A Soliloquy on the Art of Man-Fishing

By THOMAS BOSTON.

I.

AH! Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? This day seems to be a day of darkness and gloominess; the glory is departed even to the threshold of the temple. We may call ordinances Ichabod, and name the faithful preachers of Scotland no more Naomi, but Marah; for the Lord deals bitterly with them, in forsaking His ordinances so much at this day. The Lord hath forsaken them in a great measure, as to success attending their labours. They toil all the night; but little or nothing is caught; few or none can they find to come into the Gospel net. So that Jeremiah’s exercise may be theirs—Chap. xiii. 17—“If ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears.” And thou, O my soul, mayest make this thy exercise, if thou hadst a heart that could mourn either for thyself or others. Though indeed it is no great wonder that God does not countenance with much success the like of me, who (if I may or dare class myself among those that are faithful) am the meanest, the most unworthy of them all, not worthy to take His covenant in my mouth, who am a child in piety and the mystery of godliness, though not in years, who am a poor fool, having a weak heart and a shallow head; who might rather be learning of others than teaching them; who can but wade about the outer parts of that depth, into which others can enter far; who have so little love to Christ, and so little pure zeal for His glory; can say so little for the truth, and so little against error; who am altogether unworthy and insufficient for these things:—no wonder, I say, God does not countenance me, when others, that are as tall cedars in the Lord’s vineyard, do so little good—even others that are great men in the Church for piety and learning. But yet, seeing I am called out to preach this everlasting gospel, it is my duty to endeavour, and it is my desire to be (Lord thou knowest) a fisher of men. But, alas! I may come in with my complaints to my Lord, that I have toiled in some measure, but caught nothing, for any thing I know, as to the conversion of any one soul. I fear I may say, I have almost spent my strength in vain, and my labour for nought, for Israel is not gathered. O my soul, what may be the cause of this? why does my preaching so little good? No doubt, part of the blame lies on myself, and a great part of it too. But who can give help in this case but the Lord Himself? and how can I expect it from Him but by prayer, and faith in the promises, and by consulting His Word, where I may, by His Spirit shining on my heart, (shine, O Sun of righteousness) learn how to carry, and what to do, to the end the gospel preached by me may not be unsuccessful? Therefore did my heart cry out after Christ this day, and my soul was moved, when I read that sweet promise of Christ—Matth. iv. 19—Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men, directed to those that would follow Him! O how fain would my soul follow Him, as on other accounts, so on this; that I might be honoured to be a fisher of men! Therefore, my soul would fain know what sort of following of Christ this is, to which this sweet promise is annexed. I would know it, (Lord thou knowest) that I might do it, and so catch poor souls by the gospel, and that I might know whether I have a right to this promise or not. O let thy light and thy truth shine forth, that they may be guides to me in this matter; and let the meditations of my heart be according to thy mind, and directed by thy unerring Spirit. Grant light and life, O Lord my God!

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of Men. In these words there are two things to be considered:—1. There is a duty, Follow me. Wherein consider, (1.) The object, me, even the Lord Jesus Christ, the chief fisher of men, who was sent by the Father to gather in the lost sheep of the house of Israel; who was and is the infinitely wise God, and so know the best way to catch men, and can instruct men how to be fishers of others. (2.) The act, Follow (Gr. come after) me: Leave your employment, and come after me. Though no doubt there is a direction here to all the ministers of the gospel, that they have left their other employments, and betaken themselves to the preaching of the Word, viz., that if they would do good to souls, and gain them by their ministry, then they are to imitate Christ, in their carriage and preaching to make Him their pattern, to write after His copy, as a fit mean for gaining of souls. 2. There is a promise annexed to the duty. Whercin we may consider, (1.) The benefit promised; that is, to be made fishers of men; which I take to be not only an investing of them with authority, and a calling of them to the office, but also a promise of the success they should have, that fishing of men should be their employment, and they should not be employed in vain, but, following Christ, they should indeed catch men by the gospel. (2.) The fountain-cause of this, I,—I will make you; none other can make you fishers of men but me.

Thou mayest observe, then, O my soul, That it is the Lord Jesus Christ that makes men fishers of men. Here I shall shew, I. How Christ makes men fishers of men. II. Why unconverted men are compared to fish in the water. III. That ministers are fishers by office.

I. How does Christ make men fishers of men?

In answer to this question, consider spiritual fishing two ways. 1. As to the office and work itself: and 2. As to the success of it. First, He makes them fishers as to their office, by His call, which is twofold, outward and inward, by setting them apart to the office of the ministry; and it is thy business, O my soul, to know whether thou hast it or not. But of this more afterwards. Secondly, He makes them fishers as to success; that is, He makes them catch men to Himself by the power of His Spirit accompanying the Word they preach, and the discipline they administer; 1 Cor. i. 18, “The preaching of the cross—unto us which are saved, is the power of God.” 1 Thess. i. 5—”Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” He it is that brings sinners into the net which ministers spread; and if He be not with them to drive the fish into the net, they may toil all the night and day too, and catch nothing.

1. O my soul, then, see that gifts will not do the business. A man may preach as an angel, and yet be useless. If Christ withdraw His presence, all will be to no purpose. If the Master of the house be away, the household will loath their food; though it be dropping down about their tent-doors.
2. Why shouldst thou then on the one hand, as sometimes thou art, be lifted up when thou preachest a good and solid discourse, wherein gifts do appear, and thou gettest the applause of men? Why, thou mayest do all this, and yet be no fisher of men. The fish may see the bait, and play about it as pleasant, but this is not enough to catch them. On the other hand, why shouldst thou be so much discouraged, (as many times is the case) because thy gifts are so small, and thou art but as a child in comparison of others? Why, if Christ will, He can make thee a fisher of men, as well as the most learned rabbi in the Church; Psal. viii. 2—Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength. Has not God put this treasure in earthen vessels, that the power might be seen to be of Him? Lift up thyself then, O my soul; Christ can make thee a fisher of men, however weak thou art. Follow thou Him. My soul desires to follow hard after thee, O God.
3. Be concerned then, in the first place, O my soul, for the presence of God in ordinances, and for His power that will make a change among people, Psal. ex. 3. When thy discourse, though never so elaborate, shall be but as a lovely song, O set thyself most for this. When thou studiest, send up ejaculations to thy Lord for it. When thou writest a sermon, or ruminates on it, then say to God, Lord, this will be altogether weak without thy power accompanying it. O, power and life from God in ordinances is sweet! Seek it for thyself, and seek it for thy hearers. Acknowledge thine own weakness and uselessness without it, and so cry incessantly for it, that the Lord may drive the fish into the net, when thou are spreading it out. Have an eye to this power, when thou are preaching: and think not thou to convert men by the force of reason: If thou do, thou wilt be beguiled.
4. What an honourable thing is it to be fishers of men! How great an honour shouldst thou esteem it, to be a catcher of souls! We are workers together with God, says the Apostle. If God has ever so honoured thee, O that thou knewest it, that thou mightest bless His holy name, that ever made such a poor fool as thee to be a co-worker with Him. God has owned thee to do good to those who were before caught. O my soul, bless thou the Lord. Lord, what am I, or what is my father’s house, that thou hast brought me to this!
5. Then seest thou not here what is the reason thou toilest so long, and catchest nothing? The power comes not. Men are like Samuel, who, when God was calling him, thought it had been Eli. So when thou speakest many times, they do not discern God’s voice, but thine; and therefore the Word goes out as it comes in.
6. Then, O my soul, despair not of the conversion of any, be they ever so profigate. For it is the power of the Spirit that drives any person into the net; and this cannot be resisted. Mockers of religion, yea blasphemers, may be brought into the net; and many times the wind of God’s Spirit in the Word lays the tall cedars in sin down upon the ground, when they that seem to be as low shrubs in respect of them, stand fast upon their root. Publicans and harlots shall enter into the kingdom of heaven before self-righteous Pharisees.
7. What thinkest thou, O my soul, of that doctrine that lays aside this power of the Spirit, and makes moral suasion all that is requisite to the fishing of men? That doctrine is hateful to thee. My soul loathes it, as attributing too much to the preacher, and too much to corrupt nature, in taking away its natural impotency to good, and as against the work of God’s Spirit, contrary to experience; and is to me a sign of the rottenness of the heart that embraces it. Alas! that it should be owned by any among us, where so much of the Spirit’s power has been felt.

II. But why are unconverted men compared to fish in the water?

Among other reasons they are so.
1. Because, as the water is the natural element of fish, so sin is the proper and natural element of an unconverted soul. Take the fish out of the water, it cannot live; and take from a natural man his idols, he is ready to say with Micah, Ye have taken away my gods, and what have I more? The young man in the gospel could not be persuaded to seek after treasure in heaven, and lay by the world. It is in sin that the only delight of natural men is; but in holiness they have no more delight than a fish upon the earth. Oh, the woful case of a natural man! Bless the Lord, O my soul, that when that was thy element as well as that of others, yet Christ took thee in his net, held thee, and would not let thee go, and put another principle in thee, so that now it is difficult for thee to wade, far more to swim in these waters.
2. The fish in a sunny day are seen to play themselves in the water. So the unregenerate, whatever grief they may seem to have upon their spirits, when a storm arises either without, by outward troubles, or within by conscience-gnawing convictions, yet when these are over, and they are in a prosperous state, they play themselves in the way of sin, and take their pleasure in it, not considering what it may cost them at the last. Oh! how does prosperity in the world ruin many a soul! The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. And, O how destructive would prosperity have been to thee, my soul, if God had given it to thee many times when thou wouldst have had it! Bless the Lord, that ever he was pleased to cross thee in a sinful course!
3. As the fish greedily look after and snatch at the bait, not minding the hook, even so natural men drink in sin greedily, as the ox drinketh in the water. They look on sin as a sweet morsel; and it is to them sweet in the mouth though bitter in the belly. They play with it, as the fish with the bait; but, oh, alas! when they take the serpent in their bosom, they mind not the sting, Prov. ix. 17, 18. The devil knows well how to dress his hooks; but, alas! men know not by nature how to discern them. Pity, then, O my soul, the wicked of the world, whom thou seest greedily satisfying their lusts. Alas! they are poor blinded souls; they see the bait, but not the hook; and therefore it is that they are even seen as it were dancing about the mouth of the pit; therefore rush they on to sin as a horse to the battle, not knowing the hazard. O, pity the poor drunkard, the swearer, the unclean person, &c. that is wallowing in his sin. Bless thou the Lord also, O my soul, that when thou wast playing with the bait, and as little minding the hook as others, God opened thine eyes and let thee see thy madness and danger, that thou mightest flee from it. And, O be now careful that thou snatch at none of the devils baits, lest he catch thee with his hook; for though thou mayest be restored again by grace, yet it shall not be without a wound; as the fish sometimes slip the hook, but go away wounded; which wound may be sad to thee, and long a-healing; —and this thou hast experienced.
4. As fish in water love deep places and wells, and are most frequently found there, so wicked men have a great love to carnal security, and have no will to strive against the stream. Fish love deep places best, where there is least noise. O, how careful are natural men to keep all quiet, that there may be nothing to disturb them in their rest in sin! they love to be secure, which is their destruction. O my soul, beware of carnal security, of being secure, though plunged over head and ears in sin.
5. As fish are altogether unprofitable as long as they are in the water, so are wicked men in their natural estate—they can do nothing that is really good; they are unprofitable to themselves, and unprofitable to others, Rom. iii. 12. How far must they then be mistaken, who think the wicked of the world the most useful in the place where they live! They may indeed be useful for carrying on designs for Satan’s interest, or their own vainglory; but really to lay out themselves for God, they cannot.

Whitsome is a parish in the presbytery of Chirnside, at a place in which, called Newton, Rev. Henry Erskine, who, in August, 1662, had been ejected from Cornhill, in Northumberland, began to exercise his ministry in a meeting-house, upon the coming out of King James’s toleration, in 1687, and where he continued till the Revolution, when he was settled at Chirnside. It was probably in the year 1687, that Mr. Boston, then a boy only ten years of age, went from Dunse, where his parents lived to hear Mr. Erskine, by whose ministry he was converted. He speaks of this worthy minister as his spiritual father, afterwards, in this Soliloquy. This Mr. Erskine was father of Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, whose praise is in all the churches.

III. Ministers are fishers by office;

they are catchers of the souls of men, sent “to open the eyes of the blind, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” Acts xxvi. 18. Preachers of the gospel are fishers; and their work, and that of fishers, agree in several things.
1. The design and work of fishers is to catch fish. This is the work that preachers of the gospel have taken in hand, even to endeavour to bring souls to Christ. Their design in their work should be the same. Tell me, O my soul, what is thy design in preaching? for what end dost thou lay the net in the water? is it to shew thy gifts, and to gain the applause of men? Oh! no. Lord, thou knowest my gifts are very small; and had I not some other thing than them to lean to, I had never gone to a pulpit. I confess, that, for as small as they are, the devil and my corruptions do sometimes present them to me in a magnifying glass, and so would blow me up with wind. But, Lord, thou knowest it is my work to repel these motions. (But of this see afterwards).
2. Their work is hard work; they are exposed to much cold in the water. So is the minister’s work.
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; Isa. lv. 1, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, 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 up 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 wast thou thinking, O my soul, on Christ, heaven, or thyself, when thou went to the Newton of Whitsome, to hear a preaching, when Christ first dealt with thee; there thou 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 thou seest 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 passeth away. Wherefore, O my soul, if ever thou be taken up with exercised consciences, have a care that thou do not apply the cure before the wound be deep enough. Take all means to understand whether the souls be content to take Christ on His own terms or not. Alas! many this way, by having the wound scurfed over, are rather killed than cured.
(5.) All that are taken in the net do make some struggle 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 thou also knowest, O my soul, how thou wouldest 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. ii. 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, vi. 37, All that the Father hath 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 that was unwilling before, is then willing. O the power of grace! When God speaks, then men shall hear; then is it that the dead hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they that hear do 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 catched. 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.
(8.) Lest the net be lifted up with the water, and so not fit for taking of fish, and the fish slight it, and pass under it; there are some pieces of lead put to it, to hold it right in the water, that it may be before them as they come. So lest invitations and promises of the gospel be slighted, there must be used some legal terrors and law-threatenings to drive the fish into the net. Thou seest then, that both law and gospel are to be preached; the law as a pendicle of the gospel-net, which makes it effectual; the law being a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
(9.) The meshes must not be over-wide, lest the fish run through. So neither must thy doctrine be general, without particular application, lest thou be no fisher of men. Indeed, men may be the better pleased, when thou preachest doctrine so as wicked men may run out-through and in-through it, than when thou makest it so as to take hold of them; but be not a servant of men.
(10.) Neither must they be too neat and fine, and curiously wrought, lest they hold out the fish. So have a care, O my soul, of striving to make by wit any fine and curious discourse, which thy hearers cannot understand. Of this more afterwards.

1. Fishers observe in what places they should cast their nets, and where they may expect fish. So do thou, O my soul, observe where thou mayest catch souls. There are two pools wherein the net should be set. (1.) In the public assemblies of the Lord’s people. There it was that Lydia’s heart was opened. The pool of ordinances sometimes is made healing water to souls pining away in their iniquity. (2.) In private conference. Many times the Lord is pleased to bless this for the good of souls. Some have found it so. But more of these things afterwards, when I come to following of Christ.
2. Lastly, Fishers may toil long, and yet catch nothing; but they do not therefore lay aside their work. So many preachers preach long, and yet not catch any soul, Isa. xlix. 4, and liii. 1; but they are not to give over for all that. O my soul, here thou art checked for thy behaviour at some times under the absence of Christ from ordinances, when thou hast been ready to wish thou hadst never taken it in hand. This was my sin: the good Lord pardon it. It becomes me better to lie low under God’s hand, and to inquire into the causes of His withdrawing His presence from me and from ordinances, and yet to hold on in duty till He be pleased to lay me by. Have a care of that, O my soul, and let not such thoughts and wishes possess thee again. Forget not how God made thee to read this thy sin in thy punishment. Hold on, O my soul, and give not way to these discouragements. Thou knowest not but Christ may come and teach thee to let down the net at the right side of the ship, and thou mayest yet be a fisher of men. Trust God thou shalt yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, as thou hast done, and perhaps for some souls that thou mayest be yet honoured to catch.

And thus I have briefly considered these things. But the main question that I would have resolved is—How I may come by this art? What way I shall take to be a fisher of men? How I may order and set the net, that it may bring in souls to God? This the great Master of Assemblies sets down in the first part of the verse. Whence, Observe, O my soul, That the way for me to a fisher of men is to follow Christ. What it is to follow thee, O Lord, show me; and, Lord, help me do it.

THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH.
It is not too much to say that the prosperity or decay of English Christianity depends on the maintenance of the Christian Sabbath.—The late Bishop J. C. Ryle.