N00395:102
Work upon the ark. Meditations upon the ark as a type of the church
Work upon the ark. Meditations upon the ark as a type of the church; delivered in a sermon at Boston, and now dedicated unto the service of all, but especially of those whose concerns lye in ships. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Four lines of quotations]
Boston: printed by Samuel Green, 1689
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
OBSERVATION XI.
'Tis an Ill Bird that goes from the Church ⟨p. 37⟩•f God, without returning again unto it •ny more. We read in Gen▪ 8.6. Noah o•ened a Window of the Ark, & sent forth a Raven, which went to and fro, till the Waters were •ried up: the Raven it seems found Carcasses •loating here & there to live upon. But a Dove being sent forth 'tis said it found no rest •or the sole of her foot, but returned into the Ark; of which the ancient Heathen have some very pretty Foot-steps. Their Xisuthrus and their Deucalion have such a Remark upon them in their Histories. Now the Raven is an unclean Bird, a Bird of an ill Note,, and an ill Fame in the common account. Why, there are many that thus go out from the Ark of the Lord Jesus: they go out from His Church, and out from His People, and out from His Institutions there; and this without Returning any more. Many Professors become Apostates; and Finally, incurably, irrecoverably so. Whither do these go? but unto that place whereof the Prophet says in Isai. 34.9, 10, 11. The Land shall become burning Pitch, the smoke thereof shall go up for ever, and the RAVEN shall dwell in it.
'Tis an Ill Bird that goes from the Church ⟨p. 37⟩•f God, without returning again unto it ny more. We read in Gen 8.6. Noah oened a Window of the Ark, & sent forth a Raven, which went to and fro, till the Waters were ried up: the Raven it seems found Carcases loating here & there to live upon. But a Dove being sent forth 'tis said it found no rest or the sole of her foot, but returned into the Ark; of which the ancient Heathen have some vey pretty Foot-steps. Their Xisuthrus and their Deucalion have such a Remark upon them in their Histories. Now the Raven is an unclean Bird, a Bird of an ill Note,, and an ill Fame in the common account. Why, there are many that thus go out from the Ark of the Lord Jesus: they go out from His Church, and out from His People, and out from His Institutions there; and this without Returning any more. Many Professors become Apostates; and Finally, incurably, irrecoverably so. Whither do these go? but unto that place whereof the Prophet sayes in