Mr. Brown, in his Self-interpreting Bible, says, “And when the woman saw Samuel, that is, the Devil in his likeness. Satan hath no power over the souls of glorified saints. God would never give him any to countenance consulting of Devils. Samuel’s soul had not to come out of the earth, nor would he have said that Saul should be with him to-morrow, for it is not probable the battle was fought on that day”.
The able and learned Dr. Gill observes, on the 15th verse, “And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? This makes it a clear case that this was not the true Samuel—his soul was at rest in Abraham’s bosom, and it was not in the power of men or devils to disquiet it—nor would he have talked of his being brought up, but rather of his coming down, had it been really he, much less would he have acknowledged that he was brought up by Saul, by means of a Witch, and the help of the Devil.”
The late truly deep-taught scriptorian, Mr. W. Huntington, in his Epistles of Faith, acknowledges this history had once puzzled him, as many professors had told him it was really Samuel the Prophet, that the Witch of Endor raised; but adds, For my part I cannot believe it, for God has promised that his people shall be gathered in peace, and that their bodies shall rest in their beds; and I cannot think that it is in the power of the Devil to break the promise of God; for the wicked cease from troubling, and in that state, the weary are at rest. If Satan can bring a soul out of Paradise, who departed in the faith, and raise a body out of the grave, who was once a temple of the Holy Ghost, he is not only the God of this world, but a rifler of the next. However, Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life, and he is too jealous of his honour to give it to an enemy. The woman cried out, I see gods ascending, when she saw the Devil come up, as an angel of light—and I do not wonder at it, for I dare say she had never seen her sweet-heart in the rays of an angel, or with the gravity of a Prophet before. Be not offended at the word sweet-heart, God says they sacrificed to devils, and went a whoring after devils. See 37th Deut. and 17th Levit.
One of our best and most evangelical preachers and writers, (I mean the excellent Dr. Hawker) in his notes on this chapter, remarks, “The great enemy of souls might be permitted to personate the departed Prophet, as such he appears to Saul’s view like Samuel. That it could not be Samuel himself, is I think, evident from other considerations. Neither Satan nor his instruments can have power over glorified saints; neither could the soul of Samuel be said to come up out of the earth, when we know that the spirits of just men made perfect, are with the Lord. Neither, had it been Samuel, would he have told him of the awful event about to take place, without following it up with advice to repent, instead of driving him to despair, and thereby forming a temptation to self-murder.”
FINIS.
Thomas, Printer, Red Lion Street, Boro