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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81486	Vox cæli; or, philosophical, historicall, and theological [brace] observations, of thunder. With a more general view of Gods wonderful works. First grounded on Job 26. 14. but now enlarged into this treatise. / By Robert Dingley, M.A. once fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford; now minister of Gods Word at Brixton in the Isle of Wight, and County of Southampton.	Dingley, Robert, 1619-1660.	1658 (1658)	Wing D1502; Thomason E1868_1; ESTC R209723	78,969	218

of the Author or the awe and terrour it doth or should beget in the Auditors When the Lord Thundreth in the Heavens Psal 18.3 29.3 Job 37.4 5. 't is the HIGHEST that gives his voice The God of GLORY Thundreth He thundreth with the voice of his EXCELLENCY God Thundreth MARVELLOVSLY with his voice The clouds poured out water the Skies sent out a sound thine arrowes also went abroad the voice of thy Thunder was in the heavens the Lightnings lightned the world What then The earth trembled and shook Psal 77.17 18. Virgil. lib. 1. Georg. Ipse pater media nimborum in nocte corusca Fulmina molitur dextra Quo maxima motu Terra trêmit fugere ferae mortalia corda Per gentes humilis stravit pavor Many dreadfull effects of Thunder you are remembred of in this Treatise If it fill our hearts with high holy reverential thoughts of the Thunderer that you constantly feare before him it is one I am sure that the Almighty Author doth designe and the very best that the work can produce Bede gives us the Relation of a holy man who never heard a great gust of winde but he would presently call upon God for mercy beseech him to be gracious to the sons of men If the winde increased he would lay all other businesse aside and attend alone to that one of Prayer If Thunder and Lightning followed he would then make hast to the Church and spend his time in Religious exercises till the storm was over And being asked by his friends why he did so His answer was have you not read Psal 18.13 14. The Lord thundred in the Heavens and the Highest gave his voice He sent out his Arrows scattered them Lightnings and discomfited them And it is recorded of Aquinas that when it Thundered he was wont to fall down and with much devotion to pray Lord help and succour thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood Job Iob 38. 39. cap. 40. ver 4. Cap. 41. 42. vers 6. if we be not mistaken in those definitions which we have received of that vertue had not many equals for Magnanimity and Fortitude and yet after an account of the greatnesse of God discovered in his mighty works how full is his heart of awfulnesse and feare And his friend Elihu being to mention the excellent marvellous roaring voice of Thunder they are his owne expressions knows not how to do it without a preface cloathed in feare and reverence At this also my heart trembleth and is moved out of his place Job 37.1 c. Neither should it be any abatement of our respects to the great God that Thunder is known to have its naturall causes For those causes are kno●n to have their cause too and are but the effects of an higher Nature hath nothing to boast of but what God endoweth her with who acteth without it beside it above it Contracteth or enlargeth it even as he pleaseth And when he doth not either of these yet doth he not leave any thing at any time meerly to the hand of its Causes but hath himselfe an Agency in the Production of it and that an immediate one Immediatione virtutis suppositi say some At least virtutis is confessed by all Nature hath nothing that she hath not received neither is she Independent in any one in the smallest operation For that would argue an Independency of power and that of being which none can challenge but God alone Do not say Then every thing that comes to passe in the world and even the daily imployments of Nature must call out our hearts to I know not how many duties For can you tell why they should not Is there any possibility of supererogation Can you love fear praise admire adore our God too much But yet Reader the greatest manifestation of the power majesty of God should work most Thunder is one of these and a voice of the Almighty loud enough to awaken our hearts to all these sorts of acknowledgments The reverend Author hath made it his present businesse in the ensuing Treatise to perswade our attention to it The discourse is pious and hath cost him some pains Your Prayers are desired that it may be useful and afford the people of God much profit which I am the more perswaded to hope of it when I finde it to be though in more words not a jot more then that pathetical exhortation of the Apostle Heb. 12.28 29. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly feare for our God is a consuming fire Which will abundantly praeponderate the prejudice it might otherwise receive from its Conduct into the world by the unable hand of so obscure and inconsiderable a Person as Reader Your servant in the work of the Gospel of Christ Jesus Edw Buckler THE CONTENTS TWo Observations raised from Job 26.14 Obser 1 That the highest operations most excelent works of GOD cannot be reached by Mans understanding The Reasons 7. Reason 1 Mans darknesse and sloath since the Fall Ubi of the grosse errors of Philosophers Of our want of Reading Travelling Meditation Of the Brevity of Life Reason 2 The variety of Species and Individuals Reason 3 The infinite wisdome of God which is stamped upon all his works Ubi of imperfect false Descriptions of Gods works Of some Rarities in Nature for which no reason can be given Reason 4 Gods Power and Wisdome is displayed in GREAT and SMALL creatures Ubi of the Whale Elephant and Precious Stones Reason 5 Men are admired who have any thing well IMITATED Gods Works Reason 6 A Mass and multitude of wonders do attend the visible Heavens Reason 7 PROVIDENCE is very mysterious and is a kinde of continuall Creation The Inferences follow which are four Inference 1 See their presumptuous folly and madnesse who pretend to know GOD and all his works Inference 2 See the necessity of Vniversities Learning Ubi of unwearied diligence in study Philosophy a faire Hand-maid to Theology Inference 3 Read what you can of GOD in the Volumn of Creation and Providence Inference 4 Comfort for Saints In heaven we shall know more of GOD and his works Heaven the rarest of Gods Works It hath been long preparing for us Obser 2 The terrible Meteor of THVNDER is a most lively manifestation of the LORDS greatnesse and power The trumpet of his glorious Majestie and matchlesse Perfections Four enquiries in the opening of this Truth Enquiry 1 How this expression in holy Job may be taken and understood Answ 3 wayes Enquiry 2 What Thunder is Ubi of it's Name Nature Effects Also of the Thunder-bolt Tempests Lightnings Earth quakes Haile great and fearefull Of violent Thunders and Lightnings mentioned in our Chronicles with dreadful effects Enquiry 3 If any other then GOD be the Author Instruments of these things Answ 1. GOD the efficient cause of Thunder which is his

Jupiter but the great and eternall God Therefore although we may conjecture at the naturall causes of Thunder yet 't is safest to ascribe Thunder unto God as the prime Agent and Cause Efficient 2 Though God be the chief Author and Orderer of Thunder There may notwithstanding be other Instrumentall causes thereof all commissionated bounded and limited by the Lord. 1 Good Angels have some Influence on Thunder It is certain e Lawrence of Angels p. 34. saith one they can do any thing which Nature can doe They can move the Heavens They can move all corporall things almost in an instant They can stir Tempests move Waters and Windes They slew the powerful Army of Senacherib They brought Peter and the Apostles out of prison Blesse the Lord all yee f Psal 10.10 Angels which are mighty in strength which do his will They could make a g a Reg. 7.6 sound of many horses to be heard by the King of Assyria to his great amazement And by the same delegated power they can raise storms and tempests and make Thunder-claps in the aire You read in the Epistle to the h Heb. 2.2 Hebrews of the word spoken by Angels i Simler One thus expounds it That the Thunder and Lightning and sound of the Trumpet were caused by the Ministry of good Angels when the Law was given Concerning the great power of Elect Angels I have k In the Deputation of Angels p. 91 92. treated else-where If the l 1 Thes 4.16 voice of an Arch-angel will be so loud and terrible as to awaken all that are in their Graves Then much more have Angels power to move Thunder which is a whisper to that Have the Angels power to raise an Earthquake which the m Mat. 28.2 Gospel affirms then what should hinder but they have power if commissionated by the Lord to shake all the clouds break them asunder and so raise Thunder and Lightnings Nay 2 The fallen Angels if permitted can do it Satan we know hath a Principality in the n Ephes 2 2. Aire the place where these Meteors are ingendred o Mr. Medes Diatribae p. 99. ad 107. Learned Mede thinks it probable that all the Devils have their seat and Mansion there and not in Hell till the day of Judgement Nay p Hieronimus in Eph. 6. Jerome saith it is the Opinion of all the Learned that the Devils have their Mansion and Residence in the space between Heaven and Earth If so then their habitation and abode is in the place where Thunders and Lightnings are hatched and where Thunder-bolts are coyned As also where those Bullets the Haile-stones are moulded Devils have power to shake the Aire and raise mighty gusts of Winde by Land or Sea else the windes could not so commonly be sold by the Laplanders to the Merchants that desire them for Navigation Note Satan could not be Prince of the Aire unlesse he had some power and train in that Element above the other 3 Elements besides q Mr Jenkins on Jude 9. Vol. 2. p. 61. One saith he is hurtfull to men by Tempests Winds and Fires r Zan hius in Ephes 2. Tom. 6. p. 51 Zanchy observes the Devils hover in the aire Inde nos observare tentare invadere animalia homines excitare tempestates Multaque denique mala hominibus dare To watch tempt invade us and other creatures and send many evils on mankinde Neither is the word silent in this particular He Å¿ Psalm 78.48 49. gave up their cattel also to the haile their flocks to hot Thunder-bolts he cast upon them the fiercenesse of his anger wrath indignation and trouble by sending evill Angels among them These evill Angels were instrumentall causes of Blood Locusts Hail Frost Frogs croaking on earth and Thunder ratling in the aire t Iob 1.11.16 18 19. So when Satans Commission against Job was once signed he soon brought a Whirl-winde upon his Children and Fire in all likelihood u Fulgur Maximum Iun. flashes of Lightning on his Cattel and People to their ruine and destruction A Writer on that w Mr. Caryl on Iob Vol. 1. p. 162.176 place tels us Satan the Prince of the Air can do mighty things command much in that Magazine of Heaven where that dreadfull Artillery those fiery Meteors Thunder and Lightning are lodged and stored up Satan let loose by God can do wonders in the Aire Hee can raise storms He can discharge the great Ordnance of Heaven Thunder and Lightning And by his Art he can make them more terrible and dreadfull then they are by Nature He can so inrage them that no man is able to withstand their violence All this they do x Apoc. 7.1 ad 3. not by any absolute power of their own but meerly as Tyrants By the Lords commission saith Bullinger And ut y Zanchius Tom. 2. p. 51. Divinorum judiciorum executores saith Zanchy Barely as the Executioners of Divine Judgements Enquiry 4 Fourthly We proceed to enquire in what Cases especially and on what occasions the Lord Hath manifested or Will discover his own power and glory by Thunder in an extraordinary and supernatural manner I answer chiefly 1 At the Castigation of his and the Churches Enemies in Battell or otherwise 2 At the Delivery of the Morall Law on Mount Sinai 3 At the Promulgation of the Gospell 4 At the grand Assizes and dissolution of all things First 1 At the castigation of the Churches enemies at the Castigation of Gods and the Churches Enemies the bloody Persecutors of the Saints God hath had divers wayes of destroying his Enemies besides potent numerous valiant and well disciplin'd Armies As by Gideous 300 men The sound of Rams horns before Jericho Moses Rod Shamgers Goad Sampsons Jaw-bone and little Davids Sling He can destroy whole hosts of enemies by a z Isa 41.16 Whirlwind nay a a 2 Reg. 19.7 Blast He smiteth the b Psalm 46.9 horse and rider with madnesse breaks the Bow cutteth the speare in sunder and burneth their Charets in the fire saith the Psalmist The e Judg. 5.20 Stars in their course fight against Sisera by their d Annotations in locum Influences raising up storms and Tempests against him and his Host say Commentators The e Iosh 10.11 Lord discomfited the Enemies of Joshuah by Hail-stones from Heaven The like he hath done by THUNDER and LIGHTNING See Exod. 9. The Lord fought against Pharaoh by f Exod 9.23 28. Thunder and Haile the fire ran along upon the ground so there were mighty thundrings and fire mingled with haile very grievous which smote all that was in the field man beast herb and trees Whereupon g Origen in loc Hom. 4. Origen writes thus Vide temperamentum Divinae correptionis Non cum silentio verberat sed dat voces Doctrinam caelitus mittit perquam possit culpam suam mundus agnoscere He did not

VOICE A Digression of speech and how many wayes GOD is said to speak to us How the voyce of Man hath been loud terrible and perswading Stopping our eares in time of Thunder proved to be a SIN Answ 2. There be other Instrumentall causes of Thunder Good and Evill Angels chiefly Enquiry 4 In what cases especially or occasions God hath manifested or will discover his power and glory by supernaturall and most terrible Thunder Answer 1 At the castigation or overthrow of his and the Churches enemies in battell or otherwise Divers of Gods enemies have been routed and destroyed by Thunder and Lightnings Answer 2 When the moral Law was delivered on Mount-Sinai Of which 8 reasons are given Answer 3 At the Promulgation of the Gospel A Digression of Miracles under the Gospel and why none wrought 800 yeares before Christ That the Gospel was confirmed by Thunder is proved by divers Scriptures and some other Authors also by testimonies from the Gospels Enemies Four Reasons why the Gospel was confirmed thus Answer 4 There will be dreadful Thunder and Lightnings at the day of judgement Proved 1 By divers Scriptures 4 full places for for it 2 By foure Arguments or Reasons why it will be so A Digression of the unknown Time The Inferences follow which are four Infer 1 This Doctrine of Thunder is in travaile with terrour to all the enemies of God and his people Thunder proves a Deity Infer 2 Reproof to such as out-brave Thunder Ubi of such as have presumed either to slight or imitate this worke of God That Sodome was burnt with sulphurious Lightning proved out of Tertullian Next Infer 3 matter of admonition to six duties viz. First when you heare it Thunder feare before the great Jehovah 'T is a marvail how sinners dare go to sleep when it thundreth Secondly Follow right meanes to provide for your safety by getting into the arms of Christ For 1 Some repair to the strongest places and buildings for shelter The vanity of this shield 2 Others will ascribe rare Qualities to the Eagle Seal-skin Fig-tree Bay-tree and ringing consecrated and baptized Bells The folly and superstition thereof 3 Some few in the time of much Thunder apply themselves to Prayer holy conference Ubi of laying aside our Recreations when it thundreth Thirdly when the Thunder is over be not afterwards secure but cherish a filiall awe of God upon your hearts that the graces of his Spirit may like Swans eggs be hatched with Thunder Fourthly Be not unsensible of the last Winters praeternaturall Thunder Ubi How it fools the Astrologers presuming to foretell Thunder in their Almanacks and that such should not be tolerated in a Christian State Fifthly Learn to trust in the great and all-powerful God who is able to defend and deliver you Sixthly Let Gods spirituall and mysticall Thunder by his Word and Boanerges at length awaken us Where it is shewed 1 That Ministers should thunder in their Doctrine by earnest sound and powerfull preaching Caution Place not good preaching in loud speaking 2 That the people should labour to profit by powerfull Sermons as so many Alarms from Heaven A Digression of profiting by the Word though the Minister be not so holy as we could wish him Infer 4 Lastly This Doctrine of Thunder comes yet with an Olive-branch of Peace and Consolation to the Saints from divers Scriptures intimating that God is carefull of his people in time of Thunder and Tempests Comfort fetched in 1 From Naturall considerations As That Thunder is from Natural causes and oft produceth good effects in the Aire and Earth 2 From spirituall Meditations chiefly four First God of old was wont to reveal himselfe by Thunder Now in a soft and still voice Secondly Thunder and Lightnings are disposed and ordered by the Lord. Object Then surely none of Gods children receive any prejudice by it Sol. 1. We may not vote all such as suffer by Lightnings and Thunder-bolts to be Gods enemies 2 The good being in bad places or employments may suffer with the bad 3 It may be the wise God fore-seeth greater evills and tryals would befall them if they should escape 4 Hereby he doth warn the wicked what to expect 5 God usually doth preserve his People in such perills 6 If they perish by them they are hastned into Heaven though in a fiery Charet with Elijah Thirdly Thunder Lightning have been serviceable to the Saints 1. By kindling the wood for sacrifice 2. By oppossng the Churches enemies viz. 1. Such as are enemies to her Truth Hereticks and other Novelists have been destroyed by Lightning and Thunder An Item for Lay-Preachers 2. Such as are Enemies to the Churches Peace have also been subdued by Thunder 4 There is yet another Consolation for the Saints No Thunder nor Lightning in Heaven They can no more heare our Thunder then we their Hallelujahs All closed with a Cautionary Advice to the Saints Not to feare Thunder with a low and slavish Feare Indices Finis THE AUTHORS which are quoted in this TREATISE ABbot Abulensis Aelian Ainsworth Albertus Clem Alexandrinus Alsted Ambrose Isaac Ambrose Andrews Annotations Tho Aquinas Aristotle Augustine Avicenna Babington Bacon Du Bartas Baronius Basil Baxter Beda Bellarmine Bellonius Bernard Borrhaeus Dr. Brown Bullinger Anthony Burges Calvin Cambden Camerarius Joseph Caryl Casaubon Caussin Chrysostome M. T. Cicero Cyprian Day Despagne Empedocles Erasmus Evagrius Eusebius Dr. Featly Feltam Ferus Gallen Dr. Gouge Gribaldus Hugh Grotius Bishop Hall Dr. Hammond Heidfeldius Dr. Heyling Hildersham Hez Holland Hug de S. Vict. Huart Jenkins Jerome Josephus Isidore Junius Juvenal Lactantius Cornelius a Lapide Lanquet Lawrence Leigh Lightfoot Lyranus Magirus Marlorat Martial Mead. Melancthon Mendoza Seb Meyer Henry Moor Mornaeus Musculus Gregory Nazianz. Nicephorus Nierembergius Samuel Oates Origen Osiander Ovid Pareus Perkins Pierius Pignetus Philippus Plato Pliny Plutarch Polanus Quintilian Sir W. Raleigh Ramus Dr. Reynolds Rivius Rupertus Rutherford Rueus Salvian Sands Scaliger Shepheard Diodorus Siculus Simler Solinus Sozomen Strabo Strigelius Stow Tacitus Tertullian Tostatus Tremelius John Trap Vegetius Lud Vives Vossius Waterhouse Watson Weems Dr. Willet Ystella Zanchius cum aliis FINIS Job 26.14 But the Thunder of his power or his powerful Thunder who can understand IN this Chapter holy Job gives in his Answer to a third Disputation of his second friend Bildad which Response of Job hath two hinges to move on 1 An utter dislike of Bildads dealing with him as if what was urged by his Friend were not onely short but wide of the Mark And this he doth in the four first Verses of the Chapter 2 A Declaration of the Majesty Power and matchless Excellencies of Jehovah in himself and his wonderful works which Bildad only glanced at And this he performs in the remaining part of the Chapter In this 14 verse holy Job concludes his Meditations and after he had given an Enumeration or Induction of divers particulars he presents unto his friend the whole Fabrick

c Psal 103.5 upper Bill groweth over the under so at last shee is starved Some Elephants live three hundred years as Aelian Solinus and Strabo tell us 2 Our life is short if compared with the long life of men in former times Enochs years were of the same number with the dayes of the year Adam lived 930 years and d Gen. 5 7.2● Methuselah a thousand wanting one and thirty But in Davids time old age and 70. shook hands The climatericall yeare hath extinguished many Lights As Aristotle Plato Diogeges and Zenocrates so fatall hath beene the year 63. Parre aged about 160 was brought from Shropshire to London as the longest liver of this Age and Nation e Ann. Dom. 1634. Sep. 29. to be seen as a wonder So then deduce from our short life the time of first and second child-hood I meane of infancy extreame old age next all the time bestowed on Sleep Food Apparel Visits Recreations and Lusts then scarce any man of 70 would be 12 years old Hence in part comes our great ignorance of God and his works viz. The brevity of our life Secondly The most excellent works of God cannot be fathom'd by mans understanding by reason of the variey of species mans weaknesse considered and the multitude of things which GOD hath made The Rabbins are very curious in numbers and divers of their observations are founded in Arithmetick They glory in this conceipt that a man hath so many bones as there be letters in the Decalogue and just so many joynts and members as there be dayes in the yeare To shew that all our strength and time should be expended in Gods service 'T is said that at f Exod. 15.27 Elim there were 12 wells of Water and 70 Palm-trees in which 12 springs of water Saint Jerome conceived he saw the faces of the 12 Apostles and that the 70 Palm-trees did praefigure the 70 Disciples But to return to our businesse who can number all the works of God from the Eagle to the Gnat from the Elephant to the Pismire from the Whale to the Lamprey from the Oake to the Violet from the huge Sun to the least Star in the milky way from the largest Continent to the smallest Island from the main Ocean to the least Brook And if the distinct species or kinds of things cannot be found out who will undertake be he man or Angell to number the Individuals which every Species contains every one of those Individuals having some private marke or note of distinction from his fellow 'T is a proverbial speech that no man can number stellas Caeli still as Roris the drops of Dew or Stars of Heaven Well g Psal 72.15 might David say of Gods wonders I know not the number thereof And h 139.17 18. how great is the sum of them If I should count them they are more in number then the sand 'T was no Hyperbole in Eliphaz to say i Job 5.9 The Lord doth things great and unsearchable marvellous things without number Nor in Paul k Rom. 11.33 when he cryeth his wayes are past finding out Thirdly 3 Medium Gods wisdome is great and every thing he doth hath some impressions and characters of that wisdome stamped on it The l Psal 104.24 Lords wisdome is infinite No man knows all that God hath done God hath some rare pieces in the Sea and Earth which he doth not shew unto men but keeps lockt as in a secret Cabinet m As Drake Candish Sebastran Deleano who are said to put a girdle about the world Such as have travel'd round the world as the people suppose yet may not have seene the fifth part of it n Sir Walt. Ral. Hist of the world l. 1. cap. 3. Metrodorus thought that to deny infinite worlds is all one as to affirme that in so large a field as the Universal there should grow but one Thistle Also Anaxagoras and Democritus held a plurality of worlds Some are of opinion that every Starre hath a world ready peopled in it Nay they offer Heb. 1.2 but compared with Mat. 12.32 Scripture to maintaine a multitude of worlds But let the Reader excuse me if I divert him with a story of two Fryers who discoursing how many worlds were created one of them affirmed there were ten worlds quoting that Text in Luke Annon decem facti sunt mundi The other looking into the Text replyed Sed ubi sunt novem Yet this is certain though there be but one world that much of it is yet unknown to us and 't is not long since a considerable part of the world hath been found out Witnesse those New Discoveries by Christopher Colono of the West Indies by Hernando Magellano of the Meluccaes by Sir Hugh Willoughby of those Northern Discoveries And yet still great part of the Map and Globe is filled up with Terra Incognita The unknown Earth lying either under the Artick or Antartick Circle The former p Dr. Heilins Geogr. is rather supposed then known The latter is something knowne and hath the Names of Terra del Fuega Nova Guinea Psittacorum Regio and such like Next to come unto the known World how many Rarities in it that have been imperfectly described Travellers differing much in their relations which may be imputed either to a prond heart a carelesse eye a credulous pen or a q Poets and Travellers abound with Fictions wide mouth Scaliger saith of Baronius He did not write Annals but frame them Palaephatus was wont to write incredible if not impossible things Bellonius a modern eye-witnesse reports that the doors of that famous Church in Constantinople Sancta Sophia are in number equall to the dayes of the year yet Mr. Sands searched narrowly r Mr. Sands in Travels and could find but 4 only s Nicephorus writes of a new Star seen to which a nultitude of other Stars did flock as Bees about their King t Aelian saith hee saw an Elephant writing plainly in the Roman Character with his Trunk Pompeius Mela writes of Chronicles which went over thirteen thousand yeares u Plin. Hist l. 7. c 2. Pliny writes of some Indians that have no mouths but live by the smell of Herbs and Flowers 'T is feared the best of Historians Canonical Scripture excepted are sprinkled with untruchs else Tertullian would not have called Tacitus Mendaciorum loquacissimum the greatest Lyar who is commonly voted the truest Historian This may be one cause why so many of Gods works are not rightly known to us being misrepresented by Travellers and Historians To proceed Such as have w Aristotle Pliny Pierius Aelian Nieremberg Bacon Dubartas Sir Walt. Ral. cum multis aliis written of Gods wonderful works and treated of the Elements Meteors and Stars of Beasts Birds and Fishes of Plants and Minerals of People their shape and manners have yet touched onely the border of Gods works For if all those