with. This is the everlasting gospel, the word of peace and
3. A storm that will affright others, they will venture on, that they may not lose their fish. So should preachers of the gospel do.
4. Fishers catch fish with a net. So preachers have a net to catch souls with. This is the everlasting gospel, the word of peace and reconciliation, wherewith sinners are caught. It is compared to a net wherewith fishers catch fish,
(1.) Because it is spread out, ready to catch all that will come into it, Is. 55:1, "Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without price." God excludes none from the benefits of the gospel that will not exclude themselves; it is free to all.
(2.) Because as fish are taken unexpectedly by the net, so are sinners by the gospel. Zaccheus was little thinking on salvation from Christ when he went to the tree. Paul was not thinking on a sweet meeting with Christ, whom he persecuted, when he was going post-haste on the devil's errand; but the man is caught unexpectedly. Little were you thinking, O my soul, on Christ, heaven, or yourself, when you went to the Newton of Whitsome, to hear a preaching, when Christ first dealt with you; there you got an unexpected cast.
(3.) As fish sometimes come near and touch the net, and yet draw back; so many souls are somewhat affected at the hearing of the gospel, and yet remain in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. So Herod heard John the Baptist gladly, but yet the poor man was not caught. Wonder not then, O my soul, that you see some affected in the time of preaching; and yet when they are away again, all is worn off.
(4.) Some fish that have not been taken fast hold enough by the net, struggle and get out again. So some souls have their convictions, and may seem to be caught; but yet, alas! they stifle all their convictions, stay in the place of the breaking forth; their goodness is like the morning cloud, and as the early dew that soon passes away. So, O my
soul, if ever you are taken up with exercised consciences, have a care that you do not apply the cure before the wound be deep enough. Take all means to understand whether the soul be content to take Christ on his own terms or not. Alas! many this way, by having the wound scabbed over, are rather killed than cured.
(5.) All that are taken in the net do make some struggling to get free. Even so every one whom the Lord deals with by his Word and Spirit, make some kind of resistance before they are thoroughly caught. And this you also know, O my soul, how you would have been content to have been out of the net. Oh! the wickedness of the heart of man by nature! opposite is it, and an enemy to all that may be for its eternal welfare. There is indeed a power in our will to resist, yea, and such a power as cannot but be exercised by the will of man, which can do nothing but resist, till the overcoming power of God come and make the unwilling heart willing, Phil, 2:13.
(6). Yet this struggling will not do with those which the net has fast enough. So neither will the resistance do that is made by an elect soul, whom God intends to catch, John 6:37. All that the Father has given me, shall come to me. Indeed, God does not convert men to himself against their will, he does not force the soul to receive Christ; but he conquers the will, and it becomes obedient. He who was unwilling before, is then willing. O the power of grace! When God speaks, then men shall hear; then the dead hear the voice of the Son of Man, and those who hear live.
(7.) In a net are many meshes in which the fish are caught. Such are the invitations made to sinners in the gospel, the sweet promises made to them that will come to Christ; these are the meshes wherewith the soul is caught. This then is gospel-preaching, thus to spread out the net of the gospel, wherein are so many meshes of various invitations and promises, to which if the fish do come, they are caught. — But yet,
(8.) Lest the net be lifted up with the water, and so not fit for taking