The preface of this volume is contributed by Prof.
Dilherr, pastor of the great church of St. Sebald at Nuremberg,
who, in discussing the Divine purposes of storms, adds to the
three usually assigned--namely, God's wish to manifest his
power, to display his anger, and to drive sinners to
repentance--a fourth, which, he says, is that God may show us "with
what sort of a stormbell he will one day ring in the last judgment."
About the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century we
find, in Switzerland, even the eminent and rational Professor of
Mathematics, Scheuchzer, publishing his _Physica Sacra_, with the
Bible as a basis, and forced to admit that the elements, in the
most literal sense, utter the voice of God. The same pressure
was felt in New England. Typical are the sermons of Increase
Mather on _The Voice of God in Stormy Winds_. He especially lays
stress on the voice of God speaking to Job out of the whirlwind,
and upon the text, "Stormy wind fulfilling his word." He
declares, "When there are great tempests, the angels oftentimes
have a hand therein,.
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