488 Tempus putationis, or, Aril, Eth. Homer He. /!rigor. ploy. Ails and mon. p. r. Poncio, Disco . invit. cyp i. A comfortable death, Thou /haft go in peace. z An honourable burial, andbe buriedwiththy Fathers: 3. A feafonable time for both, in agoodadage. Firft, ofth'emanner. When the Sunwas letting, a deepflcep and dreadful dark- nefs fell upon aAbraham,andGod thawedhim in a dream, the mifery and thraldome ofhis pofterity inEgypt : Knowof afurety, that thyfeed 'hall beafffranger in aland that is not theirs, and (halfferve them, andthey fhallaf/2i£f them 1.00years, verf, r3. and left at the light thereofhis heart fhould utterlyhave failed him, and his bowels dried up within him like a pot-fiseard ; God cleareth the skie which was clouded with a fmoak of a Eeryfurnace, verf. 57. and cheareth his hcarr,reviving him with a promife of fafety, and peace for himfelf, and ofdeliverance ofhis pofterity alfo out of their grievous fervitude, aftera certain period of years allotted for the promife ofthegrowth and ripenefi ofthe Amorites fins. For dreams ingeneral, the great Secretary ofNature difcoverethunto us, that the Dreams ofgoodmcn,are better than the Dreams ofbad ; and he will have his frelix or happy man, to have a fingular priviledge above other men,even in his fleep. And doubtlefs, as a good confcienee is afullfeafi in the day, fo it is á lightbanquetin the night; for better thoughts, and pbantaficsin the day, beget better dreams in the night : as the brighter colours in the Window, when the Sun fhiueth raft clearer fßecies intentionales,orre$e&ions from them on the wall. God is with his children, as well in the night,as in the day,and heimparts his counfels,and difclofcth his fecrets, as well by dreams in the one, as by vilonsin theother. The nróphelitofJoel, I willpour out my fßirit uponallflefh, andyour young men/hallfeevifons, andyour old I men/hill dream dreams, though it were fulfilled in the clay ofPenticoft, (asSaint Peter inftruaeih us) yet ought itnot to be reftrained to that day, or the Apoftles time only. Forit bath been verified in all after. ages, and holdethftill for profitable, and comfortableirradiations of Gods Spirit upon the foul, by day andnight, though notfor fupernatural andprophetical revelations, or not fo frequent : Dreams there- fore as they are not with theEafternpeople fuperftitioufly tò be obfcrved ; fo nei- ther arc they utterly to be negle&ed, as idle and vainnocturnal phantalies ; The Poet could fay oui, ere. ára 10`. Jupiter fends Dreams,and Ariltotle dreamednot,whenhe wrote his exa& difcoufe of-Divination by dreams ; nor Artemidorm whenhepublifhedhis curious traft,in- tituled b,hveina, judgment of Dreamt, for the experience of all times proveth, that the Dreamsofmany men, efperially a littlebefore their death, havebtenvery confiderable : When the windowof the fettles arefhut , the fould bathbelt leifure to look into her felf : andafter ficknefs hashbattered down the wallsof thedark prifon ófthe body,in whichfhe was dole kept,morelight breaks in upon her,andlhefeeth farther off than fhe could before; and this is the meaning of the Platonicks, in that their Apophthegme, animapromonet in morte, thefoul looks out,as itwere seer death: For thisparticular in my Text, Godis gracious to many ofhis childrennow adayes by Dreams, or otherwayes to give them notice of their departurehence. To fome he maketh known the year, to louse the month, to force the very day and hour, when they lhalt go the wayof allfefb. And as here he fore - fhewed Abraham his departure from hence, per viam leideam, by the milky way, as it were, that is by a fweet and pleafant paflàgeof a natural death in the autumnofhis life : fo alto in a Dream he rcprcfented toSaint Polycarpe, and Saint Cyprian, their paffage,perviam fanguineam, Thebloodyway ofmartyrdome. Tolicarpe not many months before he was facrificed for a whole burnt-offering to God, dreamed that his bed wasall on fire under him : and Saint Cyprian law in a Dream the Proconful give order to the Clerk of the Allizes,towrite downhis fentence (which was to have his head cut off, with a Sword) which when the Clerk by fagnemade knoA n to Saint &yprian, the; godly Billsop earneljly dcfired a littledelay of the execution, that he mightfee his; honfeen order ; and the Clerk anfweredhim in Isis dream,that his petition was gran-" ted;
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