An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

Secondly, From that other signification of the word, as it notes withdrawing or keeping back, upon which some insist much,

Observe; God when he pleaseth can with-hold the water or the rain.

He can give a stop to the rain, and then the clouds yield us no more water than a stone; He with-holds the drops of water. The Lord threateneth the Vineyard with this stop (Isa. 5.6.) I will command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it; which is true of a natural and proper Vineyard, and of proper natural rain, though it be meant there of the people of God, whom he metaphorically, or improperly, calleth his Vineyard; and the rain there intended, is the rain of instruction usually falling upon them. Now as God doth often forbid the showers of the word, that they fall no more upon a people, as he sends forth a prohibition to stop the spiritual rain; so he also stops and prohibits the natural rain (Amos 4.7, 8.) I have with-holden the rain from you, when there was yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered: so two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, but were not satisfied. Thus in case of disobedience to his divine ⟨p. 390⟩Law, the Lord threatened to stop the common Law of nature, and to make the heavens brass, and the earth iron (Deut. 28.23.) And when the heavens are brass, that is, when they yield no more moisture than brass, then the earth is as iron, that is, it yields no more food for the sustentation of man or beast, than a bar of iron doth. Such stops the Lord hath often put upon the courses of nature, and can do again when he pleaseth; though I believe he never did, nor ever will do so, but when highly displeased and provoked by the sin of man.