NECROMANCY1, Magick, or the Black Art, which consists in raising the Ghosts of those that are deceased. The Scripture speaks at length of the Appearance of Samuel to Saul, when this Prophet was raised by the Witch of En-dor. See 1 Sam. xxviii. 7. The Word Necromancy is not to be met with in Scripture, but Moses forbids the Israelites to have Recourse to Diviners, or those that consult the Dead2. Non inveniatur in te, qui quærat à mortuis veritatem. The Enchantress that raised up Samuel is call’d Baalath-ob i, the Mistress of Ob. The Word Ob is known in Scripture, to express a Diviner, a Magician, a Necromancer, and those People that speak in their Bellies, and thereby deceive the Simple, making them believe that the Dead speak to them out of the Earth. Your Voice shall be as that of an Isai. xxix. 4. Heb.Ob, which speaks out of the Bottom of the Earth, says Isaiah speaking to Jerusalem. You shall groan, you shall not dare to speak out, but with an obscure and hollow Voice, as if it came out of the Ground. This sort of Necromancers were condemn’d Levit. xx. 6. Deut. xviii. 11.to Death by the Law of Moses; and Saul in pursuance of this Law had drove them out of the Country. But it may be seen by the Books of the Kings and 2 Kings xxi. 6. xxiii. 24. 1 Chron. x. 13. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6.Chronicles, that they were but too frequent afterwards, and that the Law was but very ill observed in this Article, as in many others.3
The Rabbins think that the Necromancers make use of the Bones of the Dead, in making their Invocations, and chiefly of the Skull. They offered Incense to it, and did not leave off calling upon the Ghost, till the Dead appeared to them, or till some Demon taking the Shape of the Dead, presented himself to them, and spoke to them. In the History of the Pythoness of En-dor, we do not find that she used any thing else but Words. Several have been of Opinion, that in the Art of the Necromancers there was nothing on their Part but Trick and Jugling, or at most but an Illusion of the Devil; and that the Spirits of the Dead were never really raised. Some even believe, that Samuel appeared neither to Saul nor the Witch; but that this Sorceress abused the Credulity of this Prince, and the Perplexity wherein he was, to persuade him that Samuel had really appeared, and had spoken to him. On this Head may be read our Dissertation concerning the Appearance of Samuel to Saul, at the Beginning of the Commentary upon the Books of Samuel and Kings, and the Authors we have there quoted.
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