For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice [is known] by multitude of words.
Ver. 3. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business.] When all the rest of the senses are bound up by sleep, the soul entereth into the shop of the fancy, and operates there usually according to the businesses and employments of the day past; et fieri videntur quae fieri tamen non videntur, saith Tertullian, a those things seem to be done in a dream, which yet are not seen to be done at all: these are but vanae iactationes negotiosae animae, the idle tossings of a busy mind. In like sort a fool, a heartless, sapless fellow, that being sensual and void of "the spirit of grace and supplications," hath neither the affections nor expressions of holy prayer, "multiplies words without knowledge," thinks to make out in words what he wants in worth, being λαλειν αριστος, λεγειν δε αδυνατωτατος, as Plutarch saith of Alcibiades, one that could talk much but speak little: "His voice is known by multitude of words." It is but a "voice" that is heard, it is but a sound that is made, like the uncertain sound of a trumpet, that none can tell what it meaneth, what to make of it. Corniculas citius in Africa, quam res rationesque solidus in Turriani scriptis reperias, saith one, b so here if there be any worth of matter in the fool's words, it is but by chance, as Aristotle saith, c that dreams do by chance foretell those things that come to pass. Let it be our care to shun as much as may be all lavish and superfluous talkativeness and tediousness, but especially in prayer, lest we "offer the sacrifice of fools," and God be angry with us. For as it is not the loudness of a preacher's voice, but the weight and holiness of his matter, and the spirit of the preacher, that moves a wise and intelligent hearer, so it is not the labour of the lips, but the travail of the heart that prevails with God. The Baalites' prayer was not more tedious than Elijah's short, yet more pithy than short. And it was Elijah that spake loud and sped in heaven. Let the fool learn, therefore, to show more wit in his discourse than words, lest being known by his voice, he meet, as the nightingale did, with some Laconian that will not let to tell him, Vox tu es, praeterea nihil, Thou art a voice, and that's all.
a Tertull., De Anima, cap. 49.
b Beringer., Contra Idol. cum Salut. Angel.
c Aristot., De Divinat. per Insom.