The devil is called the prince of the power of the air; and we find, that having obtained leave of the Lord to affliet Job, one way among divers others that he took, was to raise a storm of wind, and send a violent gust from the wilderness, which smote the four corners of the house where the sons and daughters of Job were assembled, so that it fell and buried them in the ruins.

In a word, this world is a common theatre, where good and bad men, good and evil angels, act their respective parts according as they are permitted or restrained by the sovereign will. and power of God. For whether good angels are directed, or evil angels permitted, to bring about the several incidents of life, yet still it is the Almighty Sovereign that either issues out the order, or grants the permission. Nor is it any diminution of his glory that such mighty things should be done by the angelic power; it rather redounds more to the honour of God that he hath made such creatures, and endowed them with faculties capable of producing such events..

But not only these aerial beings, but the celestial luminaries are under the dominion and direction of God; and of this the Lord gave a signal demonstration in the days of Joshua, when the sun and moon stood still and ceased for a time, to pursue the course set them by their awful Creator.

And, as the angels and heavenly orbs, so the globe of this earth, and the air that fills the vast space between us and the firmament, are under the divine influence and direction.

One instance may serve for all to give us satisfaction in this point; and that is the memorable deluge (whether partial or universal is not material) in the days of Noah, when God broke up the bounds of the sea, and opened the flood-gates of heaven to destroy a wicked race of men.

But Job gives us a most lofty and elegant description of the power and providence of the Creator. He stretched out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them. The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof. Lo! these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him? But the thunder of his power who can understand? And, speaking after the manner of men, the Lord is represented as bringing the wind out of his treasuries, as if it had been laid up in store, only to be brought out upon some special occasions.

Thus have I laid before you God's active and permissive providence, as running through the whole universe, from the highest rank of beings to the lowest and meanest things that are therein.

Give me a little more of your patience and attention whilst I apply what has been said to the occasion of the present solemnity, whichis to commemorate an astonishing storm of wind which fell 54 years ago, on the morning of this day. It is not the design of this solemnity to represent the ruin and desolation that then threatened the inhabitants of

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this Island;* or to fill your minds with that horror and amazement which made the stoutest hearts tremble; and, I dare say, caused many profligate wretches to pray unto the Lord, who were not used to call upon his name.

Such a representation is out of the power of art to describe; nothing can truly paint it to you but such another dreadful sight, which it is the design of this day to implore the Almighty to avert from us. May the Lord God hear our prayer, and grant that none of us may ever feel the dreadful power of such a tempestuous wind!

The observance is of great use to keep up a lively sense of such judgments upon our minds, which became the subject of reason, of cool thoughts, and wise consideration, when the terror of it was over.

Judgments (and such I call all calamities of this nature) could never make a lasting reformation in the world, were we concerned to remember them no longer than we feel the smart of them. And whenever they happen (whether the cause be natural or supernatural) the punishment is the same, and is attended with the same moral inferences or instructions.

Punishment ends with the smart, and puts an end to all whining and tragical complaints. But this alone is the discipline of fools and brutes. The instruction is for men, and is to last as long as memory, thought, and reason exist. What could this storm teach those who saw and felt it, which it doth not

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teach a wise man still? And what thoughts and devout passions were proper then, which are not on this day a suitable expression and motive to our devotion? For is not God the same still? A just, a righteous Judge, who is angry with the wicked every day, though he does not every day bend his bow, and let fly his arrows?

Though he does not every day appear in his terrible majesty, riding upon the cherubims, and flying upon the wings of the wind. Yet, I think, one such example might serve us for some ages, without expecting or desiring to be led to our duty by a repetition of such dreadful

terrors.

But I really believe that the intention of our lawgivers, in appointing these solemn assemblies, would be more effectually answered, were it not for a confused and uncertain kind of infidelity, which ascribes all such calamities to the disasters of nature, and leads men to be more intent upon the weapon than upon him that strikes. But Nature, taken in the abstract, is an expression for the Deity; and the course of Nature, as it is commonly called, means no more than the regularity of his works who made and governs all things. And whatever unintelligent natural causes may seem to effect, it is not, in reality, done by them at all, but by the providence of God.

That the sun runs its course every day is as strictly and properly the hand of God, as that it stood still at the desire of Joshua; and, therefore, if we must have Nature to be something different from the Ruler of the Universe, when

ever we see earthquakes, storms, and floods, involve a whole community in one general ruin, we must not think that it is Nature working perversely or erroneously, but overpowered by a superior rival, and by the justly conquering force of another nature.

All natural causes are effects produced by the governing providence of the Supreme Being, who often causes his judgments to fall upon sinners, that they may thereby learn righteousness. Let not the libertine, then, depend so far upon his power and wealth, as to think they are able to shield him from the avenging arm of the ALmighty; neither let him think that any darkness (even the shadow of death) can screen him from the all-seeing eye of God! And let all those who are projecting schemes of worldly wealth, adding house to house, and field to field, calling them by their own names, endeavouring thereby to perpetuate their memory, neglecting at the same time the weighty concerns of the soul: let such, I say, consider how easily a powerful God can bury them in their houses, or entomb them in that earth upon which they had fixed their hearts and names.

But to compare small things with great for a moment, let us consider, that if the storm of wind (which we now commemorate) was so dreadful as to fill all those who saw it with horror and astonishment, think how dreadful that scene must be, when all things shall be dissolved; the heavens pass away with a great noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat, the earth, and the things that are therein, burnt up! What horror