The second day is the evangelical day, wherein this promise is fulfilled in a gospel or spiritual sense; namely, when the elect of God, of what nation or language soever, being all called the Israel of God, as is prophesied, "One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, ... and surname himself by the name of Israel." I say, when these in their several generations and successions shall turn to the Lord their God, either from their Gentilism and paganism, as in their first conversion to Christianity; as Tertullian observes after the resurrection of Christ, and the mission of the Holy Ghost; Aspice exinde universas nationes ex veragine erroris humani emergentes ad Dominum Deum, et ad Dominum Christum ejus. From that day forward, you might behold poor creatures of all nations and languages, creeping out of their dark holes and corners of blindness and idolatry, and betaking them to God and His Son Jesus Christ, as to their Law-giver and Saviour; or else turning from Antichristian superstition, and false ways of worship, as in the after and more full conversion of churches or persons purging themselves more and more, from the corruptions and mixtures of popery and superstitions, according to the degree of light and conviction, which should break out upon them, and asking the way to Zion, i.e., the pure way of gospel worship, according to the fuller and clearer manifestations and revelations of the mind of Christ in the gospel. This was fulfilled in Luther's time, and in all those after separations which any of the churches have made from Rome, and from those relics and remains of superstition and will-worship, wherewith themselves and the ordinances of Jesus Christ have been denied.
The third day wherein this prophecy or promise is to be made good, is that universal day, wherein both Jew and Gentile shall be converted unto the Lord. That day of the restitution of all things, as some good divines conceive when "ten men out of all languages of the nations, shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you." And to what purpose is more fully expressed in the former verses, answering the prophecy in the text. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, it shall come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts; I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord."
This I call the universal day, because, as you see, there shall be such an abundance of confluence of cities, and people, and nations, combining together in an holy league and covenant, to seek the Lord. And a perfect day, because the mind and will of the Lord shall be fully revealed and manifested to the saints, concerning the way of worship and government in the churches. The new Jerusalem, i.e. the perfect, exact, and punctual model of the government of Christ in the churches, shall then be let down from Heaven. "The light of the moon being then to be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound."
By what hath been spoken, you may perceive under which of these days we are: past indeed the first, but not yet arrived at the third day; and therefore under the second day, that evangelical day; yet so, as if all the three days were met together in ours, while it seems to me, that we are upon the dawning of the third day: and this prophecy falling so pat, and full upon our times, as if we were not got beyond the literal; a little variation will do it. The children of Israel, and the children of Judah: Scotland and England, newly coming out of Babylon, antichristian Babylon, papal tyranny and usurpations, in one degree or other, going and weeping in the days of their solemn humiliations, bewailing their backslidings and rebellions, to seek the Lord their God, to seek pardon and reconciliation, to seek His face and favour, not only in the continuance, but in the more full and sweet influential manifestations of His presence among them; and to that end, asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward; that is, inquiring after the pure way of gospel worship, with full purpose of heart; that when God shall reveal His mind to them, they will conform themselves to His mind according to that blessed prophecy and promise, "He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths." And that they may make all sure, that they may secure God and themselves against all future apostasies and backslidings, calling one upon another, and echoing back one to another: "Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord, in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten."
You see by this time I have changed my text, tho' not my project; to which purpose I shall remember that, in the handling of these words, I must not manage my discourse, as if I were to make a new entire sermon upon the text, but only to improve the happy advantages it holds forth, for the pursuit and driving on of my present use of exhortation. Come, let us join. To this end therefore, from these words, I will propound and endeavour to satisfy these three queries, 1. What? 2. Why? 3. How?
I. What the duty is, to which they mutually stir up one another?
II. Why, or upon what considerations?
III. How, or in what manner this service is to be performed? And in all these you shall see what proportion the text holds with the times. The duty in our text, with the duty in our hands, pressing them on still in an exhortatory way.
For the first. What the duty is?
Answ. You see that in the text; it is to join themselves to the Lord, by a solemn covenant; and so is that which we have now in our hands, to join ourselves to the Lord by a covenant; how far they correspond, will appear in the sequel. This is the first and main end of a covenant between God and His people, as I have shewed you, "to join themselves to the Lord. The sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, and take hold of His covenant."