A True Interpretation of the Witch of Endor

by Lodowick Muggleton

Also it is conceived by the Imagination, that this Devil or Spirit is in Hell-fire, and in Chains of Darkness, and can go no further then God will permit him, because his Chain is no longer then God hath limited him.

Also it is conceived in the Imagination, notwithstanding the Devil is chained, and in Hell-fire tormented, yet he being a Spirit without a Body, he is so swift that he can be in all Places at one Time, so that he can tempt thousands of Men and Women to sin at one and the same Time, and they themselves never the wiser, nor know him when he tempted them. All this the imaginary Devil can do, and much more; and yet be in Hell fire, and tied in a Chain at the same Time, and all but one Devil, a Spirit without a Body.

Also the Imagination hath conceived that the Soul of Man is a Spirit infused or put into the Body by God himself, and that Man begets the Body, but not the Soul or Life of Man, that is conceived to be immortal, or a Spirit that is so invisible, that cannot be seen nor known what it is, and that it can live of it self when it is gone out of the Body.

Thus the Imagination of Reason the Devil, hath created its own Soul in its own Image and Likeness; and this hath been the Occasion of producing of Familiar Spirits, and of dealing with those that have a Familiar Spirit, being conformed to the very Image of the Devil. Many Things more of the like Nature might be said in this Point.

But here the Reader may see if there be any true Light of Faith in him, how the Imagination of Reason in Man hath created Spirits without Bodies, and that the Devil is a Body-less Spirit, and in Hell-fire, and in a Chain of Darkness, and yet at Liberty at the same time to tempt People; and in Hell-fire, and yet out of the Fire when he pleaseth; and that he may be called out of Hell, or out of the Ground, when a Witch by her Familiar Spirit doth call; and that he shall appear in any Shape they will have him, yet he shall have no Body nor Substance, but a mere Shadow; yet this Shadow shall speak with a low Voice or Speech out of the Ground; as if Speech could proceed from a Shadow without Substance.

So that the Imagination of the Heart of Man hath created to it self a Devil, that God never created; and the Imagination of Man's Heart hath created his own Soul in the Image and Likeness of the Devil, that is to say, a Spirit without a Body; and that a Spirit without a Body may be capable of Joy or Sorrow; and that a Spirit may subsist and have a being in Joy or Sorrow without a Body, which Thing is impossible.

But observe the Creation that the Imagination of Man hath created to himself; for it is the Nature of Imagination of Reason the Devil, he always creates Spirits without Bodies, but God the Creator he always creates Spirits and Bodies together, for God never created any Spirit without a Body; for when God made Man after his own Image and Likeness, he made him with a Body as well as a Spirit, else Man could not be made in the Image and Likeness of God, if God had a Body of his own as well as a Spirit.

So that Adam was made or created in the Image and Likeness of God; for Adam had a visible Body and Spirit, undivided and unseparable one from the other; they were but one visible sensible Being, and when the Life was dead the Body was dead, and when the Body is really dead, the Spirit and Life was and is dead also; and both are laid in the Ground together, as is declared in all our Writings, but more especially in that Book entituled, The Mortality of the Soul.

CHAP. XI.

Also I do further declare, that God did never create any Spirit without a Body, neither of Angels, nor Men, nor no other Creature, neither in Heaven above, nor in the Earth beneath, nor the Waters under the Earth. There is no Spirit or Life whatsoever that is created of God, but it hath a Body to that Life or Spirit; but if a Spirit have any Being without a Body, that Spirit is none of God's Creation; for God never created any Spirit whatsoever without a Body, as I said before.