in the former use, to this purpose viz.
"To acknowledge our iniquities that we have transgressed against the
Lord our God." To get our hearts broken, for breaking the covenant; to
lay it so to heart, that God may not lay it to our charge. But this
looks backward. Somewhat must be done, _de futuro_: for time to come:
that may not only compose the quarrel, but lay a sure foundation of an
after peace between God and the kingdom. And for that purpose, a mean
lies before us; an opportunity is held forth unto us by the hand of
divine wisdom and goodness, of known use and success among the people of
God in former times; which is yet to me a gracious intimation, and a
farther argument of hope from heaven, that God has not sworn against us
in His wrath, nor sealed us up a people devoted to destruction, but hath
yet a mind to enter into terms of peace and reconciliation with us, to
receive us into grace and favour, to become our God, and to own us for
His people; if yet, we will go forth to meet Him, and accept of such
honourable terms as shall be propounded to us: and that is, by renewing
our covenant with Him; yea, by entering into a more full and firm
covenant than ever heretofore. For, as the quarrel was raised about the
covenant, so it must be a covenant more solid and substantial, that must
compose the quarrel, as I shall show you hereafter. And that is the
service and the privilege that lies before us; the work of the next day.
So that, me-thinks, I hear this use of exhortation, which now I would
commend unto you speaking unto us in that language; "Come, let us join
ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be
forgotten." It is the voice of the children of Israel, and the children
of Judah, returning out of captivity. "The children of Israel shall
come, they, and the children of Judah together; seeking the Lord," whom
they had lost, and inquiring the way to Zion; from whence their idolatry
and adulteries had cast them out; themselves become now like the doves
of the valley, mourning and weeping, because they had perverted their
way, and forgotten the Lord their God. "Going and weeping they shall go,
and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their
faces thitherward." And if you inquire when this should be? The fourth
verse tells you, in those days. And if you ask again, what days those
are? Interpreters will tell us of a threefold day, wherein this prophecy
or promise is to be fulfil