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

First, This Rainbow is in the Cloud, and God placed it in the Cloud, because out of the Cloud came the Rain which drowned the old world. God could have drowned the world only by letting out, or breaking up the Springs of water from the earth, but he opened the Cataracts of Heaven also to do it. And therefore God, to secure the world against such another vengeance from the Clouds, put his Bow in the Cloud.

A second significancy of mercy in the Rainbow, is, because the Bow is bended upwards, or Heaven-ward, the Bow doth not stand bent to the Earth, or downward, the string of the Bow is towards us, not the back of it. He that would shoot hath the bottom or ⟨p. 546⟩back of the Bow in his hand, and the string is towards himself; but God, that he might show he doth not intend to shoot that Arrow any more, holds the string of the Bow downwards, which no man doth that hath a mind to shoot. The Lord by this Bow in the Cloud shoots no man, unless it be (as one well expresseth it) with admiration and love; or I may say, the Lord having shot his Arrows of immoderate Rain from the Region of the air for mans chastening, seems to return to Heaven with his Bow reversed, as a token of peace and serenity to the wo•ld, or that in Judgment he remembers his Covenant-mercy. The wicked are said to bend their Bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart, (Psal. 11.2.) But he that tu•ns the string of his Bow downwards, is not ready, nor seems minded to shoot at all.

A second significancy of mercy in the Rainbow, is, because the Bow is bended upwards, or Heaven-ward, the Bow doth not stand bent to the Earth, or downward, the string of the Bow is towards us, not the back of it. He that would shoot hath the bottom or ⟨p. 546⟩