just point of view. Two birds were taken: one of them was killed over living water, and his blood was mingled with the water. The blood and water were then sprinkled seven times upon the leper, and the living bird, being dipped in the blood and v. ater, was let loose into the open field, and the leper was pronounced clean''. This was intended to shew how man should be cleansed from sin. The Lord Jesus Christ should shed his blood as an atonement fcr sin : he should also send forth his Spirit upon man: by neither of these separately should he fulfil the office of a Saviour ; and by neither of these separately should man be restored to the favour of his God. The union of the two was necessary for all; and the two united should be effectual for all: so that, however deep any one's leprosy may have been, he shall, the very instant he has been so purified, be pronounced clean.
This then all must carefully notice, if they would possess the full benefits of Christ's salvation.]
In addition to his own testimony, the Apostle further confirms his assertion, by adducing,
II. The testimony which the Holy Spirit bears to it —
In two ways the Holy Spirit, *' the Spirit of truth," has borne witness to the doctrine inculcated in our text:
1. By established ordinances in the Church of God —
[This doctrine was not unknown to the Church of Israel in the Wilderness; for there were ordinances appointed on purpose that it might be known, and be kept in everlasting remembrance. The Paschal Lamb which was slain from year to year reminded them, as indeed all the daily sacrifices did, that they were redeemed by blood. And, in their passage through the Red Sea, they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, to shew them that they must also be washed from their pollutions by the Spirit of God ; as indeed all the washings and lustrations appointed by the law yet further taught them. Under the Christian dispensation, the same truths are constantly inculcated by the two sacraments appointed for our observance. Our Baptismal washing re- minds us, that " Christ came by water ;" and the Sacramental cup, which is " emblematic of his blood which he shed for the remission of our sins," reminds us, that " he came by blood." And our Apostle himself, in the second verse after my text, declares, that these ordinances were appointed for these very er/ds by the Spirit of God, who by them, and with them, bears tes- timony ^ Lev. xiv. 4 — 7.