classed under the third distribution of Macrobius, which represented oracular communications to obtain, when in sleep, some venerable or sacred person or deity, foreshewed future. events, or gave directions as to what should be done or avoided. The figurative and mysterious vision which represented the majesty of God ascendant above ministering angels, and pronouncing to Jacob the increase and dispersion of his seed, and the blessings to be derived through his race to mankind, may be ranged under the same division*, as may also the grand religious expostulation thus finely described by Eliphaz in the book of Job.

"Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.

"In thoughts from the visions of the night, then deep sleep falleth on men.

*Gen. xxviii, xxxi. 11-13. 24.

"Fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

"Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood.

"It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before my eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

"Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

"Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants; and his angels he chargeth with folly

"How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

They are destroyed from morning to evening they perish for ever without any regarding it.

"Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? They die even without wisdom *!"

The dreams furnished by divine favour to Joseph, in which the sheaves and stars performed an obeysance expressive of the reverence that was to be paid to his elevation †, as well as those which were furnished to the officers of Pharoah, and to the king himself §, may be placed under the first distinction of Macrobius, that of dreams, properly so called, which were described to be mysterious representations requiring expositions, and subservient to divination; and under this class may justly be arranged also the mysterious and enigmatical visions of Daniel, Ezekiel, St. John, and other prophets.

Job iv. 12, &c.

+ Gen. xxxvii. 6. 7. 9, comp. with Gen. xlii. 6. xliii. 26. 28. xliv. 14. I. 8.

+ Gen. xl. 5.

§ Gen. xli. 1-5.

The dream indeed which was especially so denominated, was in its original import deemed to be prophetical of real circumstances, as the very derivation of the word intimates importing to speak truth *; but so many fictions were invented even among the Jews during the time of the prophets, that dreams became proverbially represented as truth mingled with falsehood, as wheat mixed with straw t.

The term vision, which Macrobius considers as a prophetic representation of events exactly foreseen, is employed by the sacred writers as generally expressive of revelation however imparted. "In a dream," says Elihu," in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men in slumberings upon the bed, then

* Overpos, from ov, truth, and ɛipɛiv, to speak.

† Jerem. xxii. 32. xxiii. 28. Sicut impossibile est ut sit Triticum sine Paleâ, ita fieri non potest ut sit somnium absque verbis falsis. Porta Mosis, P. 23.

Job xxxiii. 15. 17. In the Septuagint it is sv μeλern VUXTEρIN. Psal. lxxxix. 19. 1 Kings iii. 5. 13.

he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction." Specific instances which may suit the exact definition of the Latin writer, are furnished in the account of the vision in which God communicated to Abraham the sojourning of his multiplied descendants four hundred years in Egypt, their coming out, and his own death in a peaceful old age*; or in that in which a consolatory assurance was imparted to Israel, that he should go into Egypt, and that his son Joseph should close his eyes†; or if we restrict the term to the revelations communicated by day to the waking senses, we may refer to the miraculous vision imparted to St. Paul on his journey to Damascus, when even the men who accompanied him saw the light and heard the voice, though not the distinct words, it should seem, which addressed him.

*Gen. xv. 13. 16.

+ Gen. xlvi. 24. See also 1 Sam. iii. 1 Kings iii. 5. Luke i. 8. 22. Acts x. 12.