Life of William Phips, Biography · Section 21
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, leaſt I ſhould prove a Flaterer, 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 Publick Fatigues threw Sir William into any Faults of Paſſion, they were but Faults of Paſſion, ſoon Recalled: And Spots being ſooneſt ſeen in Ermin, 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 encountred 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 chearfully have done all the kind Offices of a Friend unto: Wherefore though the Gentleman in England, that once publiſhed a Vindication of Sir William Phips againſt ſome of his Enemies, choſe to put the Name of Publicans upon them, they muſt in this be counted worſe than the Publicans of whom our Saviour ſays, They Love thoſe that Love them.
And I will ſay this further; That when certain Perſons had found the Skull of a Dead Man, as a Greek Writer of Epigrams has told us, they all fell a Weeping, but only one of the Company, who Laughed and Flouted, and through an unheard of Cruelty, threw Stones at it, which Stones wonderfully rebounded back upon the Face of him that threw them, and miſerably wounded him: Thus, if any ſhall be ſo unchriſtian, yea, ſo Inhumane as libellouſly to throw Stones at ſo deſerved a Reputation, as this Gentleman has dyed 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 remembred, 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 wondred 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 enjoy'd from a Governour of their own, by whom they enjoyed great quietneſs, with very worthy Deeds done unto that Nation by His Providence, was that which haſtned 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 undervalued; there is no way for us to fetch back our Sir William Phips, and make him yet Living with us, but by ſetting up a Statue for him, as 'tis done in theſe Pages, that may out-laſt an ordinary Monument.
Such was the original Deſign of erecting Statues, and if in Venice, there were at once, no leſs than an Hundred and ſixty two Marble, and Twenty three Brazen Statues, erected by the Order, and at the Expence, of the Publick, in Honour of ſo many Valiant Souldiers, who had merited well of that Common-Wealth, I am ſure New-England has had thoſe, whoſe Merits call for as good an acknowledgment, and, whatever they did before, it will be well, if after Sir William Phips, they find many as meritorious as he to be ſo acknowledged.
Now I cannot my ſelf provide a better Statue for this Memorable Perſon, then the Words uttered on the occaſion of his Death in a very great Aſſembly, by a Perſon of ſo diffus'd and Embalm'd 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 employ'd ſtill the moſt Honourable and Conſiderable Perſons they had among them, to make a Funeral Oration, in Commendation of Souldiers that had loſt their Lives, in the Service of the Publick: And when Sir William Phips, the Captain General of New-England, who had often ventured his Life to ſerve the Publick, did expire, that Reverend Perſon, who was the Preſident 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 lyes a Bleeding. A GOVERNOUR 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 Governour, 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 Priviledge of chooſing their own Governour; 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 teſtifie 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 Undertakings; 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 Governour 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, knock'd out his Brains.
But Poetry as well as Hiſtory muſt pay it's dues unto him. If Cicero's Poem intituled 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.