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11 lines
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<p>We may observe here,</p>
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<p class="tab-1">I. What the New Testament is—the <i>divine</i> testament, to which we <i>adhere</i> above all that is <i>human</i>; the new testament, which we <i>advance</i> above that which was old. It is <i>the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Mark.1.1" href="/passage/?search=Mark.1.1">Mark 1:1</a>. 1. It is <i>gospel</i>; it is God’s word, and is <i>faithful</i> and <i>true</i>; see <a class="bibleref" title="Rev.19.9,Rev.21.5,Rev.22.6" href="/passage/?search=Rev.19.9,Rev.21.5,Rev.22.6"><span class="bibleref" title="Rev.19.9">Rev. 19:9</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Rev.21.5">21:5</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Rev.22.6">22:6</span></a>. It is a <i>good word</i>, and well <i>worthy of all acceptation</i>; it brings us glad tidings. 2. It is the <i>gospel of Jesus Christ</i>, the <i>anointed Saviour</i>, the Messiah promised and expected. The foregoing gospel began with the <i>generation of Jesus Christ</i>—that was but preliminary, this comes immediately to the business—<i>the gospel of Christ</i>. It is called <i>his</i>, not only because he is the <i>Author</i> of it, and it comes <i>from him</i>, but because he is the <i>Subject of it</i>, and it treats wholly <i>concerning him</i>. 3. This Jesus is the <i>Son of God</i>. That truth is the foundation on which the gospel is built, and which it is written to demonstrate; for is Jesus be not <i>the Son of God</i>, our <i>faith is vain</i>.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">II. What the <i>reference</i> of the New Testament is to the Old, and its <i>coherence</i> with it. The gospel of Jesus Christ <i>begins</i>, and so we shall find it <i>goes on</i>, just <i>as it is written in the prophets</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Mark.1.2" href="/passage/?search=Mark.1.2">Mark 1:2</a>); for it <i>saith no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said should come</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Acts.26.22" href="/passage/?search=Acts.26.22">Acts 26:22</a>), which was most proper and powerful for the conviction of the Jews, who believed the Old-Testament prophets to be sent of God and ought to have <i>evidenced</i> that they did so by welcoming the accomplishment of their prophecies in its season; but it is of use to us all, for the confirmation of our faith both in the Old Testament and in the New, for the exact harmony that there is between both shows that they both have the same divine original.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">Quotations are here borrowed from two prophecies—that of Isaiah, which was the <i>longest</i>, and that of Malachi, which was the <i>latest</i> (and there were above three hundred years between them), both of whom spoke to the same purport concerning <i>the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ</i>, in the ministry of John.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">1. Malachi, in whom we had the Old-Testament <i>farewell</i>, spoke very plainly (<a class="bibleref" title="Mal.3.1" href="/passage/?search=Mal.3.1">Mal. 3:1</a>) concerning John Baptist, who was to give the New-Testament <i>welcome. Behold, I send my messenger before thy face</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Mark.1.2" href="/passage/?search=Mark.1.2">Mark 1:2</a>. Christ himself had taken notice of this, and applied it to John (<a class="bibleref" title="Matt.11.10" href="/passage/?search=Matt.11.10">Matt. 11:10</a>), who was God’s <i>messenger</i>, sent to <i>prepare Christ’s way</i>.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">2. Isaiah, the most evangelical of all the prophets, <i>begins</i> the evangelical part of his prophecy with this, which points to the <i>beginning of the gospel of Christ</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Isa.40.3" href="/passage/?search=Isa.40.3">Isa. 40:3</a>); <i>The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Mark.1.3" href="/passage/?search=Mark.1.3">Mark 1:3</a>. Matthew had taken notice of this, and applied it to John, <a class="bibleref" title="Matt.3.3" href="/passage/?search=Matt.3.3">Matt. 3:3</a>. But from these two put together here, we may observe, (1.) That Christ, in his gospel, <i>comes among us</i>, bringing with him a treasure of grace, and a sceptre of government. (2.) Such is the corruption of the world, that there is something to do to <i>make room</i> for him, and to remove that which gives not only <i>obstruction</i>, but <i>opposition</i> to his progress. (3.) When God sent his Son into the world, he <i>took care</i>, and when he sends him into the heart, he <i>takes care</i>, effectual care, to <i>prepare his way before him</i>; for the designs of his grace shall not be <i>frustrated</i>; nor may any expect the comforts of that grace, but such as, by conviction of sin and humiliation for it, are <i>prepared</i> for those comforts, and disposed to receive them. (4.) When the <i>paths</i> that were <i>crooked</i>, are <i>made straight</i> (the mistakes of the judgment rectified, and the <i>crooked ways</i> of the affections), then way is made for Christ’s comforts. (5.) It is in a <i>wilderness</i>, for such this world is, that <i>Christ’s way</i> is prepared, and theirs that follow him, like that which Israel passed through to Canaan. (6.) The messengers of conviction and terror, that come to prepare Christ’s way, are <i>God’s messengers</i>, whom he sends and will own, and must be <i>received</i> as such. (7.) They that are sent to <i>prepare the way of the Lord</i>, in such a vast howling wilderness as this is, have need to <i>cry aloud</i>, and not spare, and to <i>lift up their voice like a trumpet</i>.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">III. What the <i>beginning</i> of the New Testament was. The gospel began in John Baptist; for <i>the law and the prophets were, until John</i>, the only divine revelation, but then the <i>kingdom of God began to be preached</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Luke.16.16" href="/passage/?search=Luke.16.16">Luke 16:16</a>. Peter begins <i>from the baptism of John</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Acts.1.22" href="/passage/?search=Acts.1.22">Acts 1:22</a>. The gospel did not begin <i>so soon</i> as the <i>birth</i> of Christ, for he took time to <i>increase in wisdom and stature</i>, not so late as his entering upon his public ministry, but half a year before, when John began to preach the same doctrine that Christ afterward preached. His baptism was the dawning of the <i>gospel day</i>; for,</p>
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<p class="tab-1">1. In John’s way of <i>living</i> there was the beginning of a <i>gospel spirit</i>; for it bespoke great self-denial, mortification of the flesh, a holy contempt of the world, and nonconformity to it, which may truly be called the <i>beginning of the gospel of Christ</i> in any soul, <a class="bibleref" title="Mark.1.6" href="/passage/?search=Mark.1.6">Mark 1:6</a>. He was <i>clothed with camels’ hair</i>, not with soft raiment; was girt, not with a golden, but with a <i>leathern girdle</i>; and, in contempt of dainties and delicate things, his meat was <i>locusts and wild honey</i>. Note, The more we sit loose to the body, and live above the world, the better we are prepared for Jesus Christ.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">2. In John’s <i>preaching</i> and <i>baptizing</i> there was the <i>beginning</i> of the <i>gospel doctrines and ordinances</i>, and the first fruits of them. (1.) He preached the <i>remission of sins</i>, which is the great gospel privilege; showed people their <i>need</i> of it, that they were <i>undone</i> without it, and that it might be obtained. (2.) He preached <i>repentance</i>, in order to it; he told people that there must be a renovation of their hearts and a reformation of their lives, that they must forsake their sins and turn to God, and upon those terms and no other, their sins should be forgiven. <i>Repentance for the remission of sins</i>, was what the apostles were commissioned to <i>preach to all nations</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Luke.24.27" href="/passage/?search=Luke.24.27">Luke 24:27</a>. (3.) He preached Christ, and directed his hearers to <i>expect him</i> speedily to appear, and to <i>expect great things</i> from him. The preaching of Christ is pure gospel, and that was John Baptist’s preaching, <a class="bibleref" title="Mark.1.7,Mark.1.8" href="/passage/?search=Mark.1.7,Mark.1.8"><span class="bibleref" title="Mark.1.7">Mark 1:7</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Mark.1.8">8</span></a>. Like a true gospel minister, he preaches, [1.] The great <i>pre-eminence</i> Christ is <i>advanced to</i>; so high, so great, is Christ, that John, though one of the greatest that was born of women, thinks himself unworthy to be employed in the meanest office about him, even to <i>stoop down</i>, and <i>untie his shoes</i>. Thus industrious is he to give honour to him, and to bring others to do so too. [2.] The great <i>power</i> Christ is <i>invested with</i>; He <i>comes after me</i> in time, but he is <i>mightier than I</i>, mightier than the mighty ones of the earth, for he is able to <i>baptize with the Holy Ghost</i>; he can <i>give</i> the Spirit of God, and by him <i>govern</i> the spirits of men. [3.] The great <i>promise</i> Christ makes in his gospel to those who have <i>repented</i>, and have had their sins forgiven them; They shall be <i>baptized with</i> the Holy Ghost, shall be <i>purified</i> by his graces, and <i>refreshed</i> by his comforts. And, <i>lastly</i>, All those who received his doctrine, and submitted to his institution, he <i>baptized with water</i>, as the manner of the Jews was to admit proselytes, in token of their <i>cleansing themselves</i> by repentance and reformation (which were the duties required), and of God’s <i>cleansing them</i> both by remission and by sanctification, which were the blessings promised. Now this was afterward to be advanced into a gospel ordinance, which John’s using it was a preface to.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">3. In the success of John’s preaching, and the disciples he admitted by baptism, there was the <i>beginning of a gospel church</i>. He baptized <i>in the wilderness</i>, and declined going into the cities; but <i>there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem</i>, inhabitants both of city and country, families of them, and <i>were all baptized of him</i>. They entered themselves his disciples, and bound themselves to his discipline; in token of which, they <i>confessed their sins</i>; he admitted them his disciples, in token of which, he <i>baptized</i> them. Here were the stamina of the gospel church, the <i>dew of its youth</i> from <i>the womb of the morning</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.110.3" href="/passage/?search=Ps.110.3">Ps. 110:3</a>. Many of these afterward became followers of Christ, and preachers of his gospel, and this grain of mustard-seed became a <i>tree</i>.</p>
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