Apparition affirm'd, but the Friends of the Deceased _Beacon_, Seized
him; and Prosecuting him at Law, he found the help of such Friends as
brought him off without the loss of his Life; since which, there has no
more been heard of the Business.

This History I received of Mr. _Joseph Beacon_ himself; who a little
before his own Pious and hopeful Death, which follow'd not long after,
gave me the Story written and signed with his own Hand, and attested
with the Circumstances I have already mentioned.

* * * * *

But I shall no longer detain my Reader, from his expected Entertainment,
in a brief account of the Tryals which have passed upon some of the
Malefactors lately Executed at _Salem_, for the _Witchcrafts_ whereof
they stood Convicted. For my own part, I was not present at any of them;
nor ever had I any Personal prejudice at the Persons thus brought upon
the Stage; much less at the Surviving Relations of those Persons, with
and for whom I would be as hearty a Mourner as any Man living in the
World: _The Lord Comfort them!_ But having received a Command so to do,
I can do no other than shortly relate the chief _Matters of Fact_, which
occurr'd in the Tryals of some that were Executed, in an Abridgment
Collected out of the _Court-Papers_, on this occasion put into my hands.
You are to take the _Truth_, just as it was; and the Truth will hurt no
good Man. There might have been more of these, if my Book would not
thereby have swollen too big; and if some other worthy hands did not
perhaps intend something further in these _Collections_; for which cause
I have only singled out Four or Five, which may serve to illustrate the
way of Dealing, wherein _Witchcrafts_ use to be concerned; and I report
matters not as an _Advocate_, but as an _Historian_.

They were some of the Gracious Words inserted in the Advice, which many
of the Neighbouring Ministers, did this Summer humbly lay before our
Honorable Judges, _We cannot but with all thankfulness, acknowledge the
success which the Merciful God has given unto the Sedulous and Assiduous
endeavours of Our Honourable Rulers, to detect the abominable
Witchcrafts which have been committed in the Country; Humbly Praying,
that the discovery of those mysterious and mischievous wickednesses, may
be Perfected._ If in the midst of the many Dissatisfactions among us,
the Publication of these Tryals, may promote such a Pious Thankfulness
unto God, for Just