_Directions against sinful Dreams._
Dreams are neither good nor sinful simply in themselves, because they
are not rational and voluntary, nor in our power; but they are often
made sinful by some other voluntary act: they may be sinful by
participation and consequently. And the acts that make them sinful,
are either such as go before, or such as follow after.
I. The antecedent causes are any sinful act which distempereth the
body, or any sin which inclineth the fantasy and mind thereto; or the
omission of what was necessary to prevent them. 2. The causes which
afterwards make them objectively sinful, are the ill uses that men
make of them; as when they take their dreams to be divine revelations,
or trust to them, or are affrighted by them as ominous, or as
prophetical; and make them the ground of their actions, and seduce
themselves by the phantasms of their own brains.
_Direct._ I. Avoid those bodily distempers as much as you can which
cause sinful dreams, especially fulness of diet: a full stomach
causeth troublesome dreams, and lustful dreams; and hath its ill
effects by night and by day.
_Direct._ II. Endeavour the cure of those sinful distempers of the
mind which cause sinful dreams. The cure of a worldly mind is the best
way to cure worldly, covetous dreams; and the cure of a lustful heart,
is the best way to cure lustful dreams; and so of the rest: cleanse
the fountain, and the waters will be sweeter day and night.
_Direct._ III. Suffer not your thoughts, or tongue, or actions to run
sinfully upon that in the day, which you would not dream sinfully of in
the night.[472] Common experience telleth us, that our dreams are apt to
follow our foregoing thoughts, and words, and deeds. If you think most
frequently and affectionately of that which is good, you will dream of
that which is good. If you think of lustful, filthy objects, or speak of
them, or meddle with them, you will dream of them; and so of covetous
and ambitious dreams, and they that make no conscience to sin waking,
are not like much to scruple sinning in their sleep.
_Direct._ IV. Commend yourselves to God by prayer before you take your
rest, and beseech him to set a guard upon your fantasy when you cannot
guard it. Cast the cure upon him, and fly to him for help by faith and
prayer in the sense of your insufficiency.
_Direct._ V. Let your last thoughts still before your sleep be holy,
and yet quieting and consolatory thoughts.[473] The dreams are apt to
follow our last thoughts. If you betake yourselves to sleep with
worldliness or vanity in your minds, you cannot expect to be wiser or
better when you are asleep, than when you are awake. But if you shut
up your day's thoughts with God, and sleep find them upon any holy
subject, it is like to use them as it finds them. Yet if it be
distrustful, unbelieving, fearful thoughts which you condole with,
your dreams may savour of the same distemper. Frightful and often
sinful dreams do follow sinful doubts and fears. But if you sweeten
your last thoughts with the love of Christ, and the remembrance of
your former mercies, or the foresight of eternal joys, or can
confidently cast them and yourselves upon some promise, it will tend
to the quietness of your sleep, and to the savouriness of your dreams:
and if you should die before morning, will it not be most desirable
that your last thoughts be holy?
_Direct._ VI. When you have found any corruption appearing in your
dreams, make use of them for the renewing of your repentance, and
exciting your endeavours to mortify that corruption. A corruption may
be perceived in dreams, 1. When such dreams as discover it are
frequent: 2. When they are earnest and violent: 3. When they are
pleasing and delightful to your fantasies: not that any certain
knowledge can be fetched from them, but some conjecture as added to
other signs. As if you should frequently, earnestly, and delightfully
dream of preferments and honours, of the favours of great men, suspect
ambition, and do the more to discover and mortify it. If it be of
riches, and gain, and money, suspect a covetous mind. If it be of
revenge or hurt to any man that you distaste, suspect some malice, and
quickly mortify it: so if it be of lust, or feasting, or drinking, or
vain recreations, sports and games, do the like.
_Direct._ VII. Lay no greater stress upon your dreams than there is just
cause. As, 1. When you have searched, and find no such sin prevailing in
you as your dreams seem to intimate, do not conclude that you have more
than your waking evidence discovers. Prefer not your sleeping signs
before your waking signs and search. 2. When you are conscious that you
indulge no corruption to occasion such a dream, suppose it not to be
faulty of itself, and lay not the blame of your bodily temperament, or
unknown causes, upon your soul, with too heavy and unjust a charge. 3.
Abhor the presumptuous folly of those that use to prognosticate by their
dreams, and measure their expectations by them, and cast themselves into
hopes or fears by them. Saith Diogenes, "What folly is it to be careless
of your waking thoughts and actions, and inquisitive about your dreams?
A man's happiness or misery lieth upon what he doth when he is awake,
and not upon what he suffereth in his sleep."
FOOTNOTES:
[378] Rom. vii. 7; Matt. v. 28; Eph. v. 5; Heb. xiii. 4.
[379] Prov. iii. 21; Luke xi. 34; Matt. vi. 22; Psal. cxlv. 15;
cxxiii. 2, 3; Prov. xxviii. 27.
[380] Psal. xxxv. 19; Prov. x. 10; xxx. 17; Isa. v. 15; iii. 16; Prov.
xxx. 13.
[381] Prov. xxiii. 33.
[382] Prov. xxvii. 20; Eccl. i. 8; iv. 8.
[383] Prov. xxiii. 3.
[384] Prov. iv. 25.
[385] Prov. xxi. 10. See Dr. Hammond on Matt. vi. 22.
[386] Prov. xxii. 9.
[387] Isa. xiii. 18; Prov. xxviii. 27.
[388] Matt. vii. 3; Luke vi. 41.
[389] Prov. vi. 4.
[390] Psal. xxxv. 21; x. 8, xxxvi. 1.
[391] Matt. vi. 22, 23; Luke xi. 34.
[392] Prov. xxiii. 29.
[393] Psal. vi. 7; Lam. iii. 48, 49, 51.
[394] Gen. xlix. 2; Exod. xix. 9; Deut. i. 16; iv. 10; v. 1, 25, 27;
xxxi. 13; Prov. i. 8; xix. 20, 27; xxii. 17; Eccl. v. 1; vii. 5; Jam.
i. 19; Isa. lxvi. 4; lxv. 12; xxx. 9; Ezek. xii. 2; Mal. ii. 2; Acts
iii. 23; Lev. v. 1; Deut. xiii. 12.
[395] So the Israelites, Numb. xi. loathing manna, because they must
have change of diet, was a sin of gulosity, or gluttony; being more
for appetite than health.
[396] Even fruitful land, saith Plutarch, enricheth not if it cost too
much the manuring. So here.
[397] As Isaac's pleasant meat, Gen. xxvii. 7.
[398] Non potest temperantiam laudare is, qui summum bonum ponit in
voluptate. Est enim temperantia libidinum inimica. Cicero. Saith
Aristotle, He is temperate that takes pleasure to deny fleshly
pleasure; but he is intemperate that is troubled because he cannot
have them. Ethic. 1. 2. c. 3.
[399] Socrates dixit, eos qui præcocia magno emerent, desperare se ad
maturitatis tempus perventuros. Laert. in Socrat. Cum vocasset ad cœnam
divites, et Zantippen modici puderet apparatus; Bono, inquit, esto
animo. Nam siquidem modesti erunt frugique, mensam non aspernabuntur;
sin autem intemperantes, nulla nobis de hisce cura fuerit. Idem ibid.
Dicebat alios vivere ut ederent, se autem edere ut vivat. Ibid.
[400] Hic est mos nobilium ante alios: artes quæ liberales fuerunt,
mechanicæ evasere: ipsique qui bellorum duces, philosophi, rectores
urbium, ac patres patriæ esse solent, venatores; atque aucupes facti
sunt, utque intelligas nullam esse reliquam spem salutis, nobilitati
tribuitur quod est Gulæ. aut proculdubio vanitatis. Petrarch.
[401] 1 Cor. x. 7.
[402] Of this see more in my book of "Self-denial."
[403] See Plutarch's precepts of health.
[404] Rom. xvi. 17, 18. They serve not the Lord Jesus, but their own
bellies.
[405] It is a common saying that Gula plures occidit quam gladius.
Quicquid avium volitat, quicquid piscium natat, quicquid ferarum
discurrit, nostris sepelitur ventribus. Quære nunc cur subito
moriamur? Quia mortibus vivimus. Senec. Hierom saith, that he had read
of some that had been sick of the arthritis and podagra, that were
cured by being brought to poverty by confiscation of their estates,
and so brought to a poor diet.
[406] Chrysostom saith the difference betwixt famine and excess is, that
famine kills men sooner out of their pain, and excess doth putrify and
consume them by long and painful sicknesses. In Hebr. Hom. 29.
[407] As smoke driveth away the bees from their hive, saith Basil de
Junin; so gluttony expelleth all spiritual gifts, and excellent
endowments of mind.
[408] Saith Basil, A ship heavy laden is unfit to sail: so a full
belly to any duty.
[409] Semper saturitati juncta est lascivia. Hieron.
[410] Ventri obedientes animalium numero computantur non hominum.
Senec.
[411] It is Chrysostom's saying in Hebr. Hom. 29.
[412] Jer. v. 7.
[413] Magna pars libertatis est bene moratus venter. Senec.
[414] When a friend of Socrates complained to him, What a dear place
is this! Wine will cost so much, and honey so much, and purple so
much: Socrates took him to the meal-hall, Lo, saith he, you may buy
here half a sextare of good meal for a halfpenny (which boiled in
water was his meat); God be thanked the market is very cheap. Then he
took him to an oil-shop, where a measure (chœnix) was sold for two
brass dodkins. Then he led him to a broker's shop, where a man might
buy a suit of clothes for ten drachms. You see, quoth he, that the
pennyworths are reasonable, and things good, cheap throughout the
city. Plutarch. de Tranquil. Anim. pag. 153.
[415] Matt. xxv.
[416] Saith Plato, God is the temperate man's law; and pleasure the
intemperate man's.
[417] Heb. xiii. 9.
[418] 1 Cor. x. 31.
[419] Socrates adeo parce et temperatè vixit, ut cum Athenas pestis
sæpenumero vastaret, solus ipse nunquam ægrotaverit. Laertius in
Socrat.
[420] Multum confert cogitatio exitus, quod cum omnibus vitias sit
commune, tamen huic proprium. Petrarch.
[421] Temperantia voluptatibus imperat: alias odit atque abigit: alias
dispensat et ad sanum modum dirigit; nec unquam ad illas propter ipsas
venit. Senec. Scit optimum esse modum cupidorum, non quantum velis,
sed quantum debeas sumere. Senec.
[422] Venter parvo contentus est, si das illi quod debes, non quod
potes. Senec.
[423] Juvenum virtus est, nihil nimis. Socrat.
[424] Venter præcepta non audit. Senec.
[425] If you will not take this counsel, at least use after meat to
set before your guests a bason and a feather, or a provang to vomit it
up again, that you may show some mercy to their bodies, if you will
show none to their souls.
[426] A sensualist craving to be admitted of Cato among his familiars,
Cato answered him, I cannot live with one whose palate is wiser than
his brain. Eras.
[427] The old fashion in countrymen's houses was not amiss, where the
story of this rich glutton and Lazarus was wont to be painted over
their tables on their walls.
[428] 1 Cor. viii. 9; Lev. xix. 14; Rom. xiv. 13; xi. 9; Rev. ii. 14.
[429] See 1 Cor. vi. 13. Qui Christum desiderat, et illo pane
vescitur, non curat magnopere quàm de pretiosis cibis stercus
conficiat. Hieron. Epist. ad Paul.
[430] Nihil tam æque tibi proderit ad temperantiam, quam frequens
cogitatio brevis ævi, et incerti: Quicquid facis respice mortem.
Senec.
[431] Luke vi. 25, "Woe to you that are full! for ye shall hunger."
[432] Temperantiam exigit philosophia, non pœnam. Senec.
[433] Et non solum hæc seculares viri, sed et ipse grex Domini ejusque
pastores, qui exemplo esse omni plebi debuerint, ebrietate quam
plurimi quasi vino madidi torpebant resoluti, et animositatum tumore,
jurgiorum contentione, invidiæ rapacibus ungulis, indiscreto boni
malique judicio carpebantur. Gildas.
[434] Why Gregory set up wakes, and church-ales, and meetings on
holidays in England, you may see lib. x. Regist. Ep. 71. in policy to
win the heathens: Qui boves solent multos in sacrificio dæmonum
occidere, debet his etiam de hac re aliqua solemnitas immutari, ut die
dedicationis vel natalitiis martyrum, tabernacula sibi circa easdem
ecclesias, quæ ex fanis commutatæ sunt, de ramis arborum faciant, et
religiosis conviviis solennitatem celebrent. Nec diabolo jam animalia
immolent, sed ad laudem Dei in usu suo animalia occidant, et donatori
omnium de satietate sua gratias agant, &c. But do christians need this
as heathens did, when we see the sad effects of such riotings? Lege
Acost. 1. iii. c. 34.
[435] Prov. xiii. 23; xiv. 21; xxi. 13; xxx. 14; xxii. 9; xxviii. 27.
[436] Diogenes begging of a prodigal, asked a pound of him, when he
asked but a penny of the next, Because, saith he, I may oft receive of
them, but God knows whether ever I shall have more of him. Laert. in
Diog. Prov. xxviii. 19.
[437] John xiv. 15; 1 John v. 2, 3.
[438] And a shame to thy family: as it is said that Cicero's son
proved a drunkard, to whom he directed his book De Officiis: which is
made his father's reproach.
[439] Of drunken priests I am loth to speak: but pray such to read
Isa. lii. 12; xxviii. 7; Mic. ii. 11; 1 Tim. iii. 3, 8; Isa. lvi. 11,
12; Lev. x. 9; Jer. xxxv.; Ezek. xliv. 21; Matt. xxiv. 49; 1 Thess. v.
7; Gal. v. 21.
[440] See Prov. xxiii. 29-33.
[441] Est certa et constans plurimorum sententia, frustra Indos
christianam religionem doceri, quamdiu pestifera isthæc consuetudo
inerti nostrorum dissimulatione retinetur saith Acosta speaking of
drunkenness, l. 3. c. 22. p. 336.
[442] Leg. Jos. Acostam de procur. Indor. salut. l. 3. c. 21, 22.
[443] Gluttons, and drunkards, and lustful sensualists, are prepared
for atheism, infidelity, and any impious conceit. For their wits are
buried in the dunghill of their guts, and drowned in the
excrementitious humidity of their brains: (ubi oculus siccus clarus
intellectus:) and the vapours and fumes of their boiling lusts do so
intoxicate and cloud their brains, that they have little use of their
reason except to contrive the service of their guts and lusts. Lege
Basilii Homil. in Ebriet. et Lux. Vide ipse ex taberna duos semi
captos vino egressos, vix oboli causa, se mutuo uno eodemque gladio
confecisse; et quidem extracto his e percusso corpore, præ alterum
feriendi furore: itaque momento temporis ambo exanimes corruerunt.
Jos. Acosta de proc. Ind. salut. l. 3. c. 21. p. 332.
[444] Bibendi consuetudo auget aviditatem. Plin. Perinde est
vinolentiam bibendo velle sedare, atque ignem materia apposita pergere
extingere: nam quod naturæ appetitioni datur moderatum est, at vitiosa
et preter naturam libido, nullo expletur. Acosta ub. sup.
[445] Id sane magno Christianis opprobio est, Ingam Regem barbarum et
idolis deditum ab ebrietate subditos sibi populos cohibuisse; nostros
vero quos oportebat mores quoque perditos emendare, temulentiæ
incrementa tanta fecisse. Acosta l. 3. c. 21.
[446] He is happiest that needeth least of any creature, and not he that
hath most. Socrates said it was proper to God only to need nothing, but
those that came nearest to God in this were the happiest men.
[447] 1 Thess. v. 7, "They that are drunken, are drunken in the night."
[448] Deut. xxiii. 17; Prov. xxiii. 27; v. 3, 5; vii. 5-7; vi. 13-15;
xxii. 14; Eccles. vii. 26; Gen. xxxviii. 24.
[449] Saith Boniface (alias Winfrid) of the English Mercian king
Ethelbald, a fornicator, Opprobrium generis nostri patimur, sive à
Christianis sive Paganis dicentibus, quod gens Anglorum spreto more
cæterarum gentium, &c. hinnientium equorum consuetudine, vel rudentium
asinorum more, luxuriando et adulterando, omnia turpiter fœdet, et
confundat. Epist. Bonif. 10. ad Perefrid, Salvagus Sarzanensis
Episcopus-Pauli 5. Jussu visitationem Ecclesiarum Stiriæ, Carinthiæ,
et Carniolæ instituerat. Qua peracta, sex omnino Sacerdotes qui non
essent concubinarii, in tribus illis Provinciis invenit, cum tamen
magna pars ex Jesuitarum disciplina prodiisset, &c. Giraldi Apolog.
pro Senatu Vener. p. 165. Mœchum in adulterio deprehensum necato: was
a Roman law, 12. tab.
[450] Solomon's "wives turned away his heart after other gods," 1
Kings xi. 4. The wisdom of Solomon preserved him not from the power of
lust, and the deceit of women. 1 Pet. ii. 11, "Fleshly lusts that
fight against the soul."
[451] Rev. xiv. 4.
[452] Saith Chrysostom, The adulterer even before damnation is most
miserable: still in fear, trembling at a shadow, fearing them that
know, and them that know not: always in pain, even in the dark.
[453] 1 Tim. vi. 9, "Hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and
perdition."
[454] When an adulterer asked Thales whether he should make a vow
against his sin, he answered him, Adultery is as bad as perjury: if
thou dare be an adulterer, thou darest forswear thyself. Laert. Herod
durst behead John, that durst be incestuous.
[455] Judg. xix. xx. The tribe of Benjamin was almost cut off upon the
occasion of an adultery or rape. See Numb. xxv. 8; Gen. xii. 17; 2 Sam.
xii. 10; Luke iii. 19; 1 Cor. v. 1; John viii. 2. Vid. Ælian. fol. 47.
[456] Plutarch's Roman. Quest. 65. is, Why the bridegroom is not to
have any light when he first cometh to bed to his bride? and
answereth, Happily this was instituted to show how sinful and damnable
all unlawful company of man and woman together is, seeing that which
is lawful and allowed, is not without some blemish and note of shame.
[457] Acts x. 30; xiv. 23; Luke ii. 37.
[458] It is Zeno's comparison in Laert. 1. 7. c. 1.
[459] In Laert. 1. 6. c. 1.
[460] Laert. 1. 2. c. 38.
[461] Otia si tollas periere Cupidinis arcus, &c.
[462] In vacuo pectore regnat amor. Ovid. Diogenes called love,
Otiosorum negotium.
[463] Nullus mihi per otium dies exit: partem noctium studiis vendico:
non vaco somno sed succumbo, et oculos vigilia fatigatos, cadentesque
in opere detineo.--Male mihi esse malo quam molliter; si mollis es,
paulatim effœminatur animus, atque in similitudinem otii sui: et
pigritiæ in qua jacet solvitur: dormio minimum et brevissimo somno
utor: satis est mihi vigilare desiisse: aliquando dormisse scio,
aliquando suspicor.
[464] Plutarch de Curiositate, praiseth Cyrus that would not see
Panthra; and reproveth them that cast a wanton eye at women in coaches
as they pass by, and look out at windows to have a full view of them,
and yet think they commit no fault, suffering a curious eye and a
wandering mind to slide and run every way, pag. 142.
[465]
Dum licet, et modici tangunt præcordia motus,
Si piget in primo lumine siste pedem.
Opprime dum nova sunt subiti mala semina morbi:
Et tuus incipiens ire resistat equus.
Nam mora dat vires.----
Dum novus est cœpto potius pugnemus amori:
Flamma recens parva sparsa resedit aqua.
Interea tacitæ serpunt in viscera flammæ.
Et mala radices altius arbor agit.
[466] Vide Petrarch. de spect. Dial. 30.
[467] Lysander forbad his daughters to wear the brave attire which
Dionysius sent them, Ne luxuria conspicuæ turpiores videantur, Lest
being conspicuous in luxury, they should seem the more deformed.
[468] Ovid. de Remed. Amoris.
[469] Nil temporis tam perit de vita nostra quam quod somno deputatur.
Ber.
[470] Dormiens nemo ullius pretii est. Plato in Laert.
[471] Prov. iv. 16; 1 Thess. v. 6, 7.
[472] Cogitationes sanctiores sequuntur somnia blandiora et
delectabiliora. Greg. Moral.
[473] Iturus in somnum aliquid tecum defert in memoria et cogitatione
in quo placide obdormias, quod etiam somniare juvet: sic tibi nox ut
dies illuminatur, et in deliciis tuis placide obdormies: in pace
quiesces, facile evigilabis, et surgens promptus eris ad redeundum in
id, unde non totus discessisti.