such power, could not but conceive a general and confused apprehension of some excellent worth in such a teacher, and therefore is glad to honour his ship with such a guest and is first Christ's host by sea, ere he is his disciple by land. An humble and serviceable entertainment of a prophet of God was a good foundation of his future honour. He that would so easily lend Christ his hand and his ship, was likely, soon after, to bestow himself upon his Saviour.

Simon hath no sooner done this service unto Christ, than Christ is preparing for his reward: when the sermon is ended, the ship-room shall be paid for abundantly; neither shall the host expect any other. paymaster than himself. "Launch forth into the deep, and let down your nets to make a draught." That ship, which lent Christ an opportunity of catching men upon the shore, shall be requited with a plentiful draught of fish in the deep. It had been as easy for our Saviour to have brought the fish to Peter's ship, close to the shore; yet, as choosing rather to have the ship carried to the shoal of fish, he bids "Launch forth into the deep." In his miracles he loves ever to meet nature in her bounds; and when she hath done her best, to supply the rest by his overruling power. The same power, therefore, that could have caused the fishes to leap upon dry land, or leave themselves forsaken of the waters upon the sands of the lake, will rather find them in a place natural to their abiding: "Launch out into the deep."

Rather in a desire to gratify and obey his guest, than to pleasure himself, will Simon bestow one cast of his net. Had Christ enjoined him a harder task, he had not refused; yet not without an allegation of the unlikelihood of success; "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; yet at thy word I will let down the net." The night was the fittest time for the hopes of their trade: not unjustly might Simon misdoubt his speed by day, when he had worn

out the night in unprofitable labour. Sometimes God crosseth the fairest of our expectations, and gives a blessing to those times and means whereof we despair. That pains cannot be cast away, which we resolve to lose for Christ. O God, how many do I see casting out their nets in the great lake of the world, which in the whole night of their life have caught nothing! "They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity; they hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is trodden upon breaketh out into a serpent; their webs shall be no garment, neither shall they cover themselves with their labours."

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"O ye sons of men, how long will ye love vanity, and follow after lies?" Yet if we have thus vainly misspent the time of our darkness, let us, at the command of Christ, cast our new-washen nets: humble and penitent obedience shall come home laden with blessings. "And when they had so done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, so that their net brake." What a difference there is betwixt our own voluntary acts, and those that are done upon command, not more in the grounds of them than in the issue! those are ofttimes fruitless, these ever successful. Never man threw out his net at the word of his Saviour, and drew it back empty. Who would not obey thee, O Christ, since thou dost so bountifully requite our weakest services? It was not mere retribution that was intended in this event, but instruction also: this act was not without a mystery. He that should be made a fisher of men, shall in this draught foresee his success. "The kingdom of heaven is like a draw-net cast into the sea, which, when it is full, men draw to land." The very first draught that Peter made after the complement of his apostleship, enclosed no less than three thousand souls. O powerful Gospel, that can fetch sinful men from out of the depths of natural corruption! 0 happy souls, that, from the blind and muddy cells of

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our wicked nature, are drawn forth to the glorious liberty of the sons of God! Simon's net breaks with the store. Abundance is sometimes no less troublesome than want. The net should have held if Christ had not meant to overcharge Simon both with blessing and admiration. How happily is that net broken, whose rupture draws the fisher to Christ? though the net brake, yet the fish escaped not: he, that brought them thither to be taken, held them there till they were taken. They beckoned to their partners in the other ship that they should come and help them.” There are other ships in partnership with Peter, he doth not fish all the lake alone. There cannot be a better improvement of society than to help us gain; to relieve us in our profitable labours, to draw up the spiritual draught into the vessel of Christ and his church. Wherefore hath God given us partners, but that we should beckon to them for their aid in our necessary occasions? neither doth Simon slacken his hand, because he had assistants. What shall we say to those lazy fishers, who can set others to the drag, while themselves look on at ease, caring only to feed themselves with the fish, not willing to wet their hands with the net? What shall we say to this excess of gain? the nets break, the ships sink with their burden. O happy complaint of too large a capture! O Saviour, if those apostolical vessels of thy first rigging were thus overlaid, ours float and totter with a ballasted lightness. Thou, who art no less. present in these bottoms of ours, lade them with an equal fraught of converted souls, and let us praise thee for thus sinking!

Simon was a skilful fisher, and knew well the depth of his trade; and now, perceiving more than art or nature in this draught, he falls down at the knees of Jesus, saying, "Lord, go from me, for I am a sinful man." Himself is caught in this net. He doth not greedily fall upon so unexpected and profitable a booty, but he turns his eyes from the draught to

himself, from the act to the author, acknowledging vileness in the one, in the other majesty. "Go from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."

It had been pity the honest fisherman should have been taken at his word. O Simon, thy Saviour is come into thine own ship to call thee, to call others by thee unto blessedness; and dost thou say, "Lord, go from me?" As if the patient should say to the physician, Depart from me, for I am sick. It was the voice of astonishment, not of dislike; the voice of humility, not of discontentment: yea, because thou art a sinful man, therefore hath thy Saviour need to come to thee, to stay with thee: and because thou art humble in the acknowledgment of thy sinfulness, therefore Christ delights to abide with thee, and will call thee to abide with him. No man ever fared the worse for abasing himself to his God. Christ hath left many a soul for froward and unkind usage; never any for the disparagement of itself, and entreaties of humility. Simon could not devise how to hold Christ faster, than by thus suing to him to be gone, than by thus pleading his unworthiness.

O my soul, be not weary of complaining of thine own wretchedness; disgrace thyself to him that knows thy vileness; be astonished at those mercies which have shamed thine ill-deservings. Thy Saviour hath no power to go away from a prostrate heart. He, that resists the proud, heartens the lowly: "Fear not, for I will make thee henceforth a fisher of men." Lo, this humility is rewarded with an apostleship. What had the earth ever more glorious than a legacy from heaven? He that bade Christ go from him, shall have the honour to go first on this happy errand. This was a trade that Simon had no skill of: it could not be enough to him, that Christ said, "I will make thee;" the miracle showed him able to make good his word. He, that hath power to command the fishes to be taken, can easily enable the hands to take them.

What is this divine trade of ours, then, but a spiritual piscation? the world is a sea; souls, like fishes, swim at liberty in this deep; the nets of wholesome doctrine draw up some to the shore of grace and glory. How much skill, and toil, and patience is requisite in this art! "Who is sufficient for these things?" this sea, these nets, the fishers, the fish, the vessels are all thine, O God! do what thou wilt in us and by us. Give us ability and grace to take, give men will and grace to be taken, and take thou glory by that which thou hast given.

CONTEMPLATION V.

THE MARRIAGE IN CANA.

WAS this then thy first miracle, O Saviour, that thou wroughtest in Cana of Galilee? and could there be a greater miracle than this, that having been thirty years upon earth, thou didst no miracle till now? that thy Divinity did hide itself thus long in flesh, that so long thou wouldst lie obscure in a corner of Galilee, unknown to that world thou camest to redeem; that so long thou wouldst strain the patient expectation of those, who, ever since thy star, waited upon the revelation of a Messiah? We silly wretches, if we have but a dram of virtue, are ready to set it out to the best show: thou, who "receivedst not the Spirit by measure," wouldst content thyself with a willing obscurity, and concealedst that power that made the world, in the roof of a human breast, in a cottage of Nazareth. O Saviour, none of thy miracles is more worthy of astonishment, than thy not doing of miracles! What thou didst in private, thy wisdom thought fit for secrecy; but if thy blessed mother had not been acquainted with some domestical wonders, she had not now expected a miracle abroad. The stars are not seen by day, the sun itself is not seen by night. As it is no small art to hide art, so it is