On the other hand, dreams had sometimes a contrary effect; for the same author informs us, that Richard de Havering resigned the archbishopric of Dublin for reflections on a dream, which led him to consider, that he received the revenues of his see, and had suffered his flock to starve for want of preach-ing *.

* Helinshed. vol.ii.B.7 pg 165

We are not to suppose, that spurious visions were peculiar to the Romish Church, since many pious frauds, with respect to dreams, were fabricated and countenanced in superstitious times, even by those who designed to support the reformation of existing abuses. Art was in those cases opposed to art; but it was to the credit of the leading restorers of true religion in this and other countries, that they ridiculed and disclaimed such assistance, and, under the final influence of the reformed faith, "refused profane and old wives' fables, exercising themselves rather unto godliness;" putting to flight dreams, omens, ghosts, and hobgdblins, disenchanting castles, and exorcising, at length, only by reason and true philosophy, church-yards, haunted houses, and possessed persons *.

* Holinshed's Description of Ireland, Ch. 5.

As specimens of the dreams before alluded to, we shall mention some which, both under the Romish and reformed periods, have bees fabricated by superstition or imposture.

The night before William II. was killed,a monk dreamed that he saw the king guaw with his teeth the image of Christ crucified, and that as he was about to bite away the legs of the same image, Christ with his feet spurned him to the ground; that as he lay there issued from his mouth a flame of fire and abundance of smoke. This being related to the king by Robert Fitz Hammon, he made a jest of it, saying, "This monk would fain have something, for his dream: go, give him an hundred shillings, feat bid him look that he dream more auspicious dreams hereafter." Notwithstanding also these and other warnings, he went out to hunt in the New Forest, though somewhat moved. He had stayed in all the forenoon, till an artificer brought him six cross-bow arrows, very strong and sharp, whereof he kept four, and delivered two to Sir. Walter Tyrrel, a knight of Nor-mandy, his bow-bearer, saying, "Here, Tyr-rel, take your two, for you know how to shoot them to a good purpose." The event is well known; the king was accidentally killed by Sir Walter Tyrrel's arrow *.

* Hutchinson on Witchcraft, p. 31.

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Holinshed relates, that Henry Beauclerk, the brother of Rufus, had a warning which contributed to his safety.

Dreams multiplied with the dangers which assailed the Romish power. Pope Innocent IV. is said to have dreamed, that Robert Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln, came to him, and with his staff struck him on the side, saying, "Surge, miser, et veni in judicium," - "Rise, wretch, and come to judgment." This dream, indeed, might very probably have occurred, as it was not extraordinary, that the pope's fears must have been alarmed by the contagions principles of hostility which this innovator was propagating in a country so luarative to. the see of Rome. The pope is said to have died a few days after; the agitation occasioned by the dream might possibly have accelerated his death *.

* Baker's Chronicle, p. 53, 54. Wanley's Wonders, B iv. C. 52.

Thomas Aquinas, who is called the Evan-gelical Doctor, is said to have accustomed himself, by abstract speculation, to fall into ecstasy, becoming to all appearance dead, and gaining the knowledge of abstruse things and mysteries †. This report might have been framed in reference to the abstracted studied and discoveries of the saint, and believed from regard to his extraordinary character; but not-withstanding the general merit which has been ascribed by his admirers to his writings, We need not the spleen of Lather to dispute their inspiration.

* Simp. Ch. Hist. Cent. 13 p. 469. † Zuingle Theat. L. iii, p. 223.

The night before Henry II. of France was slain, his queen is related to hare dreamed, that she saw her husband's eye put out, Which afterwards happened in a tournament, in which he engaged in spite of the entreaties of his wife, by a splinter from a broken lance of a knight, named Montgomery, which occasioned the death of the king. It is further repotted, that a little before this event the king, on hearing a distinguished counsellor;Ann du Bourg, plead in defence of the Protestant religion, and against persecution, with a strong address to himself, was so incensed as to cause him to be apprehended and imprisoned, protesting to him in these words: "These eyes of mine shall see thee burnt." During this time great feasts were preparing at court for the marriage of the king's daughter and sister. The day being arrived, the king employed the morning in examining the president and other counsellors against Du Bourg, and others charged with the same doctrines, intending to glut his eyes with their execution: but that very afternoon he received the fatal blow in his right eye, which killed him in eleven days *.

This story might possibly be the pious in-vention of the Huguenots, to intimate God's resentment against persecutors. Bacon, however, informs us, that, when in France, he heard from Dr. Pena, that, the queen mother, who was given to curious arts, had caused the king's nativity to be calculated under a feigned name, and laughed at their judgment when informed that he should be killed in a duel, thinking that his station raised him above that danger *.

* Clark's Martyr.

† Bacon's Works, vol. iii. p. 553.

James V. who wished to discountenance the Reformation, which broke out in Scotland about 1541, denounced persecution against its advocates, and even against his own sons/if they should engage in the cause. Sir James Hamilton, who was suspected of a bias to the party, was falsely accused of preaching against the king's life, and in consequence executed. Soon afterwards the king at Linlithgow saw, in his sleep, Thomas Scott, the justice's clerk, surrounded by devils, lamenting that he had. been employed in a persecution which had now subjected him to torment.

It is added, that Scott died on the next day, and that he expired, declaring that he was condemned by God's righteous judgment James is said to have been disturbed with other dreams, the effect of a guilty conscience *.

* Spotswood's Hist, of the Church of Scotland.

The enthusiastic dreams by which fanatic or designing men have dared to boast of divine revelations, whether for the advancement of political or religious interests, or for the pur-poses.of personal ambition, deserve to be strongly reprobated as impious and shocking. Among the most remarkable persons in the present age, who have laid claim to such inspiration, is Paul Emanuel Swedenburg, whose pretended visions have been employed to sup-port the extravagant effusions of an eccentric and bewildered imagination betraying the var-nities of self-deception, or the vile contrivance of fraud, and serving but to buoy up his foolish followers with delusive conceits, while they violate the precepts and positive ordinances of Christianity.

These prophane follies, after the transient infatuation shall have vanished, which has lifted up some fickle and wayward minds, even in this philosophical country, will be as much forgotten, as are the fantastic inventions, visions, and prophecies, of Dubricius Comenius and Hotter*, who flourished on the same soil.

There is a great similarity in the measures adopted by fanatical men in every age, and we are, therefore, not surprised to find Wesley maintaining, that his followers experienced remission of sins and conversions in their dreams. "What I have to say," says this canting en-tburiast, "touching visions or dreams, is this?

I know several several persons in whom this great change was wrought in a dream, as during a strong representation to the eye of the mind of Christ, either on the cross, or in history.

this is the fact." Be afterwards, however, admils, that they are of a doubtful and disputable nature, and might be from God, or might not †.

* Wesley's Journal from Aug 19, 1738 to Nov 1, 1739, p.. 49, and Wanburton's Doctrine of Grace, p. 171, C. 12

'. †.Ibid. p. 60, 61

II. 4. ' . • >

The dreams of Avarice have seldom been productive of much good. A rich man in Wales, having dreamed three nights successively, that there was a chain of gold hidden under the head-stone of a well, named St Bar-nard's Well, went to the place, and putting bis hand into the hole,. it was. bitten by. an adder *; and, not many years since, as the interesting recluses of Llangollen would testify, a deluded cobler was digging, in consequence of a dream, among the ruins of the castle.of Dinas-Brune, which overhangs the vale,. in search of gold.

The pride of controversy has produced its dreams: Bradwarden, .in his once -famous book .De Causa. Dei, tells us of a dream that he had in the night, when writing in confutation of Pelagius. In this dream he fancied, that he was caught into the air, and that Pelagius took hold of and cast him down headlong; but that, after much struggling, he him-self had prevailed, and cast down Pelagius, so that he broke his neck; whereby the controversialist was comforted and encouraged to finish his work *.

* Holinshed, vol. ii, Ch. 42.

Objects of taste and antiquarian research have been promoted, it should seem, by dreams. Mons. Pierre. Counsellor of Parliament of Provence, going from Montpelier to Nismes with James Rancis, is said to have collected from his companion's dreams where he might purchase a Julius Caesar in gold for four crowns.

The author cannot explain by what prophetic sagacity Lady Seymour dreamed, when a maiden, that she found a nest with nine finches in it, and which is said to have been verified when she married the earl of Win.

* Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medici, vol. ii. p. 253, Ch. 10. chelsea, whose name was Finch, and by whom she had nine children.

A dream of somewhat similar east is related to have happened to the mother of the cele-brated Sir Thomas More, which I shall give without comment, in the words of Sir Thomas More, who was grandson to the chancellor, and a rigid adherent of the Romish church: "Dr. Clement," says he, quoting seemingly the account from Stapleton, "reporteth from Sir Thomas his own mouth, a vision which she bad the next night after her marriage, in which she saw in her sleep, as it were engraven in her wedding ring, the number and favour of all her children she was to have, whereof the face of one was so dark and obscure, that she could not well discern it; and indeed afterwards she Buffered of one of her children an untimely delivery; but the face of one of her other she beheld shining most gloriously, whereof no doubt Sir Thomas his fame and sanctity was foreshewed and presignified *.

* Life of Sir Thomas More, p. 55.