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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63812	A treatise of dreams & visions wherein the causes, natures, and uses, of nocturnal representations, and the communications both of good and evil angels, as also departed souls, to mankind. Are theosophically unfolded; that is according to the Word of God, and the harmony of created beings. To which is added, a discourse of the causes, natures, and cure of phrensie, madness or distraction. By Tho. Tryon, student in physick.	Tryon, Thomas, 1634-1703.	1689 (1689)	Wing T3197A; ESTC R221812	87,971	320

further exciting of the hellish poysonous properties whence are generated Filthy Swearings Lying obscene words and Actions and all kind of abominable Discourses and Actions with a thousand horrid thoughts and vile immaginations frequent amongst the multitude so that if a mans inward Eyes of his Soul were but opened he might easily see Legions of those accursed Demons fluttering in and about such People egging them on to all evil Communication and practices it being a certain and undoubtable truth that all filthy vain thoughts words and works do arise and proceed from the Hellish center and do all carry the power of their own principle with them and so incorporate with their Similes whereever they are received and thence pass back again into their own dark original Source and totally captivate the soul therein where they are recorded and shall stand forever as Witnesses of Condemnation against them if men Live and Dye in that deplorable state and do not Repent and turn from them by Regeneration and Newness of Life Now from those infernal Legions which beset us on all sides both inwardly and outwardly no man is safe any longer then he fears the Lord and has his mind fixed on Sobriety and Temperance in Meats and Drinks Exercises and Communications for nothing as we have already said and cannot say too often does so much disarm weaken prevent and frustrate all evil suggestions and ingections of the evil Angels both within and without as those sublime vertues with convenient Fasting and continual servent Prayers For as our Lord and Saviour Christ saith some sorts of evil Spirits are not cast out or chased away but with Fasting and Prayer and therefore the Kingly Prophet saith wherewith shall a young man cleanse and defend himself from evil Angels and other Enormities but only by keeping thy Word and being obedient to thy Commandements alwayes having a regard to that most excellent saying of Christ First seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and all other good things shall be added or given unto you in due season For as every man does govern himself and into what property he suffers his soul to enter such an Angel or Spirit he allureth be it either good or evil there being Spirits of all Orders Complexions and Natures for which should we think the Intellectual world less peopled then the Material which always are ready and officious to exert their power as we read in the Scriptures of Truth The Lord said who will be a Lying Spirit in the mouths of Ababs prophets and presently steps forth one and said I will and far be it but we should believe that the benign Spirits are as ready to secure and defend mankind from evil when they incline to well-doing and Innocency as the malignant Ones are to precipitate them into Error Guilt and Misery If men did but believe those things and diligently observe and weigh them they would certainly be much more careful in moderating their thoughts and affections neither would many so much dote upon or be perpetually vexed with for or about the Spirits of golden mountains of Ethiopia the Dust of Guinea the Rubish of Peru which do give great advantage to and powerfully attract the evil Demons who by many of the Antients are thought to have some kind of rule over or affinity with those hidden Mines and Treasures in the bowels and dark Cavetns of the Earth which are the Idols whom most people now adore and over whom the evil spirit Mammon is said to be Lord president For whatsoever man does violently taste and set his mind and affections upon presently the evil Spirits that are of that quality do present themselves and are busie to allure the Soul and captivate it with more passionate desires after it For this cause it proves hard and very difficult for men too be temperate to moderate their affections in any thing wherein they have once run out into or contracted an habit of Excess so many Enemies there are to circomvent and inveigle them on every side whose power is great but 't is by reason of the greatness of mans sins which give them the Advantages whereby they lead multitudes into perdition On the other side the good Angels and Spirits are as easily attracted by vertue as the Evil are by vice that is so say they are delighted and conciliated by their own fair Resembla●ces Purity Love Truth Temperance Order firm Belief cleanness in Meats Drinks Innocency and Silence these are powerful Loadstones or Magneticks that will attract good Spirits and Angels even from the furthest parts of the World. It is also further to be considered that true Dreams and Nocturnal Converse with good Angels and Spirits does afford great delight and true pleasure to the mind and soul the very thoughts of those secret visits chears and irradiates the intellectual Faculties even in the day and causeth a desire and longing for the night and the more fixed any man is and the more he lays them up in a Reserved and Religious Breast with serious Thoughts and Meditations on such sublime Mysteries the nearer he approaches unto their Beeings and powerfully invites those holy and material Essences and so by degrees even whilst he is in the Body becomes as it were incorporated with or endenizon'd amongst those Coelestial Quires of blessed Angels and Spirits of the Just made perfect and to have their Names Registred in the Book of Life as in the Revelations in promised For nothing comes so near those glorious Beeings or so effectually engages them as a constant thoughtfulness temperance and sobriety but more especially Innocency and the Child like nature which does in the highest degree imitate the nature Angelical whence our Saviour Christ Mat. 10. 10. admonishes his Disciples to take heed not to despise Innocency and the simple harmless nature which he calls one of th●se little Ones such as have through the vertue and power of the divine friendly innocent Principle disarmed the fierce wrathful properties and as it were cut off the members of evil that is their thoughts words and works and have as much as in them lies ●mitated and lived in the innocent nature of Christs Spirit and good ●ngels for of such he saith Their Angels do always behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven But such as live in Uncleanness and Riot in Chambering and Wantonness in Oppression and Cruelty are subect to the Tyranny and Punishment of evil Angels as executioners of the divine Vengeance which hence are called destroying Angels Thus two Angels came to Soym and having secured Lot and his too Daughters consumed those wicked Cities whose Inhabitants burning with unnatural Lusts were justly destroyed with a shower of Fire and Brinstone the Lord by the Angels of his vengeance raigning down as it were Hell out of Heaven upon them such was his Abhorance of their Abominations When David had provoked the Lord by numbering the People and thereby shewing his Inclinations

of good Spirits Angels in Dreams and Visions to pious and holy men in times past instructing and admonishing them and revealing divine mysteries unto them the same will be of little advantage or incouragement to us if that vulgar opinion be true that although they were so usual and frequent in former Ages yet now they are wholely ceased and no such spiritual assistances or converse to be expected but as this opinion is not founded on holy Scripture so there are divers reasons which sway with me not to imbrace the same its true the Text saith That if an Angel from Heaven shall preach any other Doctrine that is contrary or derogatory unto the Gospel of Jesus Christ he ought to be rejected and accursed for thereby it would plainly appear that he was an evil Angel since God in any of his manifestations is never contrary unto himself yet this hinders not but good Spirits may afford us good Offices and give us notice of impending Dangers and defend us from the assaults and incurrances of evil Doemons and be the Ministers of God whereby he may be pleased to make more clearer revelations of his Secrets to those that fear him for the blessed Creator is the same as ever he was and as near unto mankind as he was in former Ages whence the Apostle Paul saith the divine Word or holy Principle of Gods eternal Light and Love is near thee in thy Mouth and in the Center of thy Heart and therefore whatsoever was by divine appointment or permission of this nature common to the Prophets and holy men in former Ages its reasonable to believe that the same should not only be continued in these later times but increased and far more illustrated since the great work of redemption and divine manifestation in the flesh who was welcomed unto the humane nature by the holy Quires of Angles It s under this Gospel dispensation that the holy Prophets have foretold should be far more glorious irradications and discoveries of divine knowledge that all should be taught of God. That their Sons and their Daughters should Prophecy their young Men see Visions and their old Men dream Dreams The current of the Scripture bears Testimony to a greater Light to break forth in the latter dayes wherein the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the Earth as the Water cover the Sea and why then should we abridg or reject any of those ways wherein God hath formerly vouchsafed most usually to discover his will in the mysteries of his Kingdom to the Sons of men The good Spirits are inflamed with the same Zeal for spreading the Glory of their Creator now as in former times they have still the same ardent Charity and Good-will towards men that persue and seek after Vertue and Piety as heretofore and we have as much need of their aid and assistance as any of the Ancients why then should we think all entercourse out off between us and those blessed Spirits why should we with a stupid neglect lose the benefit of such powerful Auxiliaries That evil Angels are dayly contriving our temporal and eternal ruin that they do by various ways and means cast stumbling blocks before us in the Paths of 〈◊〉 and endeavour to seduce us by multitudes of temptations is generally agreed by all professors of the Christian Religion and if so I desire to know why we should not believe the good Angels to be as diligent to protect or instruct us as ready to encounrage us in well doing as the other are busie to circumvent and debauch us and prompt us on to sin and mischiefs and misery It s evident the ever blessed Creator has since the woful fall and degeneration of mankind readily heard the prayers of those that in sincerity have called upon his Name and live in obedience to his holy Law and that he hath in various manners appeared to them in Visions Calls Voyces Dreams and the like which was continued and encreased in an extraordinary manner after the great Light appeared viz. Christ Jesus cloathed with the humane nature as appears by the authority of the Scriptures before mentioned and if the same be now discontinued as some people would have us believe of which as there is no mention in Scripture so 't is against the Principles of God in nature to suppose any such Chasm or interruption of communication between superiours and inferiours in the state of created beeings and beside what a miserable and deplorable state must man then now be in for amongst the Ancients if the Spirits of the Lord did withdraw and cease from communicating and manifesting the secrets of the great Creator by some of the forementioned wayes they looked on themselves in a sad and deplorable condition as we may see in the case of Saul and others Whereas now according to these opinions we are not only debarred of all those celestial interviens and communications but also exposed to all the rage and subtilty of evil Spirits without any assistance from the good Angels which our Fore-fathers so plentifully enjoyed But the Truth is if we by vertuous lives prepare and fit our selves for the converse of holy Angels we have no more reason to dispair of their aid for the Lord doth never with-draw his holy Spirit from man except man do first by sin and disobedience separate himself from his Maker but on the contrary the divine Principle of love doth continually strive with man against the evil as our Saviour said I would have gathered you even as a Hen gathereth her Chickins under her Wings and in another place I came to seek 〈…〉 save that which was lost And elsewhere the Scripture saith As many as received the glorious Light of his Gospel became the sons of God or of Light and the great Apostle Paul who was illuminated by divine Vision saith Whatsoever may or can be known of God is implanted and manifested in man. For God made him in his own Image that is containing a breviate of the nature of all things divine and humane which is since his fall enlightened or again re-invested with the divine Seed of the woman and holy Principle of Light even to the Center of his Soul which the wise Man calls the voice of Wisdom always crying in the Gate of the microcosmical City calling man out of Sin and the Babyloni●al confusion into the glorious Light and Liberty of the Sons of God in which state the inward eye of divine sight is opened which sees into the secret mysteries of Gods ●●ture But some will say that these divine sights and visions like miracles were only to ●llustrate and confirm the Gospel or glorious manifestation of Christ in the human nature and to convince and call the Heathen to repentance and to the knowledge and saith of the universal Salvation But to this I answer First The Objection is not true for as these secret Communications were before under the Mosaical Dispensation so in fact they have been

269. to p. 274. Section 10. The humours of Drunkenness and Phrensie compared from Pag. 274. to p. 279. Section 11. Why Mad people are stronger and can endure more Cold and Hunger then when in their Sences from Pag. 279. to p. 284. Section 12. Of the Original Seat or Spring of Madness in the Body that it is the Spleen which first disorders the Brain Pag. 284 245 286. Section 13. Of External Causes of Madness as by the bite of a mad Dog eating Jarantula Hanbane and the like Pag. 286 287 288. Section 14. Of the Cure of Madness why no more succesfuls Humble Advice to the Governors of Bethlem to restrain their Officers from admitting swarms of people to come in and prate with the poor distracted people showing the several mischiefs thence arising and intimation of the right method of Cure. from P. 288. to p. 296. Section 15. A fine Experiment of Curing such as are bitten by a mad Dog recommended to Tryal in all other sorts of inveterate Madness And Concludes with advice for preventing disorders of mind Pag. 296 297 298 299. A DISCOURSE OF Dreams AND Uisions c. The INTRODUCTION Shewing the Difficulty and yet Vsefulness of this Subject and how Imperfectly the same has hitherto been Handled by Others THE matters we propose to handle in this Treatise are abstruce various profound and mysterious since man has so far Eclipsed those glorious Intell●ctual Beams planted in his nature by the Father of Lights since he has interposed such a Chaos of gross Imaginations and Earthly Affections and Clouds of Bituminous Smoke fetcht from the Infernal pit so that he seems altogether inveloped with a pithy Darkness Dismal as that of Egypt which might be felt and is forced as the Prophet speaks to grope even at noonday being become almost an utter stranger to himself and all the marvellous Works of his Creator insomuch that the most Towering Mortals that call themselves Philosophers feed their halffamisht Intellectuals with Airy Notions instead of Solid Speculations blunder on Hoodwinckt by Tradition in a constant flesh-pleasing Road of Error and a Contentious Sophistry of Words whilst in Truth they know nothing as they ought to know of Themselves or their Maker of the principals themselves are composed of or what makes them Men much less are they acquainted with the Sympathetical Harmony of the Vniverse that true Musick of the Sphears that Golden Chain which unites Heaven and Earth nor indeed do they ken the Reason of the most obvious operations of Nature Now 't is no wonder if a Discourse of such sublime Subjects as the Entertainments of our Souls during the Body's Noctural Repose when they having shaken off for a time the Fetters of the Senses are upon the Wing in the Suburbs of Eternity of the secret Intercourses of Spirits with Humanity and the wonderful Communications of the divine Goodness to his Servants in Dreams and Uisions 'T is nothing strange I say if such discourses seem very uncouth and extravagant to their unprepared Apprehensions nor is it unlikely that as pride is always a Companion of Self Conceited Ignorance they should scoff at and deride the very mention of such things with the highest Contempt But as we write not to such Spirits that like the deaf Adder will not hear the Voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely people full of themselves that is of Noise and Vanity so ●o the meek and modest souls that in humility daily wait at the Gates of Wisdom's Temple have some hopes th●● this discourse may be bo●● acceptable and in some kind useful I acknowledge 't is very difficult and 〈◊〉 to be undertaken by such a ●●ak unlearned 〈◊〉 by Worm 't is 〈◊〉 therefore 〈…〉 Confidence of Self-Strength Wisdom or Knowledge 〈◊〉 by through and under the Assistance of that illuminating Spirit whic● reveals Secrets to Babes and giveth both the will and the deed tha● I with fear and trembling begin th● d●quisition according to the proportion of Light he hath or shall be pleased to grant unto me and therefore as the wise and holy A●●ients commend every important Enterprize with Humble Pra●ers for the fear of the Lord is alwayes the beginning of Wisdom so with an in●ire Resignation on the ben●●● knees of my soul at his adorable Foo●stool I beseech His All-suffi●iency to supply my Weakness His Truth to sustain my Error His Wisdom to enlighten my Dulness and Ignorance that I may in some measure comprehend and explain those condite Misteries and the knowledge thereof encreasing be serviceable to his Glory and the profit of those that fear his name and desire to live unto him and be partakers of his blessed Kingdom of Love and Glory Yet it is not unlikly that som good and very well-meaning p●rsons being sway'd with popular opinions and possessed with certain narrow principles which they have long imb●b'd without ever throughly examining or so much as inquiring into nay never in their Lives haying deliberately thought upon the nature of the things here treated of may think our pains very superfluous and that the whole subject of Dreams is altogether Vanity or perhaps as some may conceive Superstitious and unlawful to be taken notice of But if these honest souls will be pleased but to consider First That Physitians generally agree that the natural temperament or complexion and consequently many times the secret Diseases of persons are as soon or better found out by their Dreams than by any outward signs Secondly That since the Heart of man is deceitful above all things therefore for him that would truly know himself it has by wise Doctors of Morality been always advised to take notice amongst other things of his usual Dreams there being scarce any thing that more discovers the secret bent of our minds and inclinations to Vertue or Vice or this or that particular Evil as Pride Covetousness Sensuality or the like then these nocturnal sallies and reaches of the Soul which are more free undisguis'd with less reserve than such as are manifested when we are awake Thirdly If they shall call to mind which I more especially advise them to do that as Dreams are one of the clearest natural Arguments of the Immortality of our Souls so they were one of the usual wayes whereby God vouchsafed of old to Reveal his commands and secrets to the Prophets and holy men and that it is one of his gracious promises touching the Glory and fuller manifestations of the Gospel dispensation that then their young men should See Visions and their old men Dream Dreams And if withall they shall without prejudice read over what we have candidly written touching all these Considerations and many other Remarkable matters relating thereunto in the following Treatise When I sa● in a true Light they have seriously laid to heart all this I am apt to think they may find cause to entertain other Conceptions and more favourable Sentiments and judge this hitherto too much neglected

the intellectual powers of nature so that the Soul can neither Communicate with good Angels or separated Spirits nor of herself see or penetrate into any Celestial thing But Wisdom which is derived from and joyned to Sobriety Cleanness and Temperance in that which rightly fitteth and disposeth both the Body and Soul and Spirit and advances them to a divine purity for Abstinence and cleanness in Meats Drinks Imployments and Communications have a wonderful power to fortifie all the Observers thereof against all sorts of Vices and Temptations of the Devil who continually goeth about seeking whom he may invegle to Drunkenness Gluttony Lying Coveteousness Pride and the like to all which enormities Excesses opens the Doors and Windows and so it is easie for him to enter finding abundance of prepared matter for his Suggestions and Temptations to work upon whereby many Thousands of Poor Souls are destroyed The contrary is to be Understood of good Angels and Spirit who by Temperance Chastity and Purity are drawn and conciliated to our Assistance therefore let all that would have their Souls and Intellects adopted for such divine converse keep their Bodies and Spirits pure and unincumbered and not overwhelmed in the commerce and affairs of this World and the flesh to which purpose nothing does more contribute then a strict observation of the rules of Temperance both in quality and quantity words and works avoiding all irregular Passions Violence and Oppression both of men and beasts and to bound their desires to the necessities of nature for the things that polute and encumber mens Souls and enslave their Bodies are not needful our ever Blessed Creator having in his infinite mercy given us all needful things in abundance which are also neer us and easily attainable but those that are not needful nor of use to us are hard to come at and mens so eager pursuit after them do but shew and manifest his depravation and fall from his first innocent Estate for the more things man fancies himself to need the more is his Turba that is the more strongly he awakens the wrathful powers of his Soul or first principle and the less he needeth the more like he becomes to his Creator who giveth all things and receiveth nothing 'T is certain mans soul is a Mystery breathed out of the grand Mystery or Abyssal Fountain or Eye outof the All-seeing a Ray of the eternal Sun and therefore when it becomes purified through Cleanness Sobriety Temperance and the Fear of the Lord which includes them all that is when separated from the gross fumes and polutions of the Flesh then is it capable of ascending receiving and communicating with good Angels and Spirits and attaining unto wonderful things in a moment even as David was of a Shepherd made a Prophet and expert in divine things or as Soloman in the dream of one night was filled with the knowledg of all things in the Created World so Isaiah Ezekiel Daniel and other holy Prophets and Apostles were taught and the truth is the Soul when purified and united by Faith and Charity to its divine original can without long tedious studiing or seeking without the toil of Logical demonstration or perplexity of Syllogisms and Problems see into and apprehend as far as is convenient all divine and natural mysteries nor is there any thing that does more contribute to the good Complexion and Tranquility both of body and mind then these abstaining vertues which we have always celebrated but can never two much recommend But besides clean innocent Meats and Drinks such as may extenuate all superfluous matter and prevent Crudities there ought to be observed a due natural Fasting for that not a little conduces to the making of the intellect sound and vigorous and mostly preserves the Spirit from cloudy thickness and suffocation as all the holy Seers and sage Phylosophers of old have observed who keeping an abstemious and sober Table did protract there lives in all sobriety temperance whereby they prevented the Generation of all superfluous matters that might dull the phantasie for none can obtain the high illuminated state nor understand the divine and holy mysteries of God and live in his innocent Law but only such as do by abstinency prudently moderate every extravagant motion of the Mind and Body Hence some of the wise Antients would not admit any into their society but such as were abstinent from strong drink flesh and common Vices saying That none could know themselves or their Creator but such as do fervently and constantly endeavour to imitate him by a divine conversation and that the cleanness and purity of a mind devoted to God does make such a mans Soul a perpetual Temple for the divine Majesty It is also highly requisit for such as would be capable of this excellent Gift of true Dreams to withdraw from the multitude and from the variety of the gross outward Sences Affections Imaginations Opinions and Passions which are the torturing Distempers and Sicknesses of peoples minds for the simple Truth cannot be understood nor witnessed except a man first live in the opperation and practice of the divine power and innocent Spirit of Gods Love and Light principle these sublime Gifts and nocturnal Communications are to joyn unto Abstinency Sobriety and Solitude for by Lonesomeness Retirement and Silence the mind is made fine and as it were loosened from the cords perturbations of worldly affairs and is thereby the better prepared and the more at leisure to receive the spiritual Gifts and free Communications of the good Angels of God. So Moses the Law-Giver and grand Prophet abstracted himself after he was learned in all the knowledge or Phylosophy of the Egyptians from the voluptuous charms of Phara●h's Court and hurry of the World and went into the vast Wilderness of Midian or Ethiopia when keeping of Sheep an emblem both of innocency and of his further conduct of the people of God he applyed himself to the sole contemplation of divine things which pleased the Lord so well that he suffered him to see him as it were Face to Face and endued him with a wonderful power of miracles as the Scriptures of Truth do testifie Many other wise men and Phylosophers have by Solitude and Abstinency obtained many wonderful gifts the true knowledge of divine and natural things We ought also avoid the haunt or scrutiny after all such kind of curious abstruse Arts or Knowledge as is apt any way to distract or deceive us or amuse us more then profit us as credulous Niceness in judicial Astrology Criticisms in Grammar Derivations and vain Genealogies Squaring the Circle contriving a perpetual motion and such kind of impertinent Curiosities or other Phylosophical 〈…〉 super-intellectual and 〈◊〉 Unity cannot be known or understood except a man doth absolutely withdraw himself from the multitude and the noise of the confused World where little but Violence and Wrath is practised Charity is absolutly necessary to a Christian Life for it