Book 2 . The Tern fie oflVifdor^e. 7 1 3

And fince the Devil, as in ali his other works, hat^ endeavoured to imitate him in the bulanefs of dreams, by which occafion he crept into the minds of foolifli and improvident people: wc may not henceforth ex- ped fuch entbufiafms from heaven, and God hath tycdus to the exprefs Letter of his dodrine> where- in he requires us to fee him and know him, as alfo what his plea lure is, and what he will have us to do, and what not. Let us not therefore faften on, but ab- hor the doatings of fanatick perfons, though they pretend never lo much to derive them from heaven,'
Next to divine dreams are the Angelical, which if they agree with the Divine, and be fuch as I have defcribed them, they may be believed. But the Dia- bolical dreams are to be detefted, by which the Heathens of old, and of late the Manichaeans, Pe- lagians, ^onks, and fanatick perfons, being deceived and carried away, were the authors and defenders of what horrible things followed thereupon. For it is a point of the greateft impiety and Atheifm for to have any thing to do with the dcltroycr and ene- my of God and man, or to give any credit to his lyes. And it being granted that fometimcs the Devils may know cafual events, (which opinion the C^nimbr. Philofophers charge Tho, (iy4qutyias with) yet the fignification of thmgs to come fwhich the Devil nevrr inlpires into men dreaming) it cannot be called ; becaufe if he be the fworn enemy of truth, and the architefl: and artifi- cer of all lies, there cannot any thing proceed from him that is folid and true; but whatever he doth, we muft look on it no otherwife then a painted fallhood, to deceive thofe who (hall credit it.
Humane dreams which have no other but natural P p caules
214 The lemyleofWtjdonie. booka-
caufes, and happen to men ordinarily as they fleep , are either phyfical, or common. The phyfical dreams arethofe which by the agitation of the humours, and the difpofition of the temperament, do by certain figns, nay Sometimes even material and efficient caufes, difcover unto the Phyfitian the more certain confti- tution of the patient. Thefc may be obferved with- out any riot or fafpicion of impiety or atheifra, to the end that more fortunate medicines may be provi- ded for the ficlc. See the Holy gmde.
So a certain VVrcftler dreamed that he was plunged in a Ciftern of blood, and that he ftiould fcarce deli- ver hirafelf thence : Accordingly to this dream, the Phyficians knowing it proceeded from an exuberance of blood, having taken away what abounded, diver- ted the danger he was in. (jalen mentions another, who dream-ngthat one of his legs became dead as a ftone, a while after became paralytick in that leg.
The common dreams are thofc that proceed from compound caufes ; and they are true, orfalfeor c- quivocal : All which though they might happily be the images of certain events; yet to reduce from them any pofitivc and ablolute interpretation or con/cdurc is forbidden in holy Writ. VVherefore we may not give credit toafiraple prxvificn any further then it proceeds from natural caufes.
Nor isitfufficient, in caff theevent fignified, an- fwers this dream, or that if there be not the fame fuccefs In a hundred or thoufand others, to charge the Art with vanity, or the Jntrcpretcrs thereof with ignorance, fmcc there are many things, which though they are rightly interpreted, yet many times happen not accordingly. Hence it was fo many Kings and Princes have mifcrably pcriflied by this kind of dreams,
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