Iris (I)

I. IRIS, the rain-bow. God having made a Covenant with Noah, and promised that he would no more drown the world with an universal deluge, gave him the rain-bow as an earnest of his promise. I do set my Bow in the clouds, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. Whereby it is not meant, that there was no rain-bow before the deluge; but after the Deluge this sign which before was purely natural, by God’s institution became a supernatural sign, and a certain proof, that God would no more send a deluge on the earth. The word Iris comes probably from the Hebrew or Chaldee, Ir, עירVigil.one who watches, an Angel, a Messenger. Iris was the messenger of the Gods.

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