An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

That is, canst thou do it effectually? Canst thou speak so loudly that the clouds above may hear thee; and so powerfully, that they will obey thee? Any man, the meanest man may lift up his voice toward the clouds; but no man, no not the mightiest man, can lift up his voice to the clouds and be heard; that is, be obeyed by them: Thou canst not command the clouds. Though a man speak, and speak aloud, though he lift up his voice (as God bid the Prophet to his people) like a Trumpet, to the clouds, yet the clouds will be deaf at his voice, as deaf as sinners commonly are at the voice of a Prophet, though lifted up like a Trumpet. The voice here intended, is an effectual voice; such a voice to the clouds is proper and peculiar to God alone,¹ whose power and Empire is so great and large, that he can stretch forth his voice to the clouds far and near all the air over, and cause them both to appear ⟨p. 259⟩at his call, and presently to empty themselves and pour out their waters according to his direction, upon any coast or quarter of the earth. The text is singular, Canst thou lift up thy voice to the cloud? canst thou lift up thy voice to any one of them, as it were by name? We render it plurally, Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, to any one, or to all of them?

1. 1Numquid descendet ad te pluvia imperio •u•? Vatabl.

That (as it followeth) abundance of waters may cover thee.

As if the Lord had said; If I lift up my voice to the clouds, they presently dissolve and melt, and abundance of waters flow down to cover man and beast; to cover the fields, the corn, the grass; nor is it any marvel, if the clouds, those thin, and, upon the matter, liquid bodies, melt and slow down at the voice of God, whens at his voice the mountains flow down, and the rocks themselves, even the hardest rocks are melted into waters, or give forth abundance of water (