The Witches of Northamptonshire

To bear the likeness of another is but a pretense original: "colour". Someone might ask, "What reason is there to show they can do so much, being of an invisible essence?" We must not remain here within the limits of our own reason, which is unable to comprehend how devils should be able to perform such tasks. We must not (I say) measure their power and cunning original: "subtilties" in working by our own capacity and understanding; rather, we must look to what the Canon of Scripture testifies in this regard.

We have clear proof that the Devil can take a bodily shape. For when Aaron had cast down his staff and it was turned into a serpent, the enchanters of Egypt cast down their staffs and they became serpents—which was indeed only in show and appearance, created by the Devil. For he deluded the senses both by hiding the form of the staffs (which indeed were not changed in any way) and also by making a show of such bodies as were not actually there.

This was done openly; otherwise, it might be thought to be a mere illusion. For we see that people in extreme sickness think they hear a voice and see a shape which no one else present either hears or sees. Some are so melancholy In the 17th century, "melancholy" was considered a physical ailment caused by an imbalance of fluids in the body, which was often believed to make a person vulnerable to hallucinations or demonic influence. that they imagine they hear and see things that they do not. For Satan so deludes the imagination original: "fantasie" that the person supposes their very outward senses perceive the matter.

But here there was no such thing. All who were with Pharaoh thought they were actual serpents, except for Moses and Aaron, who knew it was the trickery original: "iugling" of the Devil.

But to return to this Arthur Bill: We (miserable... The text ends mid-word; the original "mise-" combined with the catchword "rable" forms "miserable."