Penman hereof, and the last chosen Witness unto that Ever-Blessed Body of Christ Jesus Glorified, to be the only Wise, very True God alone, Everlasting Father, and Creator of both Worlds, and all that were made in them.
The Second Edition.
LONDON,
Printed by Subscription in the YEAR 1724.
TO THE READER.
I Have been desired by several Friends, to set forth the Interpretation concerning the Witch of Endor and King Saul; how it may be understood how she raised Samuel, and how Familiar Spirits came to be procured, and with what Power they do such strange Things. Many Enemies also have objected this Place, to prove that Spirits may be raised without Bodies, and that Spirits may walk, or be happy or miserable without Bodies: Though I have given an Answer in Discourse to these Doubts and Questions, but few can retain in their Memory what is spoken in Discourse; therefore I thought it convenient and necessary to set it forth in Print, for the Information and Satisfaction of many Friends who desire it, and for the Convincement of all Gain-sayers. And let them seriously read it over without Prejudice, and they may see this Point clearly opened, which hath laid hid this many Hundred Years, with other Places of Scriptures opened, which many have objected against this Interpretation, and all those Places of Scripture that is commonly brought, or doth most seem to hold forth, that Spirits may be without Bodies, are likewise opened and expounded in short in this Treatise, as followeth.
CHAP. I.
1 Sam. XXVIII. from the 11th to the 18th Verse.
I Shall give the Interpretation, what is meant by that Familiar Spirit the Witch of Endor which did raise Samuel, so much spoken of in the Book of Samuel, and other Places of Scripture; and so much objected by many to prove that Spirits may be raised without Bodies, and may appear unto People in what Shape they please.
The Belief of this lying Principle, it did proceed out of the Imagination of Reason, the Devil——The Imagination that doth arise or proceed from the Seed of Reason in Man, is that Familiar Spirit that Witches deal with, and that Familiar Spirit it proceedeth from no Spirit or Devil without a Man, but from the Seed of Reason within Man; for look what evil Thoughts doth arise out of the Heart of Man, it proceedeth out of the Seed of Reason in Man, and not from any thing without Man; for the Imagination of the Heart, it is plac'd in the Seed of Reason, therefore it is said in Scripture, That the Imaginations of Man's Heart was evil, and that every Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually, as in Gen. vi. 5. So that there is no other Devil, or Spirit, or Familiar Spirit for Witches to deal withal, or to work any Enchantments by, but their own Imagination; there the Familiar Spirit is produced from whence it came, and there it ceases to be when they are put to Death, or over-power'd by the Knowledge, and the Power of Faith in other Men, then the Familiar Spirit centers in the Imagination again, it being over-powered by the Power of Faith; so likewise, the good Thoughts that doth proceed out of the Heart of Man, they do arise or proceed from the Seed of Faith, concerning the true God, or any heavenly Secret, or temporal Judgments, or temporal Blessings; if the Foreknowledge of these Things doth arise, or be foretold by the Revelation of the Seed of Faith, they are and may be called the Spirit of God.