and the mode of purification from it was certainly typical of our purification from sin by the Redeemer's blood, we feel no impropriety in accommodating this history to elucidate the Gospel of Christ.
We have here, then, a lively representation of,
1 . The character of the Gospel —
[Sin is absolutely incurable by any human means : but God has " opened a fovmtain for sin and for uncleanness;" and has bidden us to " wash in it and be clean:" he has even reasoned with us, as Naaman's servants did with him, saying-, " Come now, let us reason together ; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow ; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool." In all the word of God there is not a more beautiful illustration of the Gospel method of salvation than this. We are simply required to wash in the blood of Christ by faith ; and in so doing we shall imme- diately be cleansed from all sin. And with this agrees the direction given to the jailer, (the only one that can with pro- priety be given to one who inquires after the way of salvation,) " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."]
2. The treatment it meets with —
[Multitudes not only disregard it, but turn from it with disgust. In their eyes, the direction, " Wash and be clean," " Believe and be saved," is too simple, too free, too humiliating.
It is too simple. What ! have I nothing to do, but to be- lieve ? Will this remove all my guilt ? it cannot be
It is too free. Surely some good works are necessary to prepare me for the Saviour, and to make me in some measure worthy of his favour. Must I receive every thing without money and without price, and acknowledge to all eternity that it is altogether the free gift of God in Christ Jesus, as free as the light I see, or the air I breathe ? I cannot but regard such a proposal as subversive of all morality.
Lastly, It is too humiliating. Must I no more bring my good deeds than my bad ones, and no more hope for mercy on account of my past life than pubHcans and harlots can for theirs ? This is a mode of righteousness which I never can, nor will, submit to''.
Now persons who argue thus against the Gospel, are not unfrequently full of indignation against it, and against all who believe it. If called upon to do some great thing for the Gospel, they would engage in it gladly, and do it with all their might : but, if invited to accept its benefits by faith
<= Rom. X. 3.