The voice of God, in stormy winds. Considered, in two sermons, occasioned by the…

5. We should from the Consideration of such Providences learn, To be always preparing for sudden Changes and Death. What sudden Changes did the late Storm, which has occasioned our present Discourse, cause in many Families, as well as on particular Persons? And sudden Deaths too. We don't know but sudden Death may take us out of the world. It may come on us in a Night. Job 27.20. A Tempest stealeth him away in the Night. It was so with many in the late Tempest which came at Mid-night; and destroyed Thousands in a Night, and some too Persons of a considerable Figure. One of them an Eminent Bishop, whom I was well acquainted with. He was a Person of great Learning, and of great Moderation to those that Dissented from him, in things that are not the Essentials of Religion. Yet the Storm broke down his House, and killed him & his. We see that no Ranks or Order of men are Exempted from Casualties, and Calamities of this Nature. Therefore should all make it their Care to be ready for Death at all times, let it come neve• so suddenly. Nor is this the only ⟨p. 63⟩Storm that has destroyed Houses and the dwellers in them in a moment. In the Year 1500. in Rome part of the Popes Conclave was blown down by a violent Tempest, Three of his Minister's killed by it, himself the next day taken out of the rubbish sorely wounded. Our English Chronologies speak of a Thunder Storm, that made an House to fall wherein a Knight and Eight of his Family were killed. And some parts of our American world have been subject to Stormy winds, that have taken away great Numbers out of the world. Do you not remember since the Governor of Barbados, and many with him were carried away by an Hurricane and never heard of more? And among us there have been more than a few, that Storms of Thunder & Lightning have taken them out of the world. It was so with the Captain of the Castle, a Good Man: not to mention others, of whom many Years since I gave a Public Account. And sometimes a Stormy Wind without thunder, has proved fatal to such as have stood in the way of it. There was • Cambridge, here in New-England, in the Year 1682, a Windy Tempest very Remarkable. It broke out of a dark Cloud; it laid all flat to the ground where ⟨p. 64⟩