A Proof of this we have not only from the frequent Flashes of Lightning, observed a little before the Storm, but also from what the Country People took notice of the next day, that the Grass and Twiggs of the Trees, in Fields remote from the Sea, tasted very salt, so that the Cattle wou'd not feed on them.
Our Histories mention another Storm, which if not equal to this last in Violence, is however thought the greatest that had then ever been known and memorable from the time at which it happened, viz. on the 3d of September, 1658. the day on which the Usurper O. Cromwel died.
No Ephemerides that I know of relate the Condition of the Air that Year, but it is sufficient to remark, That whatever other Causes concurr'd, their force was accompanied with a Full Moon, just before the time of the Atumnal Equinox.
Upon the same score it comes to pass, That in those Countries which are Subject to frequent Inundations, these Calamities are observed to happen at the times of the Moon's greatest Influence, so that the Learned Baccius[53] has rightly enough laid the Cause of such Mischiefs upon immoderate Tides of the Ocean, being unhappily accompanied with the attractive Force of some or other Stars.
Dr. Childrey in his Britannia Baconica[54] has from several Instances shewn the Lunar Action in Damages of this kind.
Such and the like Natural Causes have Storms and Tempests; for as to the Question of Divine Power, whether or no Calamities of this kind do not sometimes, by the Anger of Heaven, happen out of the Course of Nature, it is not my Business to Dispute, nor would I by any means indeavour to absolve Mens Minds from the Bands of Religion. For although we must allow all the Parts of the Machine of this World to be framed and moved by Established Laws, and that the same Disposition of its Fabrick, which is most beneficial to the Whole, must of necessity, in some few Places now and then occasion Hurts and Mischiefs; it is however most highly reasonable, that we should yield to the Supreme Creator an absolute Power over all his Works; Concluding withal, that it was perhaps agreeable to Divine Wisdom, to order the Make of the World after such a manner as might sometimes bring Mischiefs and Calamities upon Mankind, whom it was necessary by the Frights of Storms, Thunder and Lightning to keep in a continual Sence of their Duty.
[52] Vid. Philos. Transact. N 289.
[53] Del Tevere, lib. 3. p. 228.
[54] Pag. 97.