are not vouchsafed to us on account of our antecedent merit, but in order that we may shew forth the praises of Him that hath called us.
We see this exemplified in the laws relating to the leprosy. Nothing was prescribed whereby people should first of all heal themselves : but, when God of his infinite mercy had first healed them, then were they to come and offer their acknowledgments in the way appointed.
The ordinances to be observed by them are here laid down : and from them we see, that the purifica- tion of the leper was two-fold;
I. Incipient —
[Two birds were to be taken ; one of which was to be killed over a vessel of spring-water ; and the other, dipped in the bloody water, was to be let loose. Some interpret this as signifying, that Christ should die for us, and that the sinner, dipped as it were in Iris blood, should be liberated from sin and death, and be enabled to soar above this lower world, both in heart and life. But we apprehend that both the birds equally designate Christ. And, inasmuch as the living bird was dipped in the blood of that which was killed, this intimated, that all that Christ should do for us after his resurrection, was founded upon the atonement which he had offered ; by which he obtained a right to justify us, and to send us his Holy Spirit, and to save us with an everlasting salvation a. As for the cedar-wood, the scarlet wool, and the hyssop, which were also dipped in the bloody water, and used in sprinkling the leper, we forbear to specify the spiritual import of each, because it must rest on mere conjecture, and will not prove satisfactory after all. But the circumstance of the blood being mixed with living water, most assuredly was designed to teach us, that Christ saves us no less by his Spirit than by his blood; by his Spirit, from the power of sin ; and by his blood, from its guilt. Moreover, these are never separated. When his side was pierced, " there came out (as John, who was an eye- witness, testifies) both blood and water b." On which circum- stance he lays great stress ; assuring us, that " Christ came not by water only, but by water and blood0." These two then being sprinkled upon the sinner, " the priest of God is fully
authorized to pronounce him clean"
In confirmation of this statement we need only to refer to the two goats offered on the great day of annual expiation : that which was slain, and that which carried the sins of the people
a Heb. ix. 12. Rom. v. 10. b John xix. 34, 35. c 1 John v. 6.