He

that of Naaman; infected with fin, the leprofy of the heart. How may you be preferved from the mortal effects of your malady? By one method only: by a method analogous to that by which Naaman was healed by flying for help to the great prophet of Ifrael, Jefus Chrift the Lord. has opened in his gofpel a fountain for the wathing away of guilt. He has made atonement for fin by the fhedding of his own blood. He promifes pardon to every penitent. He promifes to his followers the aid of all-fufficient grace. He invites, he exhorts you to accept deliverance, to be cleanfed, to be made whole. Have you hitherto defpifed the call? Naaman gave ear to the counfel of his fervants. We are ourselves your fervants for Fefus's fake. Now then we are ambasadors for Chrift, as though God did befeech you by us. We pray you in Chrift's flead; be ye reconciled to God (c). Or do you profefs that you have already liftened to your Saviour's voice, and known the riches of his redeeming love? We befeech you then that ye receive not the grace of God in vain (d). The change in Naaman was total. And what faith the apoftle? If any man be in Chrift, he is a new creature. Old things are paffed away: behold

(c) 2 Cor. iv. 5. v. 2c.

(d) 2 Cor. vi. 1.

all

all things are become new (e). Art thou, like Naaman, purified from unbelief, from pride, from hardness of heart? Haft thou renounced, like Naaman, thy former idols? Like Naaman, haft thou dedicated thyfelf to the living God? Like Naaman, doft thou refpect and love thofe objects, which heretofore thou contemnedft ; the commands of God, the ordinances of God, the altar of God, the fervants of God? If thou wouldest know thy real ftate, turn not away from fearching queftions. Does confcience constrain thee to filence? Does thy heart fecretly delight in the purfuits of the old Adam? This Syrian fhall rife up in the day of judgement and fhall condemn thee. The leprofy ftill cleaveth unto thee. Fly to the fountain of living waters, the fountain that is opened for fin and uncleanness, the fountain that cometh forth of the boufe of the Lord (f); left thy leprofy cleave unto thee for ever.

4. Finally, let Naaman admonish you to tenderness of confcience. In this thing the Lord pardon thy fervant; that when my mafter goeth into the houfe of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myfelf in the houfe of Rimmon; when I bow

(e) 2 Cor. v. 17. Zech. xiii. 1.

(f) Jer. ii. 13. Joel, iii. 18.

down

doren myfelf in the houfe of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy fervant in this thing.

It is not a little fingular, that these words of Naaman, which originated in a fcrupulous defire to avoid every degree of offence against God, fhould have been interpreted into an application for a licenfe to commit idolatry. It is ftill more extraordinary that the reply of Elifha, Go in peace, fhould have been regarded as an affent to fuch a request. As though the Syrian convert, who in the preceding moment had folemnly declared that he knew that there was no God in all the earth but in Ifrael; who had fpontaneously averred that he would thenceforth offer neither burnt-offering nor facrifice unto other gods, but unto Jehovah alone; would inftantly folicit permiffion to worship an idol! As though the prophet of the Moft High would have been feduced from his allegiance by a worldly fear of dealing too ftrictly with fo recent and fo dignified a profelyte, to countenance and fanction a crime which it was the object of his life to oppofe (g)! As though he would not inftantly have replied: Thy heart is not right in the fight of God.

(g) See in particular the indignant boldnefs with which he reproved his own idolatrous fovereign. 2 Kings, iii. 1. 3.

13, 14.

What

What fellowship bath righteousness with unrighteoufnefs? What communion bath light with darkness? What agreement bath God with idols? Repent therefore of this thy wickednefs; and pray to God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee (b). The commiffion of idolatry entered not into the imagination of Naaman or Elisha. The of fice which Naaman held in his own country required that at certain feafons hé fhould attend his master to the Temple of the Syrian deity Rimmon. On thofe occafions the king leaned upon Naaman. This apparently trifling circumftance is recorded, we prefume, as an explanation of the whole tranfaction. How could the king bow down before his God, unless Naaman, on whom he leaned, fhould bend himself forward alfo? But when Naaman had difcontinued his former facrifice to Rimmon, and to every other idol; when he publickly profeffed another faith, the exclufive belief of another God; when he publickly offered-up his facrifices to Jehovah on the altar conftructed with the foil, which he had openly brought for that especial purpofe from the land of Ifrael: was it poffible that the act of his bending forward merely in avowed accommodation to his master, who

(b) Acts, viii. 21, 22.2 Cor. vi. 14-16.

leaned

leaned upon him, could be deemed an act of homage to Rimmon, a participation in the crime of idolatry? Naaman, however was not without apprehenfions that it might not be lawful on any account, and under any circumstances, to adopt in the temple of an idol a posture fimilar to that, which others employed as a fign of reverence. And while he expreffed his hopes that the proceeding which he had defcribed would not be offenfive to God; he expreffed them with enquiring folicitude, and with evident tokens of deference to the prophet's expected determination.

you

Whatsoever, faith the apostle, is not of faith, whatsoever is performed without a full perfuafion of its lawfulness, is fin (i). If are duly folicitous to preserve a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man; you will turn an inquifitive eye on your general conduct, and especially on those parts of your proceedings which may bear the appearance of evil. The self-righteous feel no fcruples: the carelefs examine none, The former have no diffidence; the latter no Spirit of investigation. But the man of the truly Chriftian temper is the man who feareth always: the man who, because he (i) Rom. xiv. 23.

feareth