Matthew Poole and continuators on Mark 1:3

3. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths strait.

The Prophets Malac[illegible: 1 letter]y and Isaiah (saith the Evangelist) Prophesied of this beginning of the Gospel. Malachy Prophesied, th[illegible: 1 letter]t before the Great King should come unto Zion, an Harbinger should come before him; to prepare his way. The Angel Luke 1.11. expounds both the[illegible: 1 letter]r Pr[illegible: 1 letter]phesies, and also that Mal. 4.5. And he shall go before him in the Spirit, and Power of Elias, to turn the hearts [illegible: 1 letter]f the Fathers to the Children, and the dis[illegible: 1 letter]obedient to the Wisdom of the Iust; to make read[illegible: 1 letter] a Pe[illegible: 1 letter]ple pr[illegible: 2 letters]pared for the Lord. Iohn by his Preaching turned the Ears of the People to the sound of the Gospel, and so prepared them for Christ. See the further Explication of these words, in the Notes on Matth. 3.3 & 11.10. This Name given to Iohn the Baptist, A Voice crying, gives us the right notion of a Gospel Minister. Here is but a Voice crying, speaking, what God hath first suggested to him. Thus Exod. 4.15. God saith to Moses. Thou shalt speak unto him, and put Words into his Mouth, and I will be with thy Mouth, and with his Mouth.

Marginal references: Isaiah 40.3. Luke 3.4 & 7.27. Iohn. 1.23.