Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	heat_n	humour_n	1,740	5	7.9862	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25315	A discourse concerning the divine dreams mention'd in Scripture together with the marks and characters by which they might be distinguish'd from vain delusions : in a letter to Monsieur Gaches / by Moses Amyraldus ; translated out of French by Ja. Lowde ...; Discours sur les songes divins dont il est parlé dans l'Escriture. English	Amyraut, Moïse, 1596-1664.; Lowde, James.; Gaches, Raymond, d. 1668.	1676 (1676)	Wing A3034; ESTC R16142	63,942	221

offer something as a reason hereof as I pass along though my design doth not at all oblige me hereunto it is this I think we may truly assert that the operations of our outward senses do convey into our memory the Idea's of all sensible things which are there preserv'd upon all occasions and that it is from thence that the subject matter of natural dreams is taken For if we could imagine a man to have liv'd to the age of twenty five years without any use of his senses we must also imagine him to have liv'd so long without ever dreaming in as much as he had not the Idea of any sensible thing in his memory since also it is certain that in sleep the natural heat is more intense in the inward parts as the liver the heart the diaphragm and in all those parts that surround the Stomach Hence it causes vapors to arise into the brain which on the one hand are hot by the heat they draw from their cause that rais'd them and on the other hand retain something of that humour which is more universally predominant in the temperature of the body or more particularly in the stomach whether it be Choler or Phlegm or Blood or Melancholy which are the four usually here taken into consideration according therefore to the heat of these vapors so they put the Idea's in the memory into motion and reduce them into Act in the imagination and as they retain something of such or such an humor so they affect the brain particularly that part which is the seat of the phansie with the quality of that humor from which they proceed Now that which produceth the effect is that the organ being thus affected doth better receive the images of those things which do suit with its present constitution and doth better retain them whereas those others which do not at all agree therewith are dispersed and fly away so that if these vapors do arise from a Phlegmatick humour then the phansie is apt to represent to it self waters and inundations if from Bile and Choler then fire and burnings and those other forms of things of a different nature which the heat had rais'd and drawn from the memory into the imagination slip away and make no abode there But however it be that we decide this question the dreams that proceed from such a cause can have no other power of signification but only from the effect to give some knowledge of the cause The reason hereof is this because that which produceth them being altogether void of all understanding for neither the heat that is in the inward parts hath any nor the memory nor the imagination and as for the understanding it is not at all concern'd herein therefore these cannot be design'd to any particular end 2. But there are others which is the second kind of dreams wherein the temperament and the disposition of humours have no place and these proceed from no other cause then the heat which arising from the lower parts to the brain doth put the Idea's and images of things in the memory into motion and represents them to the phansie but in a confus'd and disturb'd manner in proportion to the greatness of the heat and according as the vapors which arise from the stomach are gross or subtle and as they are more or less abundant and so accordingly fill the vessels of the brain for when they are gross and in great plenty the images of things recall'd from the memory are there so swallowed up that either it presents none to the fansie that it can take any notice of which is the cause that we then dream not at all or if it do yet it is attended with so much weakness and obscurity that when we awake we remember nothing of what we dream'd and hence it is that some though very few never dream at all because the vapors that arise in their sleep are always thick and darksome and hence also it is that ordinarily we do not dream immediately after meals for as much as the stomach being then full doth send up to the brain vapours in too great abundance but if the vapours be more thin and subtle if they be in less abundance and more calm then the images of things do present themselves to the phansie with more distinction and yet not without a great deal of disorder for let us suppose the images of themselves orderly plac'd in the memory yet there are two things that may cause confusion the one that the heat that moves them doth also disturb them as we see small pieces of matter in a vessel full of water remain each in its proper place so long as the water is calm and unmov'd but if you put fire under it the water by boiling is put into motion and the several substances are jumbled together by its agitation the other that while the external senses are awake and in action they govern and fix the phansie by their influence but when they are laid asleep and the phansie thus more at liberty there is a great deal of irregularity in all its actions from hence it comes that the images wherewith the memory agitated by the heat hath fill'd the phansie do joyn themselves one to another fortuitously and without order from whence is form'd an infinite number of phantastical and extravagant compositions we see the experience hereof in a feaver when the violence of the heat and the cholerick vapours do disturb the imagination and we see it also in fools who though they neither sleep nor are in a feaver yet have their imagination disturb'd by reason of the distemper of their brain which makes them conceive so many Chimaera's and utter such strange inconsistencies and divers kinds of things which have no natural connexion among themselves passing into the phansie and joyning themselves one to another with a great deal of irregularity for the imagination is a faculty which of it self is able to receive the impression of those Idea's and also joyn them together but because it is corporeal and by consequent void of understanding it can neither perceive their agreement nor their disagreement nor conveniently dispose of them according to reason So that it acts here as a blind man would do who being among a great number of broken and mutilated statues should go about rightly to reassemble their parts by groping for it would frequently happen without doubt that he would for example set Marius his head upon Cleopatra's body and put the thighs of a Brasenhorse under the trunk of Epaminondas And these dreams have yet less power of signifying things to come then the former for as much as the composition of the images is altogether fortuitous and by consequent incapable either to represent any thing as in an allegorical Emblem or nakedly and without any such representation to foretel it for every Emblem and Symbolical representation is the work of an intelligent agent and the foreseeing things

And nevertheless it appears by the history that he did not at all hesitate upon it which shews that he had a powerful perswasion of the truth of the dream Now though we cannot at present certainly know wherein this full perswasion did consist and upon what it did depend yet notwithstanding we ought not at all to question but that this and the like perswasions were founded on something that was both in it self sufficient and to them a sufficiently evident ground of their assent But we must enquire what that was and this is the proper subject of this Meditation since there are but three sorts of dreams those which are produc'd by natural causes those which proceed from the operation of Angels and those which I call Divine The readiest way to come to the knowledge of the truth in this case will be to shew that these can neither belong to the first nor the second rank and thence it will necessarily follow that they must belong to the third As for natural dreams I suppose that 't is easie to distinguish those from such as proceed from a Divine impression these natural dreams I said were of four sorts the first depends upon the temperament and constitution of the body others acknowledge no other cause then the meer motion of the Idea's of the brain by the natural heat in the time of sleep the others come from a very attentive application of our minds to some things when we were awake and the last from the passions of the sensitive soul which is as it were awaken'd and acts more vigorously during the repose of our senses But now for Example to which of these causes can we refer the dreams of Ioseph or Pharaoh What mark do they bear of the temperament of their bodies or the constitution of their humors What Idea's of things could remain in their memory which could be able so regularly to proportion these dreams as to see in the one the number of the sheaves and of the Stars the Sun and the Moon and their prostrations before him in the other the number of the Ears of Corn both the empty and the full ones of the Kine the fat and the lean ones and their action in devouring one another What so great attention of mind could be upon any worldly care or employment as to cause any such representations in their sleep What passion could move either their concupiscible or their irascible appetite as thereby to form such phantasms And further the dreams that come from any of these causes are always irregular and composed of parts not consistent with one another so that nothing is commonly more phantastick and extravagant then they but those of Ioseph and Pharaoh and the Image of Nabuchodonosor and if there be any other of the same nature mentioned in Scripture they are so admirably well composed that they seem to be the result of a very intelligent Cause The dreams which proceed from natural causes are obscure and always presented to our minds with a great deal of confusion so that we observe nothing distinct in them or if one part have something of clearness and perspicuity in it the others are commonly perplex'd and intricate Whereas those dreams related in Scripture are not only clear but full of light whether we consider them in the whole or in their parts natural dreams do make so little impression upon our Spirits that for the most part we do not remember them when we are awake whereas the Divine are firmly fix'd in our memory for as for what is reported of Nabuchodonosor that he had forgot his dream and that he stood in need of Daniel to recal it again into his mind this happen'd by the particular dispensation of the Divine Power and Providence which remov'd out of his mind the Idea's of his vision thereby to render the wisdom of Daniel more remarkable besides this Prince very well remembred that he had dream'd and the perplexity which his dream caus'd in him the passionate desire he had to recal it the manner of his behaviour to the Sooth-sayers and all the rest which pass'd upon this occasion fully shew'd that this vision did very nearly concern him and that also in his dream he had observ'd something that was singular and extraordinary in it if in the morning we remember our natural dreams yet we disregard them and count them but meer trifles whereas those to whom God sent those Divine Dreams did not only distinctly remember them but had them still firmly represented to them when they were awake and did look upon them as Divine advertisements and were very solicitous about the interpretation or the event of them When dreams proceeding from natural causes have made any impression upon our Spirits so that they hold us in some suspense in the morning as it sometimes happens we commonly do these two things First We make an attentive reflexion thereupon and carefully examine and consider them in all their circumstances and at last find them to be meer vanities and produc'd by some of those natural causes before mention'd and so we free our selves from that disquietness they had before caus'd in us Secondly If we cannot thus wholly free our selves then we compare them with those true and real operations which our senses produce in us waking and by thus comparing them all those impressions which these dreams had made upon our spirits do altogether vanish For it is here almost as in the comparison of things represented upon a Theatre with those that are really done Whilst we see a Tragedy acted we feel a concernment and passion in us sometimes even to the effusion of tears But this only touches as it were the surface of the soul and is not of any long continuance or if this emotion of the mind do continue longer yet it is as good as nothing in respect of that which the real view of these actions and passions and murthers actually committed in our sight do cause in us but in Divine Dreams it was directly contrary for if those to whom they were sent did in the least doubt of their Divinity and did set themselves seriously to examine them the more they consider'd them the less reason they found to doubt of them and when they compar'd them with the operation of their senses they found to their great astonishment and admiration that even those of sense were less true and real then they these Divine Dreams I say made a more strong and firm impression upon the Spirits of those that receiv'd them and they were more fully perswaded of their Divinity then we are of the reality of the operation of our senses when waking they exercise themselves upon their respective objects and it is no difficult thing to give a reason for it That which causes sensation and makes us believe the truth and reality of the actions of sense is that those sensible species which affect the outward senses do also pass into the