A True Interpretation of the Witch of Endor

by Lodowick Muggleton

So likewise the People of the Jews, the Fear, Grief, and Sorrow of Heart, being begotten in them for such like Sins, as that of Witchcraft, Idolatry, dealing with Familiar Spirits, causing their Sons and Daughters to pass through the Fire as burnt Offerings and Sacrifices unto Devils, which they supposed to be Gods; these Things caused their Hearts to fail and faint, and their Thoughts were troubled within themselves, which causeth their Speech to grow weak and low within them, even as if some Familiar did speak out of the Ground, or whisper out of the Dust, Fear, Grief, and Sorrow of Heart: But all come out of their own grieved Hearts, who were punished for their Sins; and not out of the natural Ground or natural Dust, as People do vainly imagine. This is the true Meaning of the Prophet's Words, and how Familiar Spirits may be said to speak out of the Ground, and whisper out of the Dust.

CHAP. X.

Again, it hath been objected by many, that Spirits may be raised without Bodies, and that Spirits may be talked with after they have been dead and buried; and that Spirits have appeared in a Shape to several People, yet this Spirit so appearing hath no Body nor Substance at all, neither can it be felt or handled by mortal Man, nor no immortal Creature neither: this is the vain Conceit of most People.

But to satisfy the Reader in this, I declare, that there is no immortal Spirit whatsoever, but it hath a Spiritual Body suitable to its Spirit; if the Spirit be immortal, the Body is immortal also: For this I say, no Spirit can have any Being at all without a Body, no not God himself, who was from Eternity; his Spirit could not be from Eternity without a Spiritual Body, in Form like Man; they were both from Eternity, and the one was never divided nor separated from the other, but they were both Eternal. And further I declare, that God was a Spiritual Body from Eternity, in Form like a Man; therefore God created Man in his own Image and Likeness. Now observe, if Man hath a Body suitable to his Spirit, so hath God a Body suitable to his Spirit, else Man was not created in his Image, if God hath never a Body, but is all Spirit, as People do vainly imagine. For this I know, that God was Spirit and Body, in Form like a Man, from Eternity, and his Spirit was never divided nor separated from his Body, but they were both Eternal.

So likewise is it with Angels and Men, and all other Creatures; where-ever the Spirit of Life is, there is Bodies of Life also; let it be either in Spiritual Bodies, or in Natural Bodies. For if the Body of either of these be dead, the Spirit is dead also; and if the Spirit be dead either in Spiritual Body or Natural Body, the Body is dead also: For the one cannot have any sensible Being without the other. And further I say, that they were both together Spirit and Body from Eternity in God the Creator, and he hath ordered and created all his Creatures, both celestial and terrestrial, that Spirit and Body should be one living Being, and that one should not subsist nor have no sensible being without the other: Even as God himself could not enjoy no sensible Living being without a Body, he knowing this in himself.

Therefore he created all his Creatures Spiritual and Natural, with Bodies suitable to their Spirits, and Spirits suitable to their Bodies, so that one might not be divided nor separated from the other; for if one dieth, the other dieth; and if the Spirit live, the Body liveth also. For this I say, that if the Spirit of God himself could not be without a Body from Eternity, how then is it possible that his Creatures should have Spirits without Bodies, seeing he himself his Spirit could not have any Being without his Body from Eternity.

But this Conceit, that the Spirit or Soul of Man is immortal, and cannot die, and may have a Being without a Body, and appear in a Shape without any Substance; this vain Conceit proceeded first from the Imagination of Reason in Man, even from Cain, the first Devil in Flesh and Bone. And this Imagination in Cain his Posterity, being Heathen Men, who had no Communion with God, nor Revelation of Faith, as the Sons of Adam and the Sons, of Seth, the Generation of the Righteous, had; they knew that the Spirit and Body was all one Substance.

But the Imagination of Reason, Cain his Posterity, the Heathen Opinion, do imagine the Spirit of Man to be immortal, and cannot die; and that Spirits may appear in Shapes without Bodies; and that Spirits may go out of the Body, and go to Heaven or Hell and leave the Body to be laid in the Ground, as the Quakers and others do.

And this Imagination of Reason in Man hath created to it self a new Creation, which God never created. Man hath created and made in his Imagination a Spirit without a Body, and that this Spirit so created is immortal, and cannot die, nor is not capable of Death, that it can slip out of the Body, and that it can have a Being when it is gone out of the Body, and appear in a Shape without Substance or hath Power to assume what Shape it please, and yet this Shape, it doth assume, shall have no Substance yet it shall appear in a Shape and fright People.

And the Imagination of Reason in Man hath created Man in his own Image and Likeness, as God did Adam: As thus, First, he hath conceived in his Imagination, that God is a Spirit without a Body. Secondly, he conceiveth in his Imagination that the Devil is a Spirit flying in the Air, which can neither be seen nor felt; yet this Devil or Spirit without a Body doth tempt Man to Evil, whereby Man is punished, and the Tempter he is escaped away without Punishment.