A True Interpretation of the Witch of Endor

by Lodowick Muggleton

CHAP. XV.

There is another Place of Scripture that is objected, that seems as if the Soul went out of the Body when they die; as in 1 Kings xvii. 21. where Elijah prayed, that the Child's Soul might come into him again. The Meaning is this, that Elijah did pray in Faith unto God, that he would assist him in this or other Things; as in shutting up the Heavens that it should not rain, and calling for Fire from Heaven to destroy those two Captains and their Fifties, and many other wonderful Things he did; so he prayed unto God to strengthen his Faith, so that he might have Power to raise this Child's Life out of Death again.

Therefore he stretched himself upon the Child, and prayed that the Child's Soul might come into him again; that is, that the Child's Soul or Life might quicken in the Body of the Child again; for Elijah knew the Soul of the Child was dead, and by the warm Flesh of the Prophet laid upon the Child's dead Flesh, and the Faith and Prayer of the Prophet together, it begot Life in the Child again; so that the Soul that was dead it became Life in the Child again; and that Life that was quickened, it run through the Veins of the Childs Body, and so the Child's Soul did come into him again.

For this I say, if the Soul of the Child had been gone out of the Body, then Elijah did not raise the dead Child to Life again; for how can a Man be said to be dead, when as Life doth not die, but slips out of the Body, as most People do vainly imagine; but it may be clear to those whose Understandings are enlightened, that Elijah did raise the Child from Death to Life, and that the Child's Soul was dead in its Body, and that the Soul of the Child was revived in the Child's Body again by the Power of Faith in Elijah.

And the very same thing was done by the Prophet Elisha, as in 2 Kings iv. 34. the Prophet Elisha did the same thing to the Sunamite Woman's Son, he went up, and lay upon the Child, and put his Mouth upon his Mouth, and his Eyes upon his Eyes, and his Hands upon his Hands, and he stretch himself upon the Child; and the Flesh of the Child waxed warm, and Elisha stretched himself upon the Child a second time: Here the Reader may see, that the Child was dead, and by the Faith and Prayer, and by the Warmness of the Prophet Elisha his Flesh, the Child revived to Life again both Body and Soul. And Elisha did use the same Means and Way as Elijah did? for he went in and shut the Door, and prayed unto the Lord as Elijah did, and stretched himself upon the Child as Elijah did, and raise the Child to Life again by the Power of Faith.

Yet Elisha maketh no mention of the Soul coming into the Child again, but he delivered the Body and Soul of the Child, that were both dead together, he delivered them both alive together to the Child's Mother. It was the same thing done by Elijah, only some difference in the Words, but the Sense and Meaning is all one.

So that the Reader may understand, if any true Light of Life be in him, that the Soul of the Child went not out of its Body, but died in the Body; and by the Power of Faith in the Prophet, it quickened alive out of Death in the Child's Body again; for the Soul or Life of the Child never went out of the Body as is vainly imagin'd; but the Soul, Life, and Spirit of the Child was absolutely dead in the Body, and by the Power of Faith in the Prophet, the dead Soul or Life of the Child was quickened alive again, and caused the Body to live also. For if the Woman should have had the Soul of the Child given unto her without the Body, she would have given the Prophet no Thanks for raising her Child's Soul without a Body; but the Body and Soul being one Person, they were both dead together, and the Prophet raised them both together alive, and the Woman received them both together, and rejoyced greatly in God, and gave Honour to the Prophet.

Thus in short, I have given the true Interpretation of all those Scriptures that most seem, or most commonly are objected against the Mortality of the Soul, or to prove that Spirits do go out of the Body at the time of Death, or that Spirits may be raised without Bodies, or have any Being without Bodies, or that a Spirit may appear in a Shape without a Body, or that a Spirit can assume what Shape it please, yet have no Body or Substance.

These things the vain Imagination of Reason in Man hath created in it self, to fright it self with, for their is no such thing as Spirits walking without Bodies, neither doth any Spirit go out of the Body when Men die, as is imagined by most People; but these are Fictions of Mens Brains, created by the Imagination in the dark Minds of Men and Women, for God never created any such thing, as I have shewed before.

And as for that saying of Solomon, Eccl. xii. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was, and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it. His Meaning (I suppose) in these Words is, as is generally conceived by all People, the Body to the Dust, and the Spirit returns to God that gave it when Men die: But these Sayings of Solomon are no Scripture, for Solomon was no Scripture Writer, for his Writings were not written by the Revelation of Faith, but by the Revelation of Reason; yet it was the purest of Reason, and he had the greatest Measure of the Wisdom of Reason, and the Knowledge of Nature, of any that was before him since Adam, or any that shall come after him.