Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

1. Consider Jesus in his Fore-runner, and the blessed tidings of his coming in the flesh; now the long-looked for time drew near, a glorious Angel is sent from Heaven, and he comes with an Olive-branch of peace; first he presents himself to Zechariah, and then to Mary; to her he imparts the Message on which God sent him into this nether World; Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name Jesus. ¹Till now Humane Nature was less than that of Angels; but by the Incarnation of the Word, it was to be exalted above the Cherubims. What sweet News? What blessed Tidings was this Message? The Decree of old must now be ⟨p. 143⟩accomplished, and an Angel proclaims it upon Earth; hear O ye Sons of Adam, this concerns you as much as the Virgin: Were ye not all undone in the Loins of your first Father? Was not my Soul, and thy Soul in danger of Hell-fire; was not this our case and condition; that after a little life upon Earth, we should have been thrown into eternal torments, where had been nothing but Weeping, Wailing, and Gnashing of Teeth? And now that God and Christ should bid an Angel tell the News, Ye shall not die; lo, here a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and he shall be your Jesus; he shall save you from this Hell, and Death, and Sin: he shall deliver your Souls, he shall save you to the utmost; his Name is Jesus, and he shall not bear his Name for nought; believe in him, and ye shall live with him in Glory. O blessed news! Men may talk what they will of this and that news, every one gapes after it: but there is no news so welcome to one even now ready to perish, as to hear of a Saviour; tell a man in his Sickness of one that will make him well again: tell a man in Captivity of one that will rescue him, and set him free again; tell a man in Prison, condemned to die, of one with a pardon, that will save his life; and every one of these will say, this is the best news that ever was heard: O then, if it be good tidings to hear of a Saviour, where is only a matter of loss of life, or of this Earth; how much more when it comes to the loss of Heaven, to the danger of Hell, when our Souls are at stake, and likely to be damned for evermore; what glad tidings would that be to hear of one that could save our souls from that destroyer? is not such a Saviour worth the hearkening after? were not the birth of such a one good news?