Chap. ,./fn Exporttion cap; the Bookof B, Verf. i 5. 54 $ . the Cloud is Gods, he is entitled to them both in a very eminent and fpecial manner. God calleth it his'Closed,.nd his Bcw ; Not only,Firli,becaufe he made the Cloud,& theSun beams by which the Bow is made. But, Secondly, and chielly,becaufe he hash put it to a fpecial tile , and given it a myflicai fignificarion. And therefore here we may take totice,that whereas the Rain- bow is naturally a fign of Rain, for it is alÑayes accompanied with Clouds, o atleaf+ with a Cloud ready to diffolve and melt into Rain ; and is therefore called by the Poet (NunciaJunonis, Vir{r. e/Enaeid., 4.) the Ifarbirgreffe of Juno: yet on the contrary God appoynts it as a fign of faire weather. And indeed God often works by contrary mean, left we fhould flick in means, and a- fcribe the effect ;rno:-e than is due,ro them. So then the Rainbow bath two different fignifications, the firfl natural, of Rain , nor loth God prcmife to hinder or alter thiscourfe of nature. Se- condly,pretera7aturalor ïniiiruted, f faire weather ; which Pi,ilo- fophy, and the world, is altogether ignorant of ;only the Church and people of Godunderl1and it by faith upon the tefiimony o, revealedwill of God, that as often as the Bow appeareth in the Cloud, they have a renewed affuranco that God will rcm:m- ber the Earth, and moderate the Rain:nor doth this depend upon the nature of, or various colours appearing in the Rainbow, but purely upon the.will and inflitution of God. And therefore we ought by a finale faith ro embrace the Word df pcomife, to which, this fign is annexed ; without that, the Rainbow is nothing elfe to us, but the image or t eprefentarion of the rayes of the Sun or Moon, i.rprefled upon the Clouds. I (hail not infifi upon any large difcourfe of the Rainbow, Only rake two, or three things. This Meteor hath three Act' ibures a- bove the relt ;; Firfl, it is the molt illuflrious and beautiful! ; Se- condly, the moli clefìrable and comfortable ; Thirdly, the m^l orange and wonderful) of all the impretfìons vif ble in the air._ This is pro erly expreffed by a Bow, becaufe the forme of it ufu- ally is femicircular. Lrither Çaìth he faw aRainbow in the fo-me of a perfedt' Circle ; and others report they have fen it in the forme-of a flrait line : But in what -ever form it apneats.the natu- ral caufe of it is the refledlion of the Sun or of theMoon (for there are Rainbxts in the nightas well as in the day ) it is_caufed;I fay, by the ref.eìion-of the light of the Sun or Moon) uponor from a. watery.
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