this Finer Witchcraft; until, 'tis well, if some of them were not betrayed, into what is grosser, and more sensible and Capital. Although these Diabolical Divinations are more ordinarily committed perhaps all over the whole World, than they are in the Country of New-England, yet, That being a Country Devoted unto the Worship and Service of the Lord JESUS CHRIST above the Rest of the World. He signalised his Vengeance against these wickednesses, with such extraordinary Dispensations, as have not been often seen in others Places.  
The Devils, which had been so played withal, and, it may be, by some few Criminals more Explicitly engaged and employed, now broke in upon the Country, after as aftonishing a manner, as was ever heard of. Some scores of People, first about Salem, the Centre and first Born, of all the Towns in the Colony, and afterwards in several other Places, were arrested with many Praternatural Vexations upon their Bodies, and a variety of cruel Torments, which were evidently inflicted from the Daemons of the Invisible World. The People that were infected and infested with such Daemons, in a few Days Time, arrived unto such a Resining Alteration upon their Eyes, that they could see their Tormentors; they saw a Devil of a little Stature, and of a Tawny Colour, attended still with Spectres, that appeared in more Humane Circumstances.  
These Tormentors, tendered unto the Afflicted, a Book, requiring them to Sign it, or to Touch it, at least, in token of their consenting to be Listed in the Service of the Devil; which, they refusing to do, the Spectres under the command of that Blackman, as they called him, would apply themselves to Torture them, with prodigious Molestations.  
The afflicted Wretches were horribly Distorted and Convulsed; they were Pinched Black and Blue; Pins would be run every where in their Flesh; they would be scalded until they had Blisters raised on them; and a thousand other things before Hundreds of Witnesses were done unto them, evidently Preternatural: For, if it were Preternatural, to keep a rigid Fast, for Nine, yea, for Fifteen Days together; or, if it were Preternatural, to have one's Hands tied close together, with a Rope to be plainly seen, and then by unseen Hands presently pulled up a great way from the Earth, before a crowd of People: Such Preternatural Things were endured by them.  
But of all the Preternatural Things which befell these People, there were none more unaccountable than those, wherein the praestigious Daemons would ever now and then cover the most Corporeal Things in the World, with a Fascinating Mist of Invisibility. As now; A Person was cruelly assaulted by a Spectre, that, she said, run at her with a Spindle, though no Body else in the Room could see either the Spectre or the Spindle: At last in her Agonies, giving a snatch at the Spectre, she pulled the Spindle away; and it was no sooner got into her Hand, but the other Folks then present, beheld that it was indeed a real, proper, Iron Spindle; which when they locked up very safe, it was nevertheless by the Daemons taken away to do farther Mischief.  
Again; A Person was haunted by a most abusive Spectre, which came to her, she said, with a Sheet about her, though seen to none but herself. After she had undergone a deal of Teaze, from the Annoyance of the Spectre, she gave a violent snatch at the Sheet that was upon it; wherefrom she tore a Corner, which in her Hand, immediately was beheld by all that were present; a palpable Corner of a Sheet: And her Father, which was now holding of her, catched, that he might keep, what his Daughter had so strangely siezed; but the Spectre had like to have wrung his Hand off, by endeavouring to wrest it from him: However he still held it; and several times this odd Accident was renewed in the Family. There wanted not the Oaths of good credible People, to these particulars.  
Also, It is well known, that these wicked Spectres did proceed so far as to steal several Quantities of Money from divers People, part of which Individual Money, was dropped sometimes out of the Air, before sufficient Spectators, into the Hands of the Afflicted, while the Spectres were urging them to subscribe their Covenant with Death. Moreover, Poisons to the standers-by, wholly Invisible, were sometimes forced upon the Afflicted; which when they have with much Reluctancy swallowed, they have swollen presently, so that the common Medicines for Poisons have been found necessary to relieve them: Yea, sometimes the Spectres in the struggles, have so dropped the Poisons, that the Standards by have smelled them, and viewed them, and beheld the Pillows of the miserable stained with them.  
Yet more, the miserable have complained bitterly of burning Rags run into their forceably distended Mouths, and though no Body could see any such Clothes, or, indeed any Fires in the Chambers, yet presently the scalds were seen plainly, by every Body, on the Mouths of the Complainers, and not only the Smell, but the Smoke of the Burning, sensibly filled the Chambers.  
Once more; the miserable exclaimed extremely of Branding Irons heating at the Fire, on the Hearth, to mark them; now though the standers-by could see no Irons, yet they could see distinctly the Print of them in the Ashes, and smell them too as they were carried by the not-seen Furies, unto the Poor Creatures for whom they were intended; and those Poor Creatures were thereupon so stigmatised with them, that they will bear the Marks of them to their Dying Day. Nor are these the Tenth Part of the Prodigies that fell out among the Inhabitants of New-England.  
Flashy People may Burlesque these Things, but when Hundreds of the most sober People in a Country, where they have as much Mother-Wit certainly, as the rest of Mankind, know them to be True, nothing but the absurd and froward Spirit of Sadducism can Question them. I have not yet mentioned so much as one Thing that will not be justified, if it be required, by the Oaths of more considerate Persons than any that can ridicule these odd Phaenomena.  
But the worst part of this astonishing Tragedy is yet behind; wherein Sir William Phips, at last, being dropped, as it were from the Machine of Heaven, was an Instrument of casing the Distresses of the Land, now so darkened by the Wrath of the Lord of Hosts. There were very worthy Men upon the spot, where the assault from Hell was first made, who apprehended themselves called from the God of Heaven, to sift the business unto the bottom of it; and, indeed, the continual Impressions, which the out-cries and the havocks of the afflicted People that lived nigh unto them, caused on their Minds, gave no little Edge to this Apprehension.  
The Persons were Men eminent for Wisdom and Virtue, and they went about their enquiry into the matter as driven unto it, by a Conscience of Duty to God and the World. They did in the first Place, take it for granted, that there are Witches, or, wicked Children of Men, who upon Covenanting with, and Commissioning of Evil Spirits, are attended by their Ministry to accomplish the Things desired of them: To satisfy them in which Persuasion, they had not only the Assertions of the Holy Scripture; Assertions, which the Witch-Advocates cannot evade without shifts, too foolish for any Prudent, or too profane for any Honest Man, to use; and they had not only the well-attested Relations of the gravest Authors from Bodin to Bovet, and from Binsfeld to Bromhal and Baxter, to deny all which, would be as reasonable as to turn the Chronicles of all Nations into Romances, of Don Quixot, and the seven Champions; but they had also an Ocular Demonstration in one, who a little before had been executed for Witcheraft, when Joseph Dudley Esquire was the Chief Judge. There was one whose Magical Images were found, and who confessing her Deeds, (when a Jury of Doctors returned her, Compos Mentis) actually shown the whole Court, by what Ceremonies used unto them, she directed her Familiar Spirits, how and where to Cruciate the Objects of her Malice; and the Experiments being made over and over again, before the whole Court, the Effect followed exactly, in the Hurts done to People at a distance from her. The Existence of such Witches, was now taken for granted by those good Men, wherein so far the generality of reasonable Men have thought, they ran well; and they soon received the Confessions of some accused Persons to confirm them in it; but then, they took one thing more for granted, wherein 'tis now as generally thought they went out of the Way. The Afflicted People vehemently accused several Persons in several Places, that the Spectres which afflicted them, did exactly resemble Them; until the importunity of the Accusations did provoke the Magistrates to examine them. When many of the accused came upon their Examination, it was found, that the Daemons, than a thousand ways abusing of the poor afflicted People, had with a marvellous exactness represented them; yea it was found that many of the accused, but casting their Eye on the afflicted, the afflicted, though their Faces were never so much another way, would fall down and lie in a sort of a swoon, wherein they would continue, whatever Hands were laid upon them, until the Hands of the accused came to touch them, and then they would revive immediately: And it was found, that varioukinds' of natural Actions done by many of the accused in or to their own Bodies, as Leaning, Bending, Turning Awry, or Squeezing their Hands or the like, were presently attended with the like things praeternaturally done upon the Bodies of the Afflicted, though they were so far asunder that the Afflicted could not at all observe the Accused.  
It was also found that the Flesh of the Afflicted was often Bitten, at such a rate, that not only the Print of Teeth would be left on their Flesh, but the very Slaver of Spittle too: And there would appear just such a set of Teeth, as was in the Accused, even such as might be clearly distinguished from other People's. And usually the Afflicted went through a terrible deal of seeming Difficulties from the tormenting Spectres, and must be long waited on, before they could get a Breathing Space from their Torments, to give in their Testimonies.  
Now many good Men took up an Opinion, That the Providence of God would not permit an Innocent Person to come under such a Spectral Representation; and that a concurrence of so many Circumstances, would prove an Accused Person to be in a Confederacy with the Daemons thus afflicting of the Neighbours; they judged, that except these Things might amount unto a Conviction, it would scarce be possible ever to Convict a Witch; and they had some Philosophical Schemes of Witcheraft, and or the Method and Manner, wherein Magical Poisons operate, which further supported them in their Opinion.  
Sundry of the Accused Persons were brought unto their Trial, while this Opinion was yet prevailing in the Minds of the Judges, and the Juries, and perhaps the most of the People in the County, then mostly Suffering; and though against some of them that were Tried, there came in so much other Evidence of their Diabolical Compacts, that some of the most Judicious and yet vehement Opposers of the Notions then in Vogue, publicly declared, Had they themselves been on the Bench, they could not have Acquitted them; nevertheless, divers were Condemned, against whom the chief Evidence was founded in the Spectral Exhibitions.  
And it happening, that some of the Accused coming to confess themselves Guilty, their Shapes were no more seen by any of the Afflicted, though the Confession had been kept never so Secret, but instead thereof the Accused themselves became in all Vexations just like the Afflicted; this yet more confirmed many in the Opinion, that had been taken up.  
And another thing that quickened them yet more to Act upon it, was, That the Afflicted were frequently entertained with Apparitions of Chosts at the same Time, that the Spectres of the supposed Witches troubled them: Which Christ's always cast the Beholders into far more Consternation than any of the Spectres; and when they exhibited themselves, they cried out of being Murdered by the Witchcrafts, or other Violences of the Persons represented in the Spectres. Once or Twice, these Apparitions were seen by others at the very same time that they showed themselves to the afflicted, and seldom were they seen at all, but when something unusual, and suspicious, had attended the Death of the Party thus appearing.  
The Afflicted People, many times, had never heard any thing before of the Persons appearing in Ghost, or of the Persons Accused by the Apparitions; and yet the Accused upon Examination have confessed the Murders of those very Persons, though these Accused also knew nothing of the Apparitions, that had come in against them; and the Afflicted Persons likewise without any private Agreement or Collution, when successively brought into a Room, have all asserted the same Apparitions to be there before them: These Murders did seem to call for an Enquiry.  
On the other Part, there were many Persons of great Judgement, Piety, and Experience, who from the beginning were very much dissatisfied at these Proceed; they feared, lest the Devil would get so far into the Faith of the People, that for the sake of many Truths, which they might find him telling of them, they would come, at length, to believe all his Lies, whereupon what a Desolation of Names, yea and of lives also, would ensue, a Man might without much Witcheraft be able to Prognosticate; and they feared, left in such an extraordinary Descent of Wicked Spirits from their High Places, upon us, there might such Principles be taken up, as, when put into Practice, would unavoidably cause the Righteous to perish wi●h the Wicked, and procure the Bloodshed of Persons like the Gibeonites, whom some learned Men suppose to be under a false Pretence of Witcherast, by Saul exterminated.  
However uncommon it might be, for guil●less Pe●sons to come under such unaccountable Circumstances, as were on so many of the Accused, they held, Some things there are, which if suffered to be Common, would subvert Government, and Disband and Ruin Humane Society, yet God sometimes may suffer such Things to evene, that we may know thereby, how much we are beholden to him, for that restraint which he lays upon the Infernal Spirits, who would else reduce a World into a Chaos. They had already known of one at the Town of Groton, hideously agitated by Devils, who in her fits, cried out much against a very Godly. Woman in the Town, and when that Woman approached unto her, though the Eyes of the Creature, were never so shut, she yet manifested a violent Sense of her approach: But, when the Gracious Woman thus Impeached, had prayed earnestly with and for this Creature; then instead of crying out against her any more, she owned, that she had in all, been deluded by the Devil. They now saw, that the more the Afflicted were Harkened unto, the more the number of the Accused increased; until, at last, many scores were cried out upon, and among them, some, who by the Vnblameableness, yea and Serviceableness of their whole Conversation, had obtained the Just Reputation of Good People among all that were acquainted with them. The Character of the Afflicted likewise added unto the common Distaste, for though some of them too, were Good People, yet others of them, and such of them as were most Flippent at Accusing, had a far other Character.  
In fine, the Country was in a dreadful Ferment, and wise Men foresaw a long Train of Dismal, and Bloody Consequences. Hereupon they first advised, that the Afflicted might be kept asunder, in the closest Privacy; and one particular Person, (whom I have cause to know) in pursuance of this Advice, offered himself singly to provide Accommodations for any six of them, that so the Success of more than ordinary Prayer with Fasting might with Patience, be experienced, before any other Courses were taken.  
And Sir William Phips arriving to his Government, after this ensnaring horrible Storm was begun, did consult the neighbouring Ministers of the Province, who made unto His Excellency and the Council a return, (drawn up, at their desire, by Mr. Mather the Younger as I have been informed) wherein they declared.  
We Judge, That in the Prosecution of These and all such Witchcrafts, there is need of a very Critical and Exquisite Caution. Lest, by too much Credulity, for things received only upon the Devil's Authority, there be a Door opened for a long Train of miserable Consequences, and Satan get an Advantage over us; for we should not be Ignorant of his Devices.  
As in complaints upon Witchcrafts, there may be Matters of Enquiry, which do not amount unto Matters of Presumption; and there may be Matters of Presumption, which yet may not be reckoned Matters of Conviction, so 'tis necessary, that all Proceed thereabout, be managed with an excee●●●g Tenderness towards those that may be complained of; especially if they have been Persons formerly of an unblemished Reputation.  
When the first Enquiry is made into the Circumstances of such as may lie under any just Suspicion of Witchcrafts, we could wish, that there may be admitted as little as is possible of such Noise, Company, and Openness, as may too hastily expose them that are Examined; and that there may nothing be used as a Test for the Trial of the Suspected, the lawfulness whereof may be doubted among the People of God: But that the Directions given by such judicious Writers as Perkins and Bernard, be consulted in such a Case.  
Presumptions, whereupon Persons may be committed, and much more Convictions, whereupon Persons may be condemned, as guilty of Witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more considerable, than barely the Accused Persons being represented by a Spectre to the Afflicted: Inasmuch as it is an undoubted, and a notorious Thing, that a Daemon may be God's Permission, appear, even to ill Purposes, in the shape of an Innocent, yea, and a Virtuous Man: Nor can we esteem Alterations made in the Sufferers, by a look or touch of the Accused, to be an infallible Evidence of Gild; but frequently liable to be abused by the Devil's Legerdemaines.  
We know not whether some remarkable Affronts given to the Devils, by our disbelieving of those Testimonies whose whole Force and Strength, is from them alone, may not put a Period unto the Progress of a direful Calamity begun upon us, in the Accusation of so many Persons, whereof, we hope, some are yet clear from the great Transgression, laid unto their Charge.  
The Ministers of the Province also being Jealous, left this Counsel should not be duly followed, requested the Precedent of Harvard-Colledge to Compose and Publish, (which he did) some Cases of Conscience referring to these Difficulties: In which Treatise he did, with Demonstrations of incomparable Reason and Reading evince it, That Satan may appear in the Shape of an Innocent and a Virtuous Person, to afflict those that suffer by the Diabolical Molestations: And that the Ordeal of the Sight, and the Touch, is not a Conviction of a Covenant with the Devil, but liable to great Exceptions against the lawfulness, as well as the Evidence of it: And that either a Free and Fair Confession of the Criminals, or the Oath of two Credible Persons proving such Things against the Person Accused, as none but such as have a Familiarity with the Devil can know, or do, is necessary to the Proof of the Crime. Thus, 
Cum misit Natura Feras, & Monstra per Orbem,  
Misit & Alciden qui Fera Monstra domet.   
The Dutch and French Ministers in the Province of New-York, having likewise about the same Time, their Judgement asked by the Chief Judge of that Province, who was then a Gentleman of New-England, They gave it in under their Hands, That if we Believe no Venefick Witchcraft, we must Renounce the Scripture of God, and the Consent of almost all the World; but that yet the Apparition of a Person Afflicting another, is a very Insufficient Proof of a Witch; nor is it Inconsistent with the Holy and Righteous Government of God over men, to permit the Affliction of the Neighbours, by Devils in the shape of Good men; and that a Good Name obtained by a Good Life, should not be Lost by Mere Spectral Accusations.  
Now upon a Deliberate Review of these Things, His Excellency first Reprieved, and then Pardoned many of them that had been Condemned; and there fell out several strange Things, that caused the Spirit of the Country to run, as vehemently upon the acquitting of all the Accused, as it by mistake ran at first upon the Condemning of them. Some that had been zealously of the Mind, that the Devil's could not in the Shapes of good Men, afflict other Men, were terribly Confuted, by having their own Shapes and the Shapes of their most intimate and valued Friends thus Abused. And though more than twice Twenty, had made such voluntary, and harmonious, and uncontrollable Confessions, that if they were all Shame, there was therein the greatest Violation made by the Efficacy of the Invisible World, upon the Rules of Understanding Humane Affairs, that was ever seen since God made Man upon the Earth, yet they did so recede from their Confessions, that it was every clear, some of them had been hitherto, in a sort of a Preternatural Dream, wherein, they had said of themselves, they knew not what themselves.  
In fine, The last Courts that sat upon this Thorny Business, finding that it was impossible to Penetrate into the whole Meaning of the Things that had happened, and that so many unsearchable Cheats were enterwoven into the Conclusion of a Mysterious Business, which perhaps had not crept thereinto at the Beginning of it, they cleared the Accused as fast as they Tried them; and within a little while the Afflicted were most of them delivered out of their Troubles also: And the Land had Peace restored unto it, by the God of Peace, treading Satan under foot. Erasmus, among other Historians, does tell us, that at a Town in Germany, a Daemon appearing on the Top of a Chimney, threatened that he would set the Town on Fire, and at length scattering some Ashes abroad, the whole Town was presently and horribly Burnt unto the Ground.  
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 Steersman 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.  
But the QVEEN 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 alarmed 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 Daemons, ut quae non sunt, sic tamen, quasi sint, conspicienda Hominibus exhibeant.  
But the Devils being thus vanquished, we shall next hear, that some of his most devoted and resembling Children, are so too.   

SECT. 17.  
AS one of the first Actions done by Sir William, after he came to the Age of Doing, was to save the Lives of many poor People from the Rage of the Diabolical Indians in the Eastern Parts of the Country, so now he was come to the Government, his Mind was very vehemently set upon recovering of those Parts, from the Miseries, which a New and a Long War of the Indians had brought upon them. His Birth and Youth, in the East, had rendered him well known unto the Indians there; he had Hunted, and Fished many a weary Day, in his Childhood with them; and when those rude Savages had got the Story by the End, that he had found a Ship full of Money, and was know become all-one-a-King! They were mightily astonished at it: But when they farther understood that he was become the Governor of New-England, it added a further Degree of Consternation to their Astonishment. He likewise was better acquainted with the Situation of those Regions, than most other Men; and he considered what vast Advantages might arise, to no less, than the whole English Nation, from the Lumber, and Fishery and Naval-stores, which those Regions might soon supply the whole Nation withal, if once they were well settled with good Inhabitants.  
Wherefore Governor Phips, took the first Opportunity, to raise an Army, with which he Traveled in Person, unto the East-Country to find out and cut off the Barbarous Enemy, which had continued for near four Years together, making horrible Havoc on the Plantations, that lay all along the Northern Frontiers of New-England: And having pursued those worse than Scythian Wolves, till they could be no longer followed, he did, with a very laudable Skill, and unusual Speed, and with less Cost unto the Crown, than perhaps ever such a Thing was done in the World, erect a strong Fort, at Pemmaquid,  
This Fort, he contrived so much in the very Heart of the Country now possessed by the Enemy, as very much to hinder the several Nations of the Tawnies from Clanning together, for the common Disturbance; and his Design was, that a sufficient Garrison being here posted, they might from thence, upon Advice, issue forth to surprise that ferocient Enemy. At the same time he would fain have gone in Person up the Bay of Funda, with a convenient Force, to have spoiled a Nest of Rebellious Frenchmen, who being Rendezvouzed at St. John's, had a yearly Supply of Aminunition from France, with which they still supplied the Indians, unto the extreme Detriment of the English, but his Friends for a long time, would not permit him to expose himself unto the Inconveniencies of that Expedition.  
However, he took such Methods, that the Indian Kings of the East, within a little while, had their Stomaches brought down, to sue and beg for a Peace; And making their Appearance at the Newfort, in Pemmaquid, Aug. 11. 1693. They did there Sign an Instrument, wherein, lamenting the Miseries which their Adherence to the French Counsels, had brought them into, they did for themselves and with the Consent of all the Indians from the River of Merrimack, to the most Easterly Bounds of all the Province, acknowledge their Hearty Subjection and Obedience unto the Crown of England, and solemnly Covenant, Promise, and Agree, to and with Sir William Phips, Captain General and Governor in Chief over the Province, and his Successors in that Place, That they would for ever cease all Acts of Hostility towards the Subjects of the Crown of England, and hold a Constant Friendship with all the English. That they would utterly abandon the French Interests, and not secure or conceal any Enemy Indians, from Canada or elsewhere, that should come to any of their Plantations within the English Territories: That all English Captives, which they had among them, should be returned with all possible speed, and no Ransom or Payment be given for any of them; That their Majesty's Subjects the English, now should quietly enter upon, and for ever improve and enjoy all and singular their Rights of Lands, and former Possessions, within the Eastern Parts of the Province, without any claims from any Indians, or being ever disturbed therein: That all Trade and Commerce, which hereafter might be allowed between the English and the Indians should be under a Regulation stated by an Act of the General Assembly, or as limited by the Governor of the Province, with the Consent and Advice of his Council. And That, if any Controversy hereafter happen between any of the English and the Indians, no Private Revenge was to be taken by the Indians, but proper Applications to be made unto His Majesty's Government, for the due Remedy thereof: Submitting themselves herewithal to be Governed by His Majesty's Laws.  
And for the Manifestation of their Sincerity in the Submission thus made, the Hypocritical Wretches delivered Hostages for their Fidelity; and then set their Marks and Seals, no less than thirteen Sagamores of them, (with Names of more than a Persian length) unto this Instrument.  
The first Rise of this Indian War, had hitherto been almost as Dark as that of the River Nilus: 'Tis true, if any Wild English did rashly begin to provoke and affront the Indians, yet the Indians had a fairer way to obtain Justice, than by Bloodshed: However, upon the New-English Revolution, the State of the War became wholly New: The Government then employed all possible ways to procure a good Understanding with the Indians, but all the English Offers, Kindnesses, Courtesies were barbarously requited by them, with New Acts of the most perfidious Hostility. Notwithstanding all this, there were still some Nice People, that had their scruples about the Justice of the War; but upon this New Submission of the Indians, if ever those Rattle-snakes (the only Rattle-snakes, which, they say, were ever seen to the Northward of Merimack-River) should stir again, the most scrupulous Persons in the World must own, That it must be the most unexceptionable piece of Justice in the World for to extinguish them.  
Thus did the God of Heaven bless the unwearied Applications of Sir William Phips, for the restoring of Peace unto New-England, when the Country was quite out of Breath, in its Endeavours for its own Preservation, from the continual outrages of an inaccessible Enemy, and by the Poverty coming in, so like an armed Man from the unsuccessfulness of their former Armies, that it could not imagine, how to take one step further in its Wars. The most Happy Respite of Peace beyond Merimack-River being thus procured, the Governor immediately set himself to use all possible Methods, that it might be Peace, like a River, nothing short of Everlasting.  
He therefore prevailed with Two or Three Gentlemen to join with him, in sending a Supply of Necessaries for Life, unto the Indians, until the General Assembly could come together to settle the Indian-Trade for the Advantage of the Public, that the Indians might not by Necessity be driven again, to become a French Propriety; although by this Action, as the Gentlemen themselves were great Losers in their Estates, thus He Himself declared unto the Members of the General Assembly, that he would upon Oath, give an Account unto them of all his own Gains, and count himself a Gainer, if in lieu of all, they would give him one Beaver-Hat. The same Generosity also caused him to take many a tedious Voyage, accompanied sometimes with his Fidus Achates and very Dear Friend, Kinsman and Neighbour, Colonel John Philip's, between Boston and Pemmaquid; and this in the bitter Weeks of the New-English, which is almost a Russian Winter.  
He was a sort of Confessor under such Torments of Cold, as once made the Martyrdom of Muria, and others commemorated in Orations of the Ancients; and the Snow and Ice which Pliny calls, The Punishment of Mountains, he cheerfully endured, without any other Profit unto himself, but only the Pleasure of thereby establishing and centinuing unto the People the Liberty to Sleep quietly in their warm Nests at home, while he was thus concerned for them abroad. Non mihi sed Populo, the Motto of the Emperor Hadrian, was engraved on the Heart of Sir William: NOT FOR MYSELF, BUT FOR MY PEOPLE: Or that of Maximin, Quo major, hoc Laboriosior, the more Honourable, the more Laborious.  
Indeed the Restlessness of his Travels to the Southern as well as the Eastern Parts of the Country, when the Public Safety called for his Presence, would have made one to think on the Translation which the King of Portugal, on a very extraordinary occasion, gave the Fourth Verse in the Hundred and Twenty first Psalm. He will not slumber, nor will he suffer to sleep, the Keeper of Israel. Nor did he only try to Cicurate the Indians of the East, by other Prudent and Proper Treatments, but he also furnished himself with an Indian Preacher of the Gospel, whom he carried unto the Eastward, with an Intention to teach them the Principles of the Protestant Religion, and unteach them the mixed Paganry and Popery which hitherto Diabolized them. To unteach them, I say; for they had been Taught by the French Priests this among other things, That the Mother of our Blessed Saviour was a French Lady, and that they were Englishmen by whom our Saviour was murdered; and that it was therefore a meritorious Thing to destroy the English Nation. The Name of the Preacher whom the Governor carried with him, was Nahauton, one of the Natives; and because the passing of such Expressions from the Mouth of a Poor Indian may upon some Accounts be worthy of Remembrance, let it be Remembered, that when the Governor propounded unto him such a Mission to the Eastern Indians, he replied, I know that I shall probably Endanger my Life by going to Preach the Gospel among the Frenchified Indians, but I know that it will be a Service unto the Lord Jesus Christ; and therefore I will venture to go.  
God grant that his Behaviours may be in all things, at all times, according to these his Expressions! While these things were doing, having Intelligence of a French Man of War, expected at St. John's, he Dispatched away the Non-such-Frigat thither to intercept him; nevertheless by the gross Negligence and perhaps Cowardice of the Captain, who had lately come from England, with Orders to take the Command of her, instead of one, who had been by Sir William a while before put in, and one who had signalised himself by doing of notable Service for the King and Country in it, the Frenchman arrived, unladed, and went away untouched. The Governor was extremely offended at this notorious Defici 〈…〉 y; it cast him into a great Impatience, to see the Nation so wretchedly served; and he would himself have g●●● to Saint John's with a Resolution to Spoil that Harbour of Spoilers, if he had not been taken off, by being sent for home to Whitehall, in the very midst of his Undertake.  
But the Treacherous Indians being poisoned with the French Enchantments, and furnished with brave New-Coats, and New Arm● and all new Incentives to War, by the Man of War newly come in, they presently, and perfidiously, fell upon two English Towns, and Butchered and Captived many of the Inhabitants, and made a New War, which the New-Englanders know not, whether it will End, until either Canada become an English Province, or that State arrive, wherein they shall beat Swords into Ploughshares and Spears into Pruning-books. And no doubt, the taking off Sir William Phips, was no small Encouragement unto the Indians in this Relapse, into the Villainies and Massacres of a New Invasion upon the Country.   

SECT. 18.  
READER, 'Tis Time for us to view a little more to the Life, the Picture of the Person, the Actions of whose Life, we have hitherto been looking upon. Know then, That for his Exterior, he was One Tall, beyond the common set of Men, and Thick as well as Tall, and Strorg as well as Thick: He was, in all Respects, exceedingly Robust, and able to conquer such Difficulties of Diet and of Travel, as would have killed most Men alive: Nor did the Fat, whereinto he grew very much, in his later Years, take away the Vigour of his Motions.  
He was well-set, and he was therewithal, of a very Comely, though a very Manly Countenance: A Countenance where any true skill in Physiognomy, would have read the Characters of a Generous Mind. Wherefore passing to his Interior, the very first Thing which there offered itself unto Observation, was a most incomparable Generosity.  
And of this, besides the innumerable Instances, which he gave in his usual Hatred of Dirty, or Little Tricks, there was one Instance for which I must freely say, I never saw Three Men in this World that Equalled him; this was, His wonderfully Forgiving Spirit. In the vast Variety of Business, through which he Razed in his Time, he met with many, and mighty Injuries, but, although I have heard all, that the most venomous Malice could ever Hiss at his Memory, I never did hear unto this Hour, that he did ever once deliberately Revenge an Injury.  
Upon certain Affronts, he has made sudden Returns, that have showed Choler enough, and he has by Blow as well as by Word, chastised Incivilities: He was, indeed, sufficiently impatient of being put upon, and when Base Men, surprising him at some Disadvantages (for else few Men durst have done it) have sometimes drawn upon him, he has, without the Wicked Madness of a Formal Duel, made them feel that he knew how to Correct Fools. Nevertheless, he ever declined a Deliberate Revenge of a Wrong done unto him; though few Men upon Earth, have in their Vicissitudes, been furnished with such frequent Opportunities of Revenge, as Heaven brought into the Hands of this Gentleman.  
Under great Provocations, he would commonly say, 'Tis no Matter, let them alone; sometime, or other they'll see their Weakness and Rashness, and have occasion for me to do them a Kindness: And they shall then see, I have quite forgotten all their Baseness. Accordingly, 'twas remarkable to see it, That few Men ever did him a Mischief, but those Men afterwards had occasion for him to do Them a Kindness; and he did the Kindness with as forgetful a Bravery, as if the Mischief had never been done at all. The Emperor Theodosius himself could not be readier to Forgive; so worthily did he verify that Observation.  
Quo quisque est Major, magis est Placabilis Ira,  
Et Faciles Motus, Mens Generosa capit.  
In those Places of Power whereto the Providence of God, by several Degrees raised him, it still fell out so, that before his Rise thereunto, he underwent such Things, as he counted very hard Abuses, from those very Persons over whom, the Divine Providence afterwards gave him the Ascendant.  
By such Trials, the Wisdom of Heaven still prepared him, as David before him, for successive Advancements; and as he behaved himself with a marvellous Long-Juffering, when he was Tried, by such Mortifications, thus when he came to be Advanced, he convinced all Mankind, that he had perfectly Buried all the old Offences, in an Eternal Amnesty. I was myself an Earwitness, that one, who was an Eye-witness of his Behaviour under such Probations of his Patience, did, long before his Arrival to that Honour, say unto him, Sir, Forgive those that give you these Vexations, and know that the God of Heaven intends, before he has done with you, to make you the Governor of New-England! And when he did indeed become the Governor of New-England, he showed that he still continued a Governor of himself, in his Treating all that had formerly been in ill Terms with him, with as much Favour and Freedom, as if there had never happened the least Exasperations: Though any Governor, that ken Hobbianism, can easily contrive Ways enough to wreak a Spite, where he owes it.  
It was with some Christian Remark, that he read the Pagan-story of the Renowned Fabius Maximus, who being preferred unto the highest Office in the Commonwealth, did through a Zeal for his Country, overcome the greatest Contempts that any Person of Quality could have received. Minutius the Master of the Horse, and the next Person in Dignity to himself, did first privately Traduce him, as one that was no Soldier, and less Politician; and he afterwards did both by Speeches and Letters, prejudice not only the Army, but also the Senate against him, so that Minutius was now by an unpresidented Commission brought into an Equality with Fabius.  
All this while the great Fabius did not throw up his Cares for the Commonwealth, but with a wondrous Equality of Mind, endured equally the Malice of the Judges, and the Fury of the Commons; and when Minutius, a while after, was with all his Forces, upon the Point of perishing by the victorious Arms of Hannibal, this very Fabius, not listening to the Dictates of Revenge, came in, and helped him, and saved him; and so by a rare Virtue, he made his worst Adversaries, the Captives of his Generosity.  
One of the Ancients, upon such an History, cried out, If Heathens can do thus much for the Glory of their Name, what shall not Christians do for the Glory of Heaven! And Sir William Phips did so much more than thus much, that besides his meriting the Glory of such a Name, as PHIPPIUS MAXIMUS, he therein had upon him the Symptoms of a Title to the Glory of Heaven, in the Seal of his own Pardon from God. Nor was this Generosity in HIS EXCELLENCY, the Governor of New-England, unaccompanied with many other Excellencies; whereof the Piety of his Carriage towards God, is worthy to be first mentioned.  
It is true, He was very Zealous for all Men to enjoy such a Liberty of Conscience, as he judged a Native Right of Mankind: And he was extremely Troubled, at the over-boiling Zeal of some good Men, who formerly took that wrong Way of reclaiming Heretics, by Persecution. For this Generosity it may be, some would have compared him unto Gallio, the Governor of Achaia, whom our Preachers, perhaps with Mistake enough, think to be condemned in the Scripture, for his not appearing to be a Judge, in Matters which indeed fell not under his Cognizance.  
And I shall be content that he be compared unto that Gentleman; for that Gallio was the Brother of Seneca, who gives this Character of him, That there was no Man, who did not love him too little, if he could Love him any more; and, That there was no Mortal so Dear to any, as he was to all; and, That he hated all Vices, but none more than Flattery.  
But while the Generosity of Sir William, caused him to desire a Liberty of Conscience, his Piety would not allow a Liberty of Profaneness, either to himself or others. He did not affect any mighty show of Devotion, and when he saw any that were evidently careful to make a show, and especially, if at the same Time they were notoriously Defective, in the Duties of Common Justice or Goodness, or the Duties of the Relations, wherein God had stationed them, he had an extreme Aversion for them.  
Nevertheless, he did show a Conscientious Desire to observe the Laws of the Lord Jesus Christ in his Conversation; and he conscientiously attended upon the Exercises of Devotion in the Seasons thereof, on Lectures, as well as on Lords-Days, and in the Daily-Sacrifice, the Morning and Evening Service of his own Family; yea, and at the Private Meetings of the Devout People kept every Formight in the Neighbourhood.  
Besides all this, when he had great Works before him, he would Invite good Men to come and Fast and Pray with him at his House for the Success thereof; and when he had succeeded in what he had undertaken, he would prevail with them to come and keep a Day of Solemn Thanksgiving with him. His Love to Almighty God, was indeed, manifested by nothing more, than his Love to those that had the Image of God, upon them; He Hearty, and with a Real Honour for them, Loved all Godly Men; and in so doing, he did not confine Godliness to this or that Party, but wherever he saw the Fear of God, in one of a Congregational, or Presbyterian, or Antipaedobaptist, or Episcopalian Persuasion, he did, without any Difference, express towards them a Reverend Affection.  
But he made no Men more welcome, than those Good Men, whose Office 'tis to promote and preserve Goodness in all other Men; even the Ministers of the Gospel: Especially when they were such as faithfully Discharged their Office: And from these at any Time, the least Admonition or Intimation of any good Thing to be done by him, he entertained with a most obliging Alacrity. His Religion in Truth, was one Principle that added Virtue unto that vast Courage, which was always in him to a Degree Heroical. Those Terrible Nations, which made their Descents from the Northern on the Southern Parts of Europe, in those Elder Ages, when so to swarm out was more frequent with them, were inspired with a valiant Contempt of Life, by the Opinion, wherein their famous Odin instructed them. That their Death was but an Entrance into another Life, wherein they who Died in Warlike Actions, were bravely feasted with the God of War for ever: 'Tis inexpressible, How much the Courage of those fierce Mortals was fortified by that Opinion.  
But when Sir William Phips was asked by some that observed his Valiant Contempt of Death, What it was that made him so little afraid of Dying, he gave a better grounded Account of it, than those Pagans could; his Answer was, I do humbly believe, That the Lord Jesus Christ shed his Precious Blood for me, by His Death procuring my Peace with God: and what should I now be afraid of Dying for?  
But this Leads me to mention the Humble and Modest Carriage in him, towards other Men, which accompanied this his Piety. There were certain Pomp's belonging unto the several Places of Honour, through which he passed; Pomps, that are very taking to Men of little Souls: But although he risen from so little, yet he discovered a marvellous Contempt of those Airy Things, and as far, as he handsomely could, he declined being ceremoniously, or any otherwise than with a Dutch Modesty waited upon. And it might more truly be said of him, than it was of Aristides, He was never seen the Prouder for any Honour, that was done him from his Countrymen.  
Hence, albeit I have read that complaint, made by a worthy Man, I have often observed, and this not without some Blushing, that even good People have had a kind of shame upon them, to acknowledge their low beginning, and used all Arts to hid it. I could never observe the least of that Fault in this worthy Man; but he would speak of his own low beginning with as much Freedom and Frequency, as if he had been afraid of having it forgotten.  
It was counted an Humility in King Agathocles, the Son of a Potter, to be served therefore in Earthen Vessels, as Plutarch hath informed us: It was counted an Humility in Archbishop Willigis, the Son of a Wheel-wright, therefore to have Wheels hung about his Bedchamber, with this Inscription, Recole undè Veneris, i. e. Remember thy Original. But such was the Humility and Lowliness of this Rising Man! Not only did he after his return to his Country in his Greatness, one Day, make a splendid Feast for the Ship Carpenters of Boston, among whom he was willing at his Table, to Commemorate, the Mercy of God unto him, who had once been a Ship Carpenter himself, but he would on all occasions permit, yea, Study to have his Meannesses remembered.  
Hence upon frequent occasions of Uneasiness in his Government, he would choose thus to express himself, Gentlemen, were it not that I am to do Service for the Public, I should be much easier in returning unto my Broad Axe again! And hence, according to the Affable Courtesy, which he ordinarily used unto all sorts of Persons (quite contrary to the Asperity, which the old Proverb, expects in the Raised) he would particularly, when Sailing in sight of Kennebeck, with Armies under his Command, call the Young Soldiers and Sailors upon Deck, and speak to them after this Fashion; Young Men, It was upon that Hill, that I kept Sheep, a few Years ago; and since you see that Almighty God has brought me to something, do you Learn to fear God, and be Honest, and Mind your Business, and follow no bad Courses, and you don't know what you may come to! A Temper not altogether unlike, what the Advanced Shepherd had, when he wrote the Twenty Third Psalms; or when he Imprinted on the Coin of his Kingdom, the Remembrance of his old Condition: For Christianus Gerson, a Christianized Jew, has informed us, That on the one side of David's Coin, were to be seen his old Pouch and Crook, the Instruments of Shepherdy; on the other side, were Enstamped the Towers of Zion.  
In fine, our Sir William was a Person of so sweet a Temper, that they who were most intimately acquainted with him, would commonly pronounce him, The best Conditioned Gentleman in the World! And by the continual Discoveries and Expressions of such a Temper; he so gained the Hearts of them who waited upon him in any of his Expeditions, that they would commonly profess themselves willing still, to have gone with him to the End of the World.  
But if all other People found him so kind a Neighbour, we may easily infer what an Husband he was unto his Lady. Leaving unmentioned that Virtue of his Chastity, which the Prodigious Depravation, brought by the Late Reigns upon the Manners of the Nation, has made worthy to be mentioned as a Virtue somewhat Extraordinary; I shall rather pass on to say, That the Love, even to Fondness, with which he always treated her, was a Matter not only of Observation, but even of such Admiration, that every one said, The Age afforded not a kinder Husband! This Kindness appeared not only in his making it no less his Delight than Study, to render his whole Conversation agreeable to her, but also, and perhaps chief, in the Satisfaction which it gave him, to have his Interests very much at her Command. Before he first went abroad, upon Wrack Designs, he, to make his long Absence, easy unto her, made her his Promise, that what Estate the God of Heaven should then bestow upon him, should be entirely at her Disposal, in Case that she survived him.  
And when Almighty God accordingly bestowed upon him a Fair Estate, he not only rejoiced in seeing so many Acts of Charity done every Day by Her bountiful Hand, but he also (not having any Children of his own) Adopted a Nephew of Her's to be his Heir: And reckoning that a Verbal Intimation unto her of what Pious and Public Uses, he would have any Part of his Estate, after his Death put unto, as well as what Supports he would have afforded unto his own Relations, would be as much attended by Her, as if he had otherwise taken the most effectual Care imaginable, he contented himself with Bequeathing all he had entirely to Her, in his Last Will and Testament; He knew very well, that Her Will, in Point of a Liberal Disposition to Honour the Lord with the Substance, which the Lord had in so strange a manner enriched them withal, would not fail of being equal with his own.  
But we must now return to our Story.   

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 inquiries, 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 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 signalises 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-Flirgers, 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 ginger, 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 Reproach him, and Ruin him; That his Adversaries though they should go very near gaining the Point, should yet miss of doing so; That he should hit upon a vastly Richer Matter than any that he had hitherto met withal; That he should continue Thirteen Years in his Public Station, full of Action, and full of Hurry; And the rest of his Days he should spend in the Satisfaction of a Peaceable Retirement.  
Mr. Phips received this undesired Paper with Trouble and with Contempt; and threw it by among certain lose Papers, in the Bottom of a Trunk, where his Lady some Years after accidentally Lit upon it. His Lady with Admiration, saw step after step, very much of it accomplished; but when she heard from England, that Sir William was coming over with a Commission to be Governor of New-England, in that very Year of his Life, which the Paper specified, she was afraid of letting it lie any longer in the House, but cast it into the Fire.  
Now the Thing which I must invite my Reader to Remark is this; That albeit Almighty God may permit the Devils to predict, and perhaps to perform very many particular things to Men, that shall by such a presumptuous and unwarrantable Juggle, as Astrology (so Dr. Hall well calls it!) or any other Divination, consult them, yet the Devils which foretell many True Things, do commonly foretell some that are False, and it may be propose by the Things that are True to betray Men into some fatal Misbelief and Miscarriage about those that are False.  
Very singular therefore was the Wisdom of Sir William Phips, that, as he ever Treated these Prophecies about him with a most Pious neglect, so, when he had seen all but the two Last of them very punctually fulfilled, yea and seen the beginning of a Fulfilment unto the Last but one also, yet when I pleasantly mentioned them unto him, on purpose to Try whether there were any occasion for me humbly to give him the serious Advice, necessary in such a Case, to Anticipate the Devices of Satan, he prevented my Advice, by saying to me. Sir, I do believe there might be a cursed Snare of Satan in those Prophecies: I Believe Satan might have leave to foretell many Things, all of which might come to pass in the beginning, to lay me asleep about such things as are to follow, especially about the main chance of all; I do not know, but I am to Die this Year: For my Part, by the Help of the Grace of God; I shall endeavour to live as if I were this Year to Die. And let the Reader now attend the Event!   

SECT. 20.  
'TIS a Similitude which I have Learned from no less a Person, than the great Basil. That as the Eye sees not those Objects which are applied close unto it, and even lie upon it; but when the Objects are to some distance removed, it clearly discerns them: So, we have little sense of the Good, which we have in our Enjoyments; until God by the removal thereof, teach us better to prise what we once enjoyed. It is true, the Generality of sober and thinking People among the New-Englanders, did as highly value the Government of Sir William Phips, whilst he lived, as they do his Memory since his Death; nevertheless it must be confessed, that the Blessing which the Country had in his indefatigable Zeal, to serve the Public in all its Interests, was not so valued as it should have been.  
It was mentioned long since, as a notorious Fault in Old Egypt, That it was Loquax & Ingeniosa in Contumeliam Praefectorum Provincia; si quis fortè vitaverit Culpam, Contumeliam non effugit: And New-England has been at the best, always too faulty, in that very Character, A Province very Talkative, and Irgenious for the vilifying of its Public Servants.  
But Sir William Phips who might in a Calm of the Commonwealth have administered all things, with as General an Acceptance, as any that have gone before him, had the Disadvantage of being set at Helm in a Time as full of Storm as ever that Province had seen; and the People having their Spirits put into a Tumult by the discomposing and distempering Variety of Disasters, which had long been rendering the Time Calamitous, it was natural for them, as 'tis for all Men then, to be complaining; and you may be sure, the Rulers must in such Cases, be always complained of, and the chief Complaints must be heaped upon those that are Commanders in Chief. Nor has a certain Proverb in Asia been improper in America, He deserves no Man's good Word, of whom every Man shall speak well.  
Sir William was very hardly Handled (or Torgued at least) in the Liberty which People took to make most unbecoming and Injurious Reflections upon his Conduct, and Clamour against him even for those very Actions, which were not only Necessary to be done, but highly Beneficial unto themselves; And though he would ordinarily smile at their Frowardness, calling it, His Country Pay, yet he sometimes resented it with some uneasiness; he seemed unto himself sometimes almost as bad as Rolled about in Regulus' Barrel; and had occasion to think on the Italian Proverb, To wait for one who does not come; to lie a Bed not able to sleep; and to find it impossible to please those whom we serve, are three Griefs enough to kill a Man.  
But as Forward as the People were, under the Epedemical Vexations of the Age, yet there were very few that would not acknowledge unto the very Last, It will be hardly possible for us to see another Governor, that shall more entirely Love and serve the Country: Yea, had the Country had the Choice of their own Governor, 'tis judged their Votes, more than forty to one, would have still fallen upon him to have been the Man: And the General Assembly therefore on all occasions renewed their Petitions unto the King for his Continuance.  
Nevertheless, there was a little Party of Men, who thought they must not sleep till they had caused him to fall: And they so vigorously prosecuted certain Articles before the Council-board at Whitehal against him, that they imagined they had gained an Order of His Majesty in Council, to suspend him immediately from his Government, and appoint a Committee of Persons nominated by his Enemies, to hear all Depositions against him; and so a Report of the whole to be made unto the King and Council.  
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 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 King's Subjects, Few perhaps, or None of those Articles, had ever been form; and that he apprehended himself to be provided with a full Defence against them all.  
Nor did His Excellency seem loath to have had his Case Tried under the Brazen Tree of Gariac, if there had been such an one, as that mentioned by the Fabulous Murtadi, in his Prodigies of Egypt, a Tree which had Iron Branches with sharp Hooks at the End of them, that when any false Accuser approached, as the Fable says, immediately flew at him, and stuck in him, until he had ceased Injuring his Adversary.  
Wherefore in Obedience unto the King's Commands, he took his leave of Boston on the seventeenth of November, 1694. attended with all proper Testimonies of Respect and Honour from the Body of the People, which he had been the Head unto; and with Addresses unto their Majesties, and the Chief Ministers of State from the General Assembly, humbly imploring, that they might not be deprived of the Happiness which they had in such an Head.  
Arriving at White-Hall, he found in a few Days, that notwithstanding all the Impotent Rage of his Adversaries particularly vented and Printed in a Villainous Libel, as well as almost in as many other ways, as there are Mouths, at which Fyal sometimes has vomited out its Insernal Fires, he had all Humane Assurance of his returning in a very few Weeks again, the Governor of New-England.  
Wherefore, there were especially two Designs, full of Service to the whole English Nation, as well as his own particular Country of New-England, which he applied his Thoughts unto. First, He had a new Scene of Action opened unto him, in an opportunity to supply the Crown with all Naval Stores at most easy Rates, from those Eastern Parts of the Massachuset Province, which through the Conquest that He had made thereof, came to be Inserted in the Massachuset-Charter. As no Man was more capable than He, to improve this opportunity unto a vast Advantage, so his Inclination to it, was according to his Capacity.  
And he longed with some Impatience, to see the King furnished from his own Dominions, with such floating and stately Castles, those Wooden-Walls of Great Britain, for much of which He has hitherto Traded with Foreign Kingdoms. Next, if I may say next unto this, he had an Eye upon Canada; all attempts for the reducing whereof had hitherto proved Abortive.  
It was but a few Months ago, that a considerable Fleet, under Sir Francis Wheeler, which had been sent into the West-Indies, to subdue Martineco, was ordered then to call at New-England, that being recruited there, they might make a further Descent upon Canada; but Heaven frowned upon that Expedition, especially by a terrible Sickness, the most like the Plague of any thing that has been ever seen in America, whereof there Died,  they could reach to Boston, as I was told by Sir Francis himself, no less than Thirteen Hundred Sailors out of Twenty One, and no less than Eighteen Hundred Soldiers out of Twenty four.  
It was now therefore his desire to have satisfied the King, that his whole Interest in America lay at Stake, while Canada was in French Hands: And therewithal to have laid before several Noblemen, and Gentlemen, how beneficial an Undertaking it would have been for them to have pursued the Canadien-Business, for which the New-Englanders were now grown too Feeble; their Country being too far now, as Bede says England once was, Omni Milite & floridae Juventutis Alacritate spoliata.  
Besides these two Designs in the Thoughts of Sir William, there was a Third, which he had Hopes that the King would have given him leave to have pursued, after he had continued so long in his Government, as to have obtained the more General welfare which he designed in the former Instances. I do not mean the making of New-England the Seat of a Spanish Trade, though so vastly profitable a Thing was likely to have been brought about, by his being one of an Honourable Company engaged in such a Project.  
But the Spanish Wreck, where Sir William had made his first good Voyage, was not the only, nor the Richest Wreck, that he knew to be lying under the Water. He knew particularly that when the Ship, which had Governor Boadilla Aboard, was cast away, there was, as Peter Martyr says, an entire Table of Gold of Three Thousand, Three Hundred and ten Pound Weight.  
The Duke of Albemarl's Patent for all such Wrecks now expiring, Sir William thought on the Motto, which is upon the Gold Medal, bestowed by the late King, with his Knighthood upon him, Semper Tibi pendeat Hamus: And supposing himself to have gained sufficient Information of the right Way to such a Wreck, it was his purpose upon his Dismission from his Government, once more to have gone unto his old Fishing-Trade, upon a mighty Shelf of Rocks and Bank of Sands, that lie where he had informed himself.  
But as the Prophet Haggai and Zechariah, in their Psalm upon the Grants made unto their People by the Emperors of Persia, have that Reflection, Man's Breath goeth forth, he returns to his Earth; in that very Day his Thoughts perish. My Reader must now see what came of all these considerable Thoughts. About the middle of February 1694. Sir William found himself indisposed with a Cold, which obliged him to keep his Chamber; but under this Indisposition, he received the Honour of a Visit from a very Eminent Person at White-Hall, who upon sufficient Assurance, bade him, Get well as fast as he could, for in one months' Time he should be again dispatched away to his Government of New-England.  
Nevertheless his Distemper proved a sort of Malignant Fever, whereof many, about this Time died in the City; and it suddenly put an End at once unto his Days and Thoughts, on the Eighteenth of February; to the extreme surprise of his Friends, who Honourably Interred him in the Church of St. Mary Woolnoth, and with him, how much of New-England's Happiness!   

SECT. 21.  
ALTHOUGH he has now no more a Portion for ever in any Thing that is done under the Sun, yet Jastice requires that his Memory be not forgotten. I have not all this while said, He was Faultless, nor am I unwilling to use for him the Words which Mr. Calamy had in his Funeral Sermon, for the Excellent Earl of Warwick, It must be confessed, lest I should prove a flatterer, He had his Infirmities, which I trust Jesus Christ hath covered with the Robe of his Righteousness: My Prayer to God is that all his Infirmities may be Buried in the Grave of Oblivion, and that all his Virtues and Graces may supervive, although perhaps they were no Infirmities in that Noble Person, which Mr. Calamy counted so.  
Nevertheless I must also say, That if the Anguish of his Public Fatigues threw Sir William into any Faults of Passion, they were but Faults of Passion, soon Recalled: And Spots being soon seen in Ermine, there was usually the most made of them that could be, by those that were least Free themselves.  
After all, I do not know that I have been, by any personal Obligations or Circumstances, charmed into any Partiality for the Memory of this Worthy Man; but I do here from a real Satisfaction of Conscience concerning him, declare to all the World, that I reckon him, to have been really a very Worthy Man; that few Men in the World rising from so mean an Original, as he, would have acquitted themselves with a thousandth Part of his Capacity or Integrity; that he left unto the World a notable Example of a Disposition to Do Good, and encountered and overcame almost invincible Temptations in doing it.  
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 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 them, and miserably wounded him: Thus, if any shall be so unchristian, yea, so Inhuman as libellously to throw Stones at so deserved a Reputation, as this Gentleman has died withal, they shall see a Just Rebound of all their Calumnies.  
But the Name of Sir WILLIAM PHIPS will be heard Honourably mentioned in the Trumpets of Immortal Fame, when the Names of many, that Antipathied him, will either be Buried in Eternal Oblivion, without any Sacer Vates to preserve them, or be remembered, but like that of Pilate in the Gospel, or Judas in the Creed, with Eternal Infamy.  
The old Persians indeed, according to the Report of Agathias, exposed their Dead Friends to be Torn in pieces by Wild Beasts, believing that if they lay long unworried, they had been unworthy Persons; but, all attempts of surviving Malice, to demonstrate in that way, the worth of this Dead Gentleman, give me leave to Rate off with Indignation.  
And I must with a like Freedom say, That great was the Fault of New-England, no more to value a Person, whose Opportunities to serve all their Interests, though very Eminent, yet were not so Eminent as his Inclinations. If this whole Continent carry in its very Name of AMERICA, an unaccountable Ingratitude unto that Brave Man, who first led any numbers of Europeans thither, it must not be wondered at, if now and then, a particular Country in that Continent afford some Instances of Ingratitude: But I must believe, that the Ingratitude of many both to God and Man, for such Benefits, as that Country of New-England enjoyed from a Governor of their own, by whom they enjoyed great quietness, with very worthy Deeds done unto that Nation by His Providence, was that which hastened the Removal of such a Benefactor from them.  
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 undervalved; 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 outlast 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 Commonwealth, 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.  
Now I cannot myself provide a better Statue for this Memorable Person, than 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.  
The Grecians employed still the most Honourable and Considerable Persons they had among them, to make a Funeral Oration, in Commendation of Soldiers that had lost their Lives, in the Service of the Public: And when Sir William Phips, the Captain General of New-England, who had often ventured his Life to serve the Public, did expire, that Reverend Person, who was the Precedent of the only University then in the English America, Preached a Sermon on that Passage of the Sacred Writ, Isa. 57.1. Merciful Men are taken away, none considering that the Righteous are taken away from the Evil to come; and in it gave Sir William Phips the following Testimony.  
This Province is Beheaded, and lies a Bleeding. A GOVERNOR is taken away, who was a Merciful Man; some think, Too Merciful: And if so, 'tis best Erring on that Hand; and a Righteous Man; who, when he had great Opportunities of gaining by Injustice, did refuse to do so.  
He was a known Friend unto the best Interests, and unto the Churches of God: Not ashamed of owning them: No, how often have I heard him expressing his Desires to be an Instrument of Good unto them! He was a zealous Lover of his Country, if any Man in the World were so: He exposed himself to serve it; He ventured his Life to save it: In that, a true Nehemiah, a Governor, that sought the welfare of his People.  
He was one, who did not seek to have the Government cast upon him: No, but instead thereof, to my Knowledge, he did several Times Petition the King, that this People might always enjoy the great Privilege of choosing their own Governor; and I have heard him express his Desires, that it might be so, to several of the Chief Ministers of State in the Court of England.  
He is now Dead, and not capable of being Flattered: But this I must testify concerning him, That though by the Providence of God, I have been with him, at Home and Abroad, near at Home, and afar off, by Land, and by Sea, I never saw him do any Evil Action, or heard him speak any thing unbecoming a Christian.  
The Circumstances of his Death, seem to intimate the Anger of God: In that he was in the Midst of his Days removed; and I know (though Few did) that he had great Purposes in his Heart, which probably would have taken Effect, if he had lived a few Months longer, to the great Advantage of this Province; but now he is gone, there is not a Man Living in the World capacitated for those Undertake; New-England knows not yet what they have lost!  
The Recitation of a Testimony so great, whether for the Author, or the Matter of it, has now made a Statue for the Governor of New-England, which Nec poterit Ferrum, nec edax abolere vetustas.  
And there now remains nothing more for me to do about it, but only to recite herewithal, a well-known Story related by Suidas, That an Envious Man, once going to pull down a Statue, which had been raised unto the Memory of one whom he maligned, he only got this by it, that the Statue falling down, knocked out his Brains.  
But Poetry as well as History must pay its deuce unto him. If Cicero's Poem entitled Quadrigae, wherein he did with a Poetical Chariot extol the Exploits of Caesar in Britain to the very Skies, were now Extant in the World, I would have Borrowed some Flights of That at least, for the Subject now to be Adorned.  
But instead thereof, let the Reader accept the ensuing Elegy.    

UPON THE DEATH OF Sir William PHIPS, Knt.  
Late Captain General and Governor in Chief, of the Province of the Massachuset-Bay New-England, who Expired in London, Feb. 18. 1694/ 5.  

And to Mortality a Sacrifice  
Falls He, whose Deeds must Him Immortalize!   

REjoice Messieures; Netops rejoice, 'tis true;  
The Philistines, none will rejoice but You:  
Loving of All He Died; who Love him not,  
Now, have the Grace of Publicans forgot.  
Our Almanacs foretold a great Eclipse,  
This they foresaw not, of our greater PHIPS.  
PHIPS our great Friend, our Wonder, and our Glory,  
The Terror of our Foes, the World's rare Story.  
England will Boast him too, whose Noble Mind  
Impelled by Angels, did those Treasures find.  
Long in the Bottom of the Ocean laid,  
Which her Three Hundred Thousand Richer made.  
By Silver yet ne'er Cankered, nor defiled  
By Honour, nor Betrayed when Fortune smiled.  
Since this bright Phoebus visited our Shoar,  
We saw no Fogs, but what were raised before:  
Those vanished too; harras'd by Bloody Wars  
Our Land saw Peace, by his most generous Cares.  
The Wolvish Pagans, at his dreaded Name,  
Tamed, shrunk before him, and his Dogs became!  
Fell Moxus and fierce Dockawando fall,  
Charmed at the Feet of our Brave General.   

Fly-blow the Dead, Pale Envy, let him not  
(What Hero ever did?) escape a Blot.  
All is Distort with an Enchanted Eye,  
And Height will make what's Right still stand awry.  
He was, oh that He was! His Faults we'll tell,  
Such Faults as these we knew, and liked them well.   

Just, to an Injury; denying none  
Their Deuce; but Self denying oft his own.   

Good, to a Miracle; resolved to do  
Good unto All, whether they would or no.  
To make Us Good, Great, Wise, and all Things else,  
He wanted but the Gift of Miracles.  
On Him, vain Mob, thy Mischiefs cease to throw;  
Bad, but alone in This; the Times were so.   

Stout to a Prodigy; living in Pain  
To send back Quebeck-Bullets once again.  
Thunder, his Music, sweeter than the Spheres,  
Chimed Roaring Canons, in his Martial Ears.  
Frigates of armed Men could not withstand,  
'Twas tried, the Force of his one Swordless Hand:  
Hand, which in one, all of Briareus had,  
And Hercule's twelve Toils but Pleasures made.   

Too Humble; in brave Stature not so Tall,  
As low in Carriage, stooping unto all.  
Raised in Estate, in Figure, and Renown,  
Not Pride; Higher, and yet not Prouder grown.  
Of Pardons full; ne'er to Revenge at all,  
Was that which He would Satisfaction call.   

True to his Mate; from whom though often flown.  
A Stranger yet to every Love but one.  
Writ Him not Childless, whose whole People were  
Sons, Orphans now, of His Paternal Care.   

Now lest ungrateful Brands we should incur,  
Your Salary we'll Pay in Tears, GREAT SIR!   

To England often blown, and by his Prince  
Often sent laden with Preferments thence.  
Preferred each Time He went, when all was done  
That Earth could do, Heaven fetched Him to a Crown.   

'Tis He: with Him Interred how great designs!  
Stand Fearless now, ye Eastern Sirs and Pines.  
With Naval Stores not to enrich the Nation,  
Stand, for the Universal Conflagration.  
Mines, opening unto none but Him, now stay  
Close under Lock and Key, till the Last Day:  
In this, like to the Grand Aurifick Stone,  
By any but Great Souls not to be known.  
And Thou Rich Table, with Bodilla lost,  
In the Fair Galeon, on our Spanish Coast.  
In weight Three Thousand, and Three Hundred Pound,  
But of Pure Massy Gold, lie Thou, not found.  
Safe, since He's laid under the Earth asleep,  
Who learned where Thou dost under Water keep.   

But Thou Chief loser, Poor NEW-ENGLAND speak  
Thy Deuce to such as did thy welfare seek,  
The Governor that vowed to Rise and Fall  
With Thee, Thy Fate shows in His Funeral.  
Writ now His Epitaph, 'Twill be Thine own,  
Let it be this; A PUBLIC SPIRIT's GONE.  
Or, but Name PHIPS; more needs not be expressed,  
Both England's, and next Ages tell the Rest.   
FINIS.   

Books Printed for, and Sold by Nath. Hiller at the Princes-Arms in Leaden-Hall Street over against St. Mary Axe.  
THe Righteousness of God through Faith, upon all without difference who believe, in two Sermons at Pinners-Hall; on Romans 3.22. by Mr. Nath. Mather Minister of the Gospel.  
A Learned and Accurate Discourse, concerning the Gild of Sin, Pardon of that Gild, and Prayer for that Pardon; written many Years since by the Reverend Mr. Thomas Gilbert, Minister of the Gospel, lately Deceased at Oxford.  
The Conquests and Triumphs of Grace, being a Brief Narrative of the Success which the Gospel hath had among the Indians in New-England, by Mr. Matthew Mayhew, 1695.  
Batteries on the Kingdom of Satan by Mr. Cotton Mather, Author of the late memorable Providences, relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions, and of Early Piety exemplified, 1695.  
A Letter to Dr. Bates, containing a Vindication of the Dr. and Mr. Job necessitated, by Mr. William's his Answer to Mr. Humphrey, by Mr. Stephen Job, 1695.  
The Throne of Grace, discoursed from Heb. 4.6. in thirteen Sermons at Pinners-Hall, by Mr. Robert Trail, M. A. 1696.  
Scripture Proof for singing Scripture Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs; by E. H. 1696.  
The Figures or Types of the Old Testament, by which Christ and the heavenly Things of the Gospel were Preached and Shadowed to the People of God of Old; in sundry Sermons, by Mr. Samuel Mather, sometime Pastor of a Church in Dublin.  
FINIS.