STANGE and TERRIBLE NEWS FROM HOLLAND Of a most Lamentable TEMPEST That happened at UTRECHT and AMSTERDAM,  
Which did not only Amaze the Inhabitants, but did also very great Damage to their Houses, blowing down an innumerable company of Tops of Houses and Chimneys, and utterly Destroyed one of their Cathedral Churches, and Rooted up many Trees.  
LONDON, Printed for Thomas Wood, 1674.   

Strange and Wonderful News from Holland, Both from Utrecht and Amsterdam, etc.  
ALthough the whole Universe throughout its Vast Circumference, be (as Naturalists excellently Phrase it) but one great Volume, wherein in visible effects of Power, the Invisible, former of all things, is too plainly legible, not to be discerned by all Eyes; Yet in this great Folio, the Meteors, that is, the Clouds, Wind, Thunder, Comets, prodigious Flames, Earthquakes, and other wonderful Apparitions in the Elements, are the great Characters wherein his Divinity doth in the course of Nature most conspicuously declare itself.  
Eor if we compare these amazing Phaenomena with other works of Nature, we may justly pronounce that there he expresses himself in small, but here all in Capitals: And accordingly we may observe the Scripture to make these Regions of the Air which give these Miscellaneous substances their Birth, to be as were the Sphere of God's Armoury, his great Storehouse and Magazine, from whence upon occasion of the World's wickedness, when ease and pleasure makes Mortals so insolent, as to question his Being, he takes out Artillery to Terrify into a sense, those, who in the soft Whispers of a Calm and Serene Sky will not acknowledge him. For there are said to be the Treasures of his Chariots, there he utters that voice of his we call Thunder, and thence discharges the dreadful Shot of his right aiming Thunderbolts. And as we poor Mortals in Fleshy Cottages are most moved by sense, so the Omnipotent Creator makes choice of these strange Exhalations, as the most effectual means to work on our external Organs, and thereby to effect our otherwise insolent and audacious minds with a just awe and terror of his Majesty. For although the conception and Idea of a Deity be a Celestial Fire so natural burning in out Souls, as that like the stone Asbestos it is not to be quenched, yet by the Atheistical endeavours of terrene and Voluptuous men, it may so far be smothered, as not to manifest it by any Visible Flame, but the effects of his Power are so moving, and violently forcible, that when God is pleased to utter his Voice in Thunder, or Attack our Desperadoes hearts in Mountains of Briny Liquor, and roar his Greatness in their Ears, with the violent gusts of Tempestuous winds, attended with the horrid Flames spit out of fiery Hurricanes, or the astonishing Yells Echoed from the Bowels of the Quaking Earth; 'Tis not the stoutest Atheist in such a time that will not bate of his courage, and in spite of his desperate Principles, eat his own words, and in horror and trembling confess that Power, which other times he not only denies, but with Oaths and Damees would Hector out of the world, That Rhodomantado of Atheism. Caius Caligulae, though in his Pride he could have the Artogance to style himself the Lord God Caligula, and once in a Huffing Pet could challenge his great God Jupiter into the Field, yet when it Thundered, his Giant courage shrunk into a Mousehole, for then in a pitiful fear he would creep under a Bed from Shelter, and confess himself as he was indeed a man. Therefore, however such things may truly be attributed to second causes, yet both from Scripture and their own Nature, we may be well assured, that they are Instruments which God oftener uses in an Extraordinary manner than any others, and which in their first designment seem peculiarly leveled at those men, and their bold thoughts, who would first only Droll the world out of conceit of his Power, that they may as they think, the more pleasantly Huff him out of his Throne. In such an Age then, when not only Profaneness is Rampant, but Atheism its self is so Predominant, as to have obtained the Reputation of wits for those, as convicted by the Law of Nations for Monsters of Mankind, the whole world adjudged to the Fire; It cannot be strange if Omnipotence for its own Vindication, has so visibly stretched forth its Arm by many late, strange, and unusual Marks of Power in almost all the Elements, given us such sufficient Proofs, that if we slight these, we may ex●ect that he will shortly write to us in Belshazzars Characters. For still we see one Prodigy succeeding on the Neck of another, and as you will hear by the following known Relation, we are called still from one strange accident to behold another. As wickedness has been some times more eminently prevalent at some times than at others, so in several Ages, at such times, we have answerable notices of God's Anger in effects of like Nature. Thus in the wicked Reign of Tiberius, in whose time Christ was Crucified, several of the most flourishing Cities of Asia were either totally swallowed by Earthquake, or destroyed by Tempest. And the City of Constantinople in the time of the Gothik War, was so prodigiously afflicted this way, that Historians tell us that the strange kinds of Noises, Thunder, Whistling, Howling, Crackling that were heard then, were Incredible. Infancy are the examples of these times, but to cone nearer, In the Reign of our Queen Mary, in her 5th Year, within a Mile of Nottingham, so violent a Tempest of Thunder happened that it beat down all the Houses and Churches thereabouts, cast the Bells to the outside of the Churchyard, and some webs of Lead four Hundred foot into the Field writhe like Leather, (The River of Trent running between the two Towns) The water with the Mud in the bottom, was carried a quarter of a Mile, and cast against Trees, with the violence whereof the Trees were pulled up by the Roots, and cast 12. score foot.  
In our Nebouring Country of Holland, on the second of August new stile, being our 21. of July, there happened a most horrible Tempest which lasting in some parts about an hour, in some longer, and in some not half the time, in that short space did in all parts such incredible spoil and mischief, that the like hath been seldom heard of; to pass by the more minute particulars which are too tedious to mention, we shall only give you a brief account of what happened at Vtrecht and Amsterdam. It is described to have been a most violent and unusual Hurricane, in which the Heavens all the time by the continual Lightning Air and curled all ore with Flames, not unlike what is mentioned commonly in Almanacs to have happened not many years since in England, the noise of the Thunder, and roaring of the Wind, was so far above what is usual, that it extremely terified the hearers, but was more sadly dreadful, when they not only heard, but many to their cost felt its Rage, by the horrible shaking and fall of Houses Steeples, and other Buildings; of which it spared no sort, but seemed to threaten to bury them all in one heap of Rubbish. In Vtrecht the Cathedral Church called the Dome, in less than a quarter of an hour, with all stately Pillars was utterly Ruined; all but the Steeple, which remains untouched, the high and costly Steeple of St. James Church, with the Steeples of most of the other Churches there, are thrown to the Ground: and all the Houses were so far involved in this general Convulsion, that scarce fifty Houses remain in that great City, but wear the the marks of its Fury.  
In Amsterdam, it lasted but half an hour, but the force of the Thunder, Lightning, Wind and Hail in that time, was prodigious. Chimneys, tops of Houses, and Houses themselves, were in great numbers blown down, and most Trees blown down, many of which were carried a great distance from their former Places: the Ships that lay there before the Pal●s broke lose, of which about half a score were ov●rset, many people were blown into the Water, and many killed by the fall of Trees and Houses, about thirty Mills there were blown down to the ground, and those escaped are much damnified, Five Wagons coming from Arnheim with Passengers, were overturned, and most of the persons killed or spoiled.  
Lastly, to conclude, its fury extended so far, as to force above 20 Ships on Shore in the Texel, and its damage and Terror is related by sufferers to have been above what my weak Pen or a more fluent Tongue can express. Thus you have a Relation wherein you see how loudly in signs and wonders, in Storm and Thunder, God calls to Earthly Mortals, let not your Ears be deaf, but make some use of it. It is Chronicled that in the time of our victorious Edward the third, being in France and ready to fall upon the French Army, then just by him, there happened such a terrible Storm and Tempest of Thunder and Lightning, that that courageous Warrior being affrighted with it, as taking it to be a sign that God was displeased at that cruel War, he took an Oath presently to make Peace on any reasonable condition, which he accordingly performed.  
FINIS.