_The interpretation of this Hebrue word Onen, of the vanitie of dreames, and divinations thereupon._
_Onen_ differeth not much from _Kasam_, but that it is extended to the interpretation of dreames. And as for dreames, whatsoever credit is attributed unto them, proceedeth of follie: and they are fooles that trust in them, for whie they have deceived many. In which respect the Prophet giveth us good warning, not to followe nor hearken to the expositors of dreames, for they come through the multitude of busines. And therefore those witches, that make men beleeve they can prophesie upon dreames, as knowing the interpretation of them, and either for monie or glorie abuse men & women therby, are meere couseners, and worthie of great punishment: as are such witchmongers, as beleeving them, attribute unto them such divine power as onelie belongeth to God: as appeereth in _Jeremie_ the Prophet.
_Of divine, naturall, and casuall dreames, with their differing causes and effects._
_Macrobius_ recounteth five differences of images, or rather imaginations exhibited unto them that sleepe, which for the most part doo signifie somewhat in admonition. There be also many subdivisions made hereof, which I thinke needlesse to reherse. In _Jasper Peucer_ they are to be seene, with the causes and occasions of dreames. There were woont to be delivered from God himselfe or his angels, certeine dreames and visions unto the prophets and holie fathers: according to the saieng of _Joel_; I will powre my spirit upon all flesh, your yoong men shall dreame dreames, and your old men shall see visions. These kind of dreames (I say) were the admonishments and forewarnings of God to his people: as that of _Joseph_, to abide with _Marie_ his wife, after she was conceived by the Holie-ghost, as also to conveie our Saviour Christ into _Aegypt_, &c: the interpretation whereof are the peculiar gifts of God, which _Joseph_ the patriarch, and _Daniel_ the prophet had most speciallie.
As for physicall conjectures upon dreames, the scriptures [*]improove them not: for by them the physicians manie times doo understand the state of their patients bodies. For some of them come by meanes of choler, flegme, melancholie, or bloud; and some by love, surfet, hunger, thirst, &c. _Gallen_ and _Boetius_ were said to deale with divels, bicause they told so justlie their patients dreames, or rather by their dreames their speciall diseases. Howbeit, physicall dreames are naturall, and the cause of them dwelleth in the nature of man. For they are the inward actions of the mind in the spirits of the braine, whilest the bodie is occupied with sleepe: for as touching the mind it selfe, it never sleepeth. These dreames varie, according to the difference of humors and vapors. There are also casuall dreames, which (as _Salomon_ saith) come through the multitude of businesse. For as a looking glasse sheweth the image or figure thereunto opposite: so in dreames, the phantasie & imagination informes the understanding of such things as haunt the outward sense. Whereupon the poet saith: