A True Interpretation of the Witch of Endor

by Lodowick Muggleton

I declare, that it was the Soul or Spirit of Christ, which was the Godhead-life that dwelt in that Body of Flesh and Bone of Christ; for, as the Scripture saith, In him all the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt Bodily: And this Godhead-life that dwelt in the Body of Christ's Flesh, it was put to Death in the Body of Christ's Flesh, and the same Godhead-life that was put to Death in the Body of his Flesh. And when Christ's Body was crucified upon the Cross, then was the Soul and Life of Christ, or the Godhead-life did die, and was put to Death in that Flesh of Christ; for that Flesh of Christ was God become Flesh, as the Scripture saith; and the Soul and Life of Christ was the Soul and Life of God. And,

When Christ poured out his Soul unto Death, it was the Godhead Life that was poured out unto Death; so that the Godhead Spirit was put to Death, and did die in the Flesh of Christ when he was Crucified. But this Godhead Life which was put to Death in the Flesh of Christ, it quicken'd again where it was put to Death, even in the same Flesh where it was put to Death. And in its quickening again, it raised the same Flesh again, and so spiritualized the same Flesh that suffered, and made it uncapable to suffer Death any more.

For this I say, no Spirit or Life that is put to Death whatsoever, could possibly quicken again in the same Body, but the Life of God only, so that Christ must needs be God as well as Man; for it was Christ that was put to Death in the Flesh, and the same Life that was put to Death, and did die, that which did die did quicken again, and so is called a quickening Spirit.

Now observe, it cannot properly be called a quickening Spirit, if it had not been once dead: For if the Spirit and Life of Christ did not die, nor was not dead, then I say, there was no need that this Spirit and Life, should quicken again, for it was always quick and alive.

For the Spirit quickening doth imply, a sensible Life is quickned out of an insensible Life; as a Child in the Womb before it is quick, it feeleth no Pain, neither doth it stir in the Womb, and the Midwife doth not care to destroy it to save the Womans Life, because the Child was not quick, it was an insensible Life, no more capable of Pain then there is in Death, or a dead Lump of Earth; but when a Child is quick in the Womb, it is capable of Pain, though it hath not Strength to express it to us that are strong, yet it is capable of Pain, because it is quickened into a sensible Life, that is, a living Soul, a living Spirit, and so may be called a quickened Spirit of Life, out of that which was dead; yet by the Appointment of God in his Creation, and the Warmness of the Womb, there is new Life or Spirit doth quicken in the Womb in its Season, according to the Appointment of God when he created all Things, and placed a Law of Generation in them.

So likewise the Spirit or Life of Christ was put to Death in his own Body of Flesh, as aforesaid; and in its Season he himself had appointed before, namely three Days and three Nights, this Spirit of Christ so put to Death, it quickened again in the same Flesh a new and Glorious Life, which made that Flesh that suffered Glorious also.

And this is the true Interpretation of Peter's Words, and the Faith of all true Believers, that the Spirit, Life, and Soul of Christ did die, and was put to Death in the Body of his own Flesh, that was Crucified on the Cross by the Jews; and that the same Spirit that was put to Death, it did quicken again out of Death into a new and Glorious Life by his own Power, therefore called a quickening Spirit.

So that here is no Ground at all for that vain Conceit in People, who do believe that Spirits may be raised without Bodies, or appear without Bodies, but altogether to the contrary. And as for that saying of Peter, By which also he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the Long-suffering of God waited in the Days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing.

These Words do seem to carry some shew, as if the quickening Spirit of Christ, after he was risen from the Dead, or in the time he did lie in the Grave, as if his Spirit in that Interim of Time went into some local Place where Spirits were in Prison without Bodies, to preach unto them, who had been Disobedient in the Days of Noah: This is the vain Conceit of most People from those Words of Peter, who saith, By which he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison, as if the Spirits of the Disobedient People in the Days of Noah had been in Prison in some local Place in the Earth without Bodies, who had been departed in the Days of Noah, in the Destruction of the World by Water.

This the Imagination of Reason in Man doth imagine, that Spirits may be shut up in Prison without Bodies, and that the quickening Spirit Christ might Preach unto them without a Body.