In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
Ver. 1. In that day there shall be a fountain opened] Nunc fructum poenitentiae adiungit, saith Calvin here. This is the fruit of their repentance. No sooner mourn they over Christ, but they are received to mercy. "I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord: and" (or ever I can do it) "thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin," Psalms 32:5; that is, both the sting and stain of it, the guilt and the filth, the crime and the curse. Repent, and your sins shall be blotted out, saith Peter to those nefarious kill-Christs, Acts 3:19. God will cross the black lines of your sins with the red lines of his Son's blood, 1 John 1:6. A fountain shall be opened; not a cistern, but a spring; a pool better than that of Siloam, which is by interpretation, Sent, John 9:7, and so a type of Christ, who "loved us, and washed us from our sins with his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen," Revelation 1:5,6. To seal up this matchless mercy to us, he sent first, by the hand of his forerunner, and baptized those that repented for the remission of sins, Mat 3:2 Acts 2:38, and afterwards he set wide open this blessed fountain, this laver of "regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," Titus 3:5. Saying by his ministers to every believer, as once to Paul, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord," Acts 22:16; whereunto salvation is promised, Rom 10:18 Joel 2:22. Baptism also is said to save us, 1 Peter 3:21, sc. sacramentally, for it sealeth up salvation to the believer, Mark 16:16, and is of perpetual and permanent use to him, for that purpose, his whole life throughout, ut scaturigo semper ebulliens, as a fountain bubbling up to eternal life. Here then the sacrament of baptism is prophesied and promised. And hence, haply, the baptism of John is said to have been from heaven, Matthew 21:25. All the Levitical purifications pointed to this king's bath of Christ's meritorious blood, this everflowing and overflowing fountain, for the grace of our Lord Jesus hath abounded to flowing over (as St Panl's expression is) with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Neither can it ever be dried up, as was the river Cherith, the brooks of Tema, &c., but is an inexhausted fountain, a fresh running spring, for all that have but a mind to make toward it. Tam recens mihi nunc Christus est, ac si hac hora fudisset sanguinem, saith Luther; Christ is still as fresh and sovereign to me as if this very hour he had shed his blood. He was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world; and shall be so to the end thereof. Cruci haeremus, sanguinem sugimus, et intra ipsa Redempteris nostri vulnera figimus linguam, saith Cyprian of the Lord's Supper; i.e. We cleave to the cross at this holy ordinance; we suck Christ's blood, we thrust our tongues into the very wounds of our Redeemer, and are hereby purged from all pollutions of flesh and spirit.
To the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem] i.e. To all sorts and sexes of penitents, be they noble or ignoble, strong Christians or weak, Zec 12:8 none shall be secluded from this fountain, thus opened or exposed to all, not sealed and shut up, as that Song of Solomon 4:12 "God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him," Acts 10:34,35 .
For sin and for uncleanness] i.e. For all sorts of sins, though they be such as in their desert do separate us from communion with God and company of men, Lev 12:1-8 Lev 15:1-33 render us worthy to be excommunicated, proscribed, and banished out of the world, as pests and botches of human society, by a common consent of nations; as the obstinate Jews are at this day for their inexpiable guilt in crucifying Christ. The Vulgate here hath it, Ad ablutionem peccatoris et menstruatae, For washing clean the sinner and the menstruous woman; alluding (as doth also the Chaldee) to the waters of expiation made of the ashes of a red cow, Numbers 19:11; Numbers 19:17; see the note there; and importing the purging both of he-sinners and she-sinners; or, as some will have it, both of actual and original sin. Lo, this is the virtue of Christ's merit and spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:10,11, far beyond that of Abanah and Pharpar, of Jordan and Siloam, which yet are said not only to wash and scour, but also to heal and cure. The Saracens naturally stink like goats; but by washing themselves and their children in the pool of Siloam they become sweeter. The Turks make use of it to sharpen their eyesight. At Cyzicum there is a well called Cupid's well, the water whereof is said to quench the fire of lust. This is better yet than those baths of Rome, concerning which Seneca no less wittily than truly complained, Postquam munda balnea inventa sunt, spurciores sunt qui lavant; or those wanton baths of upper Baden, in Helvetia, much frequented, yet not so much for health as filthy pleasure. "They that are in Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts," Galatians 5:24; they are not only washed from their wickedness, Jeremiah 4:14, but bereft of their swinish natures, ne tanquam sus ad volutabrum, not as a pig returning to his watering hole. 2 Peter 2:22 .