It is therefore again wrong—indeed superstitious and godless—to ascribe power over the weather to the Devil and his sorcerers and witches. Nor can the claim that the Devil raised and caused the storm during the voyage of our Lord and Saviour Christ be sustained either in nature or in God’s Word. It especially contradicts the account in Matthew 8 itself, which simply speaks of the storm arising on the sea and of our Lord Christ rebuking the wind and sea.

One may attempt to support that opinion with the example described in Job 1, where the text says: “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned the sheep and young men and consumed them”; and further: “Behold, a great wind came from the wilderness and struck the house’s four corners and cast it upon the young men.” One may also invoke Paul’s sayings in Ephesians 2:2 and 6:12, where he speaks of the prince ruling in the air and the darkness of this world.

Nevertheless, first, according to the passages and foundations cited, and the order of nature established thus far, another explanation is more credible. As noted at the end of the first part, the Hebrews use God’s name in place of the superlative absent from their grammar. Thus the Devil descended in the form of an exceedingly great fire and consumed Job’s sheep and servants; likewise, he and his infernal host, in the form of a violent wind, struck the house’s four corners and overturned it upon Job’s children. This is more credible than that it was true wind and fire of the kind described by the Psalmist: “You make your angels winds, and your servants flames of fire.”

Second, it does not follow that, because Saint Paul speaks of the prince ruling in the air and the darkness of this world, that prince—the Devil—therefore raised the storm just mentioned. These and other such storms and weather are, once and for all, God’s wondrous works. The Devil can neither create nor perform them, nor will the Lord God allow him to do so. I leave other matters aside for the present.

Moreover, just as I do not seek to deprive the elements of the motions and operations they possess in themselves through God’s universal Word, or the stars of their influence upon and concordance with those elements, so I shall also say something of the following.

Dew.

I agree entirely with the late Arnd when he calls dew a fruit of the dawn. He proves this through the frequently cited royal prophet David, who says in Psalm 110: “Your children are born to you like dew from the dawn.” This in no way implies that the Lord God is not also the first cause here. Rather, it entirely overturns the opinion that dew is begotten by the sun and moon as by its father, and similar views.

To conclude, I add the following.

The ebb and flow of the sea.

The sea, itself a great and wondrous creature of God, is still more marvellous for its extraordinary ebb and flow, which keep their appointed times. Philosophers likewise count this flux and reflux among the so-called meteors. Since knowing its cause is again useful for understanding nature, I have wished to discuss it briefly here.

The strange causes these repeatedly mentioned philosophers propose in this matter can scarcely be described adequately. The late Arnd recounts several of them with apparent astonishment, while indicating that whoever understands the motion of all nature best understands the sea’s motion. If, especially according to the method described later, we consider nature and this wondrous creature of God, we find God’s word and command: “Let the water be gathered together,” and so forth. This is the true cause of the creature’s extraordinary ebb and flow, for God’s Word is eternal and is the true cause of motion in all things.

The following words of Arnd, whom I have so often cited, also belong here; their opening was quoted above: “The Word that God spoke in creation has not vanished, but has become the life of all creatures.”

Nor is this disturbed by the fact that, so far as I know, the ebb and flow follow the moon’s changes in most places. According to Arnd himself, cause must be distinguished from concordance. That concordance likewise flows from God’s command: “Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to give signs and seasons,” and so forth.

Enough of this also for the present.