5. And they dreamed a dream. What I have before alluded to respecting dreams must be recalled to memory; namely, that many frivolous things are presented to us, which pass away and are forgotten; (150) some, however, have the force and significance of prophecy. Of this kind were these two dreams, by which God made known the hidden result of a future matter. For unless the mark of a celestial oracle had been engraven upon then, the butler and the baker would not have been in such consternation of mind. I acknowledge, indeed, that men are sometimes vehemently agitated by vain and rashly conceived dreams; yet their terror and anxiety gradually subsides; but God had fixed an arrow in the minds of the butler and the baker, which would not suffer them to rest; and by this means, each was rendered more attentive to the interpretation of his dream. Moses, therefore, expressly declares that it was a presage of something certain.
(150) Calvin’s words are: “ Quae Transeunt per portam corneam.” — Vide Virgil. Aeneid. VI. In finem. This is an obviously mistaken allusion, arising probably from a lapse of memory in Calvin, or in the transcriber of his works. He should have said “ portam eburnam.” The ancient mythologists distinguished true dreams from false, by representing the former as passing through the “horny gate,” ( porta cornea,) the latter through the “ivory gate,” ( porta eburna.) — Ed.