. The fiery color is above, unless the
rainbow is seen reversed; then, as in a mirror, that which is above is
seen below. Where the hues of fire and water meet, or blend, yellow
results.

67. The colors have been thus arranged by God for a definite purpose.
The blue should be a reminder of bygone wrath; the fiery color, a
picture to us of the future judgment. While the interior or blue
portion is restricted, the outer and fiery color is without bounds.
Thus, the first world perished by the flood, but an end was set to
God's wrath. A remnant was preserved and a second world arose, but
bounds are set to it. When God shall destroy the world by fire, this
bodily life will never be restored. The wicked will suffer the
everlasting punishment of death in the fire, while the saints will be
raised up unto a new and everlasting life, which, though in the body,
shall not be of the body, but of the spirit.

68. Let this sign teach us to fear God and to trust in him. So may we
escape the punishment of fire, even as we have escaped the punishment
of the flood. It will be more practical to think of these things than
to consider those philosophical arguments concerning the material
cause.

III. ALLEGORIES 69-132.

A. ALLEGORIES IN GENERAL 69-81.

1. Luther at first given to allegories 69-70.

2. How and why monks and Anabaptists esteem them so highly 71.

3. How we should regard them 72.

4. Are they to be entirely rejected 73.

5. Some are, and others not 74-76.

6. How to regard Origen's, Augustine's and Jerome's allegories
77-78.

7. Pope's allegories of the sun, moon and ark 79-80.

8. What to think of the doctrine of these allegories 81.

III. CONCERNING ALLEGORIES.

A. Allegories in General.

69. At last we have finished the story of the flood, which Moses
satisfactorily describes at great length. It is a fearful example of
the immeasurable and all but boundless wrath of God, which is beyond
the power of human utterance. There remains to be said a word or two
concerning its allegorical meaning. I have often declared that I take
no great pleasure in allegories, although in my younger days they had
such a fascination for me that I thought everything ought to be shown
to have an allegorical meaning. I was influenced in this respect by
the example of Origen and Jerome, whom I admired as the greatest of
all theologians. I may add that Augustine also us