Hugh Binning, Works, p. 334:
He came in the blood of expiation, because we had sinned. He came in the water of sanctification, that we might not sin. His blood speaks peace to the soul, and the water subjoins, “but let them not return to folly.” His blood cries, “behold thou art made whole.” And the water echoes unto it, “sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee,” John 5:14. These two streams of water and blood, which are appointed for purity and pardon, run intermingled all along, and so the proper effects of them are interchangeably attributed to either of them: “he hath washed us in his blood” (Rev. 1:5; 7:14), “and the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” Then, certainly, this blood cannot be without water, it is never separated from it. The proper effect of blood is to cover sin; but because the water runs in that channel, and is conveyed by the blood thither, therefore it doth cleanse sin as well as cover it.
From Fellowship with God, Sermon 22, on 1 John 2:1