ON THE ANTIQUITY OF FISHING. 215 



Who long had toil'd and had nothing caught, 

 Till Jesus bid them let down for a draught : 

 In which a multitude though they did take, 

 It's written there, their nets they did not break ; 

 But straight retired themselves from thence and fed 

 Upon their broiled fishes and their bread. (Mat. 4. 



It's said' they took an hundred fifty-three, 

 Some of all kinds in the sea of Galilee; 

 By which all sorts of men is signified, 

 And the great fishing of the world implied; 

 How the Apostles by their preaching shall, 

 Both poor and rich, both base and noble call ; 

 And draw them with their nets from the world's sea, 

 To th' ship of comfort and felicity. 

 So Amos, Isaiah, Habakkuk compare (Isa. 19. 

 Things that of worth and great importance are. 

 To fishing, drags, and nets, and like to these, 

 Are the wiseman's fish pools in the Canticles : (Jer. 1$. 

 So do Ezekiel and Jeremy 



Call preachers fishers in their prophesy, (Eze. 47, 10, 

 Whose doctrine is their nets, which from these toys 

 Do draw men's souls into eternal joys : 

 When Christ his power and Godhead did express 

 To th' hungry people in the wilderness; (Mat. 14* 

 He first made choice of loaves, life's staff, and then, 

 Two little fishes fed five thousand men. 

 Another time a multitude he fed (Mat. 15* 

 With few small fishes and a little bread. 

 If we search Chronicles, we there may see 

 The art of fishing from antiquity ; 

 When Bishop Wilfrid turn'd to Christian faith 

 The Heathen Saxons (an historian saith ;) 

 He teaches them this art at first, and makes 

 Those nets catch fish, which did before catch* snakes. 

 He, going with these Pagans, to the brook 

 Three hundred fishes with their nets he took, 

 Straight he divides the spoil, and one part gets 

 Himself; then furnish'd them that own'd the nets ; 

 The third part to the poor he did divide, 

 Which made his religion to be deified, 



