XXVIII.  And now, leaving the earth and the things of earth, soar into the air on the wings of thought, that our argument may advance in due path; and thence I will take you up to heavenly things, and to heaven itself, and things which are above heaven; for to that which is beyond my discourse hesitates to ascend, but still it shall ascend as far as may be.  Who poured forth the air, that great and abundant wealth, not measured to men by their rank or fortunes; not restrained by boundaries; not divided out according to people’s ages; but like the distribution of the Manna, Exod. xvi. 18. received in sufficiency, and valued for its equality of distribution; the chariot of the winged creation; the seat of the winds; the moderator of the seasons; the quickener of living things, or rather the preserver of natural life in the body; in which bodies have their being, and by which we speak; in which is the light and all that it shines upon, and the sight which flows through it?  And mark, if you please, what follows.  I cannot give to the air the whole empire of all that is thought to belong to the air.  What are the storehouses of the winds? Job xxxvii. 9, 10.  What are the treasuries of the snow?  Who, as Scripture hath said, hath begotten the drops of dew?  Out of Whose womb came the ice? and Who bindeth the waters in the clouds, and, fixing part in the clouds (O marvel!) held by His Word though its nature is to flow, poureth out the rest upon the face of the whole earth, and scattereth it abroad in due season, and in just proportions, and neither suffereth the whole substance of moisture to go out free and uncontrolled (for sufficient was the cleansing in the days of Noah; and He who cannot lie is not forgetful of His own covenant);…nor yet restraineth it entirely that we should not again stand in need of an Elias 1 Kings xviii. 44. to bring the drought to an end.  If He shall shut up heaven, it saith, who shall open it?  If He open the floodgates, who shall shut them up? Job xii. 14.  Who can bring an excess or withhold a sufficiency of rain, unless he govern the Universe by his own measures and balances?  What scientific laws, pray, can you lay down concerning thunder and lightning, O you who thunder from the earth, and cannot shine with even little sparks of truth?  To what vapours from earth will you attribute the creation of cloud, or is it due to some thickening of the air, or pressure or crash of clouds of excessive rarity, so as to make you think the pressure the cause of the lightning, and the crash that which makes the thunder?  Or what compression of wind having no outlet will account to you for the lightning by its compression, and for the thunder by its bursting out?