Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	evil_a	good_a	indifferent_a	2,973	5	9.5052	5	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

destroy'd a great number of people This was certainly an Angel that spake to him who by the favourable and benign providence of God drew him out of that danger which otherwise had been unavoidable For whether the plague came by the infection of the air or by the Communication of some infectious persons or whether some Sorcerers and Witches as they say they sometimes do had resolv'd to diffuse their infectious poisons in that place it was that which did not exceed the knowledge of an Angel Now if these blessed Spirits which are appointed as a guard to pious men in obedience to God's Command do sometimes by speaking give them such advertisements they also by the same command may convey the same notices to them by dreams The history of the last age doth so fully attest the truth of that of Lewis of Bourbon Prince of Conde that we cannot reasonably doubt thereof A little before his journey from Dreux he dream'd that he had fought three battels successively one after another wherein he had got the victory and where his three great Enemies were slain But that at last he also was mortally wounded and that after they were laid one upon another he also was laid upon their dead bodies The event was remarkable for the Mareshal de S t André was kill'd at Dreux the Duke of Guise Francis of Lorrain at Orleans the Connestable of Montmorency at S t Dennis and this was the Triumvirate which they say had sworn the ruine of those of the Religion and the destruction of that Prince At last he himself was slain at Bassac as if there had been a continuation of deaths and Funerals Although there were some Circumstances in the dream which did not exactly agree with their accomplishment as that he imagined that his Enemies died in three battels for the Duke of Guise died otherwise being assassinated by Poltrot and that he conceiv'd in his dream that he always came off victorious for he himself was taken at Dreux and the glory of the victory at S t Dennis was disputed and 't is believ'd that at Bassac he did not only lose his life but the Battel too Yet notwithstanding upon the whole this vision did not cease to be very admirable and it hath been looked upon as such by reason of the greatness of the events But there might be something natural in it in respect of the formation of the images in the phansie of the Prince For he having the temperature of a Lion and being brought up in War and Commanding an Army might easily dream of Battels the evening before so great a Combat And he himself seem'd sufficiently to acknowledge this when repeating the dream he us'd this Preface I know very well that we must not give any credit to dreams but yet I must relate to you what I dream'd last night and in truth one who thus speaks sufficiently testifies on the one side that his dream appear'd to him extraordinary and that it had made a great impression upon his mind and on the other that he did not look upon it as absolutely supernatural seeing he somewhat doubted whether he should make any relation of it But nevertheless an Angel to whom God had given some little foresight of the success of these Civil Wars and of the end of these Captains might very well concern himself herein by his permission with design to give the Prince some advertisement for he might draw this advantage from hence either not to continue the War any longer if he had a mind to escape death or seriously to prepare himself as he should see his enemies to depart this life and both these things were worthy of a good Angel who had a care of the life of this great Prince and also of his Salvation There are also several memorable things of such who were saved from the Massacre by the advertisement of dreams which if true as I see no reasonable cause to doubt of them they could proceed from nothing else but Angels as the truth of the things and the punctual accomplishment did sufficiently evidence But my intention here is not to report histories but to make Theological and Rational Reflexions upon this matter And the conclusion I draw hence is that God has not now tied his hands but that he may still give such notices to men although this be done very rarely However we may here make this observation that as when the question is concerning such miracles as may be done by the Ministery of Angels for every one knows that there are some which cannot be done but only by the power of God we ought carefully to examine whether they be done by good or bad ones that so we suffer not our selves to be abused by the seducement of lies and error so here there is need of a great circumspection to judge of these nocturnal visions All the actions of men are either good in themselves or evil in their own nature or indifferent and intermediate betwixt these if then any such dream induce us to a good action and from whence there can follow no bad event such a dream ought not to be suspected by us but if it incline us to any evil we ought absolutely to condemn and reject it as a delusion of the Devil and as for indifferent actions the circumstances that accompany them usually determining their nature I would here rather be guided by Prudence and Charity which are the general Rules of our conversation then by the inducement and perswasion of dreams And nevertheless where Prudence and Charity should both agree with an extraordinary vision I do declare that such an inducement to me would be very considerable Lastly as for dreams that proceed from natural causes I suppose that where I have spoken of their causes from whence they proceed I have sufficiently discover'd their vanity It is certainly a great weakness of mind or a superstition very unworthy of Christians in the least to rely on them either for the conjecturing of that which is come or for founding our resolutions of least importance upon them I shall only here give two advertisements the one whereof respects the health of the Body the other the safety of the Soul First then we ought to have a regard to our dreams when they may furnish us with some indications concerning the constitution of our own bodies that if they mark out any fault in our tempers or any disorder in the humours of our body and so threaten us with some disease or sickness that then we may provide against it by the Course of Physick As for the second if the frequency of certain dreams and their evil quality do inform us that we are inclin'd to some vicious passions although this may be better known by our actions waking then by our dreams that we then endeavour to correct them by Christian Morality Lastly since as Philosophers have observ'd the quality of dreams is a sign and token not only of the constitution of our bodies but also of our minds that the most vertuous have always the most sober and temperate dreams every one therefore ought carefully to give himself to the exercise of Vertue Temperance and Sobriety that so he be not importun'd and molested with turbulent imaginations Thus most Honoured Brother you have the results of my thoughts when at certain spare hours in my journey I set my self to meditate on this subject if other affairs had not deny'd me further leisure and if I had not been upon other designs which I both promised and which have been long expected from me I had bestow'd more care and study in this little Work All that I was able to do was to finish it which I partly doubted whether I could or no when I first set Pen to Paper Such as it is I heartily present it to you and shall esteem it happy if it receive your Approbation for as much as that which you receive from the publick ought to render your testimony beyond exception Sir I beg the assistance of your good Prayers to God for me not only that he would give me grace and strength to finish what he hath put into my mind to undertake for the clearing of his truth but principally that notwithstanding the many hindrances I meet withal he would strengthen me with his good Spirit that I may finish my course to his glory and the edification of his people And I also do heartily pray that he would heap upon you the choisest of his blessings and am assuredly Most Honoured Brother Your most Humble and most Obedient Servant Amyraut Saumur the first of the year 1659. THE CONTENTS THE Introduction Page 1. CHAP. I. Of Natural Dreams and their several Causes Pag. 3. CHAP. II. Of Angelical Dreams in General and some rational reflexions on Particular ones Pag. 19. CHAP. III. Of Divine Dreams Pag. 39. CHAP. IV. The Characters by which they might know that those Dreams were truly Divine and not vain Delusions Pag. 53. CHAP. V. Whether God doth make use of this kind of Revelation by Dreams now under the Dispensation of the Gospel Pag. 101. FINIS

Common-sense which is a faculty superior to them so that it can judge of their actions and of the things imprinted thereupon It can also compare the action of one sense with the operation of another and laying them together confer their respective properties and qualities and the judgment that results from hence depends as well upon the impression which the object makes upon the external organ according as it is more or less intense as upon the nature of the Internal and Common-sense which is a corporeal faculty and that which belongs to the sensitive part of the soul of which Dogs and Horses and other animals do also partake As for Divine Dreams the impression was indeed make in the fansy which is also a corporeal faculty it being one of the internal senses but the reflexion which the servants of God made thereupon when waking was the work of the understanding which is more clear and exact in its operations and which in the Prophets and those other faithful men to whom these dreams were convey'd was further enlightned by the Spirit of God to judge aright of the object which it had so attentively consider'd The impression then of these dreams being more profoundly imprinted upon the phansy for as much as it came from a supernatural cause then that which the sensible objects make upon our outward senses and the faculty which did consider and reflect upon them both as to the whole and the parts and the circumstances that attended them being more excellent and more exact in its judgments then t is possible for the common sense to be consequently the result thereof ought to be proportionably more perfect and the perswasion of the divinity of these dreams more certain and more undoubted As for the dreams which proceed from the operation of Angels it must be acknowledged they are more difficultly distinguish'd from those that are Divine for they are capable of a more regular formation then those that are produc'd by natural causes they may be more strongly imprinted upon the imagination and so may be of longer continuance so that we may more easily remember them when we do awake in a word they are of greater force to perswade us that they proceed from a Divine principle For the understanding of an Angel doth manifestly shew it self as well in the methodical placing of the parts of the dream from whence it draws its symmetry and proportion as in the resemblance which they bear to the things which they are designed to represent as we have seen before in the dream of the Egg and the Treasure to which we might add many others of the like sort Yet here we must call to mind what was before said of this matter that there is a great deal of difference betwixt the dreams which may have been caus'd by Angels only for as much as that which they contain'd and whereof they did consist was not above either the understanding or the activity of Angels and betwixt those of which they were only the Instruments to form the Images in the phansy of Gods servants according to the Command and according to the Revelation which he had given them of his Will As for the first the comparing the actions of good and bad Angels would easily show the difference and it might more especially be made in this double respect 1. The Images that good Angels did imprint upon the phansy did never contain any thing of Idolatry or Pagan superstition whereas those which proceeded from evil ones were commonly full of it for in these there was always either some representation of false gods or something which concern'd their worship or some other vision of that nature which denoted the author of the dream to be willing to authorize Idolatry or Superstition from which the Inclination of good Angels was always very distant 2. The dreams caus'd by evil Angels did always or at least for the most part induce to some evil actions which the good ones never do who as they are free from temptation to evil themselves so do they never tempt others to it That which might render the discerning betwixt these two more doubtful or more difficult is that upon this as upon other occasions these Angels of darkness might transform themselves into Angels of light and endeavour to impose upon the credulity of the faithful by causing them to have such dreams which should not seem to contain any thing of that vice we before mention'd and which should tend to actions indifferent in themselves or such as perhaps might have the appearance of good but yet such as they might make use of for some evil design And the dream sent to Ioseph to command him to carry Christ into Egypt may serve for an Example for as I have already said Ioseph might perhaps think that this was a meer illusion of the devil who design'd hereby to lie in wait for him to destroy him Here we may lay down these several considerations First That how great a cheat soever the Devil is yet he can never counterfeit so well but something will happen whereby he may be discovered they say that when he visibly appears in humane shape what ever care he takes to disguise himself yet there is always something in the apparition by which he may be known either by the horror of his Claws or some stinking smell or some such like thing which presently appears and renders the vision terrible and frightful Whether it be so or no I know not I will not affirm it though it be not without some appearance of reason But as for what concerns his actions and the means he makes use of whereby to deceive men whether by dreams or by voice or any other illusion neither is his own malice able nor will the Divine Providence suffer him so perfectly to resemble the actions of good Angels but there will be some mark by which to discern them And what I said before upon occasion of the dream of the Arcadian is founded only upon the relation that Cicero makes of it If we had had a perfect and entire account thereof with all its circumstances one might certainly have found something in it whereby we might easily have known whether it proceeded from a good or bad Angel Hence I dare boldly affirm that if the dream sent to Ioseph had come from an evil spirit there would have been something more in it then what is related of it whereby this holy man would easily have known that it was not of a Divine Inspiration Secondly Not only dreams proceeding from the Devil have some character from whence we may conclude their original but also those that come from good Angels have something on the contrary whence we may conclude their Author truly good for naturally every effect retains some mark of its cause Fire leaves something of it self where it exercises its power and Water where it passes Beasts do imprint something upon their proper operations and Men