counted from the captiuity and destruction of the Citie: for they say that Nebuchadnezer was called kyng after that he had a quiet Monarchy, and before he had destroyed the Temple and Citie he had not so. But I do thinke other∣wayes, as it is more probable, that this Nebuchadnezer raygned wyth hys father when he conquered Ierusalem in the tyme Ioachim, and that he was then sent thether by hys father: and after he had ended hys warres in Aegipt, he returned into Chaldea, to preuent seditions and inno∣uations. Wherefore herein there is no absurdity, that Nebuchadnezer raigned before the death of hys father to∣gether wyth hym, and afterward he raigned alone: and that this thyng which is here spoken, came to passe in the second yeare of his owne raigne. He sayth that he dreamed dreames, and yet there is but one dreame declared. But because many thynges were wrapped vp in thys dreame, he speaketh plurally as of many.
It is added that his spirit was troubled, that we may know that it was no common dreame. For this was not the first tyme that euer he dreamed, neither was he so trou∣bled euery night to call together all the Mages. Wherefore Daniell woulde note that thys was an extraordinary dreame, so that he beyng astonished did fall agayne into a dreame, & through the trouble of his mynde, forgat what he had dreamed. But he felt a burning in his cōscience because God would not suffer hym to rest, but would haue hys mynde to be vnquiet whiles that he should haue the inter∣pretation of the dreame. Wherefore the prophane writers do not without cause place dreames amonges diuinations. They speake in déede doubtfully of dreames, because there can be no certainty in their writinges: yet did they thinke that there was some kinde of diuination in their dreames. How be it to extend this to all dreames were foolishe and childish. For many tymes dreames do come of the affection of the mynde, or of the disposition of the body: but of the cō∣trary part, some dreames do come by Gods appointment for other purposes.