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2Ki_5:14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Ver. 14. Then went he down, &c.] He was not so morose or self-willed, though now in a great pelt, but that he would hearken to reason, though it came from servants.
According to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh, &c.] Long enough might Naaman have washed there in vain, if Elisha had not sent him, and said to him, Go, wash in Jordan seven times, &c. It is the word, the ordinance of the Almighty, which putteth efficacy into those means which by themselves are both impotent and improbable. What can water in baptism do of itself to the washing away of sin? Some tell us that by that water Constantine the Great was cured of a leprosy; but that was not, saith mine author, by the efficacy of the water, nor yet by the efficacy of baptism precisely and properly - since it was instituted for another purpose, - but because the baptismal water was to him divinae voluntatis et propheticae iussionis instrumentum, as Ambrose hath it of Jordan’s water to Naaman, a means to convey good to him both for body and soul.