1 John 2:1-- “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

By JOHN BUNYAN, Author of “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”

London: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King’s Arms, in the
Poultry, 1689.

ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR.

This is one of the most interesting of Bunyan’s treatises, to edit which
required the Bible at my right hand, and a law dictionary on my left. It
was very frequently republished; but in an edition by John Marshall,
1725, it became most seriously mutilated, many passages were
omitted, and numerous errors were made. In this state, it was copied
into Mr. Whitefield’s edition of his works, and it has been since
republished with all those errors. It is now restored to its original
state; and we hope that it will prove a most acceptable addition to our
theological literature. Although Bunyan was shut up for more than
twelve years a prisoner for the truth, and his time was so fully
occupied in preaching, writing, and labouring to provide for the
pressing wants of his family; still he managed to get acquainted, in a
very remarkable manner, with all those law terms which are
connected with the duties of a counsel, or advocate. He uses the words
replevin, supersedeas, term, demur, nonsuit, reference, title, in forma
pauperis, king’s bench, common pleas, as properly and familiarly as if
he had been brought up to the bar. How extraordinary must have been
his mental powers, and how retentive his memory! I examined this
work with apprehension, lest he had misapplied those hard words; but
my surprise was great, to find that he had used every one of them with
as much propriety as a Lord Chief-Justice could have done.

We are indebted for this treatise to Bunyan’s having heard a sermon
which excited his attention to a common, a dangerous, and a fatal
heresy, more frequently preached to crowned heads, mitred prelates,
members of parliament, and convocations, than it is to the poor, to
whom the gospel is preached. In this sermon, the preacher said to his
hearers, “see that your cause be good, else Christ will not undertake
it.” p. 159. Bunyan heard, as all Christians ought to hear, with careful
jealousy, and at once detected the error. He exposes the fallacy, and
uses his scriptural knowledge to confute it, by showing that Christ
pleads for the wicked, the lost; for those who feel themselves so
involved in a bad cause, that no advocate but Christ can bring them
through. He manifests great anxiety that every inquirer should clearly
ascertain definite truths and not be contented with general notions.
See p. 189-199, and 201. This is very important advice, and by
following which, we shall be saved from many painful doubts and
fears. Our need of an advocate is proved by the fact, that Christ has
undertaken the office. Some rely on their tears and sighs, as advocates
for them with God; others on imperfect good works—from all these
the soul must be shaken, until it finds that there is no prevailing
Advocate but the Saviour; and that he alone, with his mystical body,
the church, is entitled to the inheritance. Then sincere repentance,
sighs, and tears, evidence our faith in him, and our godly sorrow for
having occasioned him such inconceivable sufferings; tears of joy that
we have such a Saviour and an Advocate, equally omnipotent to plead
for, as to save us. The inheritance being Christ’s, the members of his
body cannot be cheated of it, or alienate it. p. 187. Bunyan, with his
fertile imagination, and profound scriptural knowledge, spiritualizes
the day of jubilee as a type of the safety of the inheritance of the
saints. By our folly and sin we may lose sight for a time of our title
deeds; but the inheritance is safe.

The whole work is a rich treat to those who love experimental
divinity, and are safe in Christ as Noah was in the ark; but, Oh! how
woeful must those be, who are without an interest in the Saviour; and
that have none to plead their cause. “They are left to be ground to
powder between the justice of God and the sins which they have
committed. It is sad to consider their plight. This is the man that is
pursued by the law, and by sin, and by death, and has none to plead
his cause. Terrors take hold on him as waters; a stone hurleth him out
of his place” (Job 27). p. 200. Reader, this is a soul-searching
subject—may it lead us to a solemn trial of our state, and to the happy
conclusion, that the Saviour is our Advocate, and that our eternal
inheritance is safe in heaven.

HACKNEY. MAY 1850.
GEORGE OFFOR.
 
 

THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.

COURTEOUS READER,

Of all the excellent offices which God the Father has conferred upon
Jesus Christ our Lord, this of his being an Advocate with him for us is
not the least, though, to the shame of saints it may be spoken, the
blessed benefits thereof have not with that diligence and fervent desire
been inquired after as they ought.

Christ, as sacrifice, priest, and king, with the glories in, and that flow
from, him as such, has, God be thanked, in this our day, been much
discovered by our seers, and as much rejoiced in by those who have
believed their words; but as he is an Advocate with the Father, an
Advocate for us, I fear the excellency of that doth still too much lie
hid; though I am verily of opinion that the people of God in this age
have as much need of the knowledge thereof, if not more need, than
had their brethren that are gone before them.

These words, “if not more need,” perhaps may seem to some to be
somewhat out of joint; but let the godly wise consider the decays that
are among us as to the power of godliness, and what abundance of
foul miscarriages the generality of professors now stand guilty of, as
also how diligent their great enemy is to accuse them at the bar of God
for them, and I think they will conclude, that, in so saying, I indeed
have said some truth. Wherefore, when I thought on this, and had
somewhat considered also the transcendent excellency of the
advocateship of this our Lord; and again, that but little of the glory
thereof has by writing been, in our day, communicated to the church, I
adventured to write what I have seen thereof, and do, by what doth
follow, present it unto her for good.

I count not myself sufficient for this, or for any other truth as it is in
Jesus; but yet, I say, I have told you somewhat of it, according to the
proportion of faith. And I believe that some will thank God for what I
here have said about it; but it will be chiefly those, whose right and
title to the kingdom of heaven and glory, doth seem to themselves to
be called in question by their enemy, at the bar of the Judge of all.

These, I say, will read, and be glad to hear, that they have an
Advocate at court that will stand up to plead for them, and that will
yet secure to them a right to the heavenly kingdom. Wherefore, it is
more particularly for those that at present, or that hereafter, may be in
this dreadful plight, that this my book is now made public; because it
is, as I have showed, for such that Jesus Christ is Advocate with the
Father.

Of the many and singular advantages, therefore, that such have by this
their Advocate in his advocating for them, this book gives some
account; as, where he pleads, how he pleads, what he pleads, when he
pleads, with whom he pleads, for whom he pleads, and how the
enemy is put to shame and silence before their God and all the holy
angels.

Here is also showed to those herein concerned, how they indeed may
know that Jesus is their Advocate; yea, and how their matters go
before their God, the Judge; and particularly that they shall well come
off at last, yea, though their cause, as it is theirs, is such, in
justification of which, themselves do not dare to show their heads.

Nor have I left the dejected souls without directions how to entertain
this Advocate to plead their cause; yea, I have also shown that he will
be with ease prevailed with, to stand up to plead for such, as one
would think, the very heavens would blush to hear them named by
him. Their comfort also is, that he never lost a cause, nor a soul, for
whom he undertook to be an Advocate with God.

But, reader, I will no longer detain thee from the perusal of the
discourse. Read and think; read, and compare what thou readest with
the Word of God. If thou findest any benefit by that thou readest, give
the Father, and his Son the glory; and also pray for me. If thou findest
me short in this, or to exceed in that, impute all such things to my
weakness, of which I am always full. Farewell. I am thine to serve
thee what I may,
JOHN BUNYAN.
 
 

THE CONTENTS OF THIS TREATISE
 

The apostle’s Divine policy, to beget a due regard to his Divine
doctrine of eternal life.—The apostle’s explication of this expression,
viz., The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.—The apostle’s
exhortation to separation from sin, as a good effect of a good cause,
viz., Forgiveness—The apostle’s addition, to prevent
misunderstanding, viz., We have an advocate with the Father . . . . 154

This brings to the text, in which are two great truths contained: I. A
supposition, viz., That men in Christ may sin. II. An expression, by
way of consolation, in case of sin, viz., We have an Advocate with the
Father . . . . 155

Two things for inquiry in these truths: First. An inquiry into what our
apostle means by sin; in which is considered, A difference in the
person and in the sin. And, Second, An inquiry into what it is for
Christ to be an Advocate, viz., To plead for another in a court of
judicature . . . .155

Seven things supposed in the office of an advocate: 1. That God, as
judge, is on the throne of judgment. 2. That saints are concerned at
that bar. 3. That Christians have an accuser. 4. That sinning saints dare
not appear at this bar to plead their own cause. 5. That Christians are
apt to forget their Advocate, and remember their Judge. 6. To
remember our Advocate is the way to support faith and hope.—7.
That if our advocate plead our cause (though that be never so black)
he is able to bring us off . . . . 155-157

The apostle’s triumph in Christ on this account.—An exhortation to
the difficult task of believing.—Christ’s advocateship declares us to
be sorry creatures . . . . 157

THE METHOD OBSERVED IN THE
DISCOURSE.

FIRST, TO SPEAK OF THIS ADVOCATE’S OFFICE . . . . 158

First, By touching on the nature of this office . . . . 158

Second, By treating of the order or place of this office . . . . 158

Third, The occasion of this office, viz., some great sin.—Christ, as
Advocate, pleads a bad cause.—A good cause will plead for itself.—
A bad man may have a good cause, and a good man may have a bad
cause.—Christ, the righteous, pleading a bad cause, is a mystery.—
The best saints are most sensible of their sins.—A pestilent passage of
a preacher . . . . 159,160

SECOND, TO SHOW HOW CHRIST DOES MANAGE HIS
OFFICE . . . . 160

First, How he manages his office of Advocate with the Father.—1.
ALONE, not by any proxy or deputy.—2. Christ pleads at God’s bar;
the cause cannot be removed into another court.—If removed from
heaven, we have no advocate on earth.—3. In pleading, Christ
observes these rules: (1.) He granteth what is charged on us.—(2.) He
pleads his own goodness for us.—He payeth all our debts down.—All
mouths stopped, who would not have the sinner delivered.—(3.)
Christ requires a verdict in order to our deliverance.—The sinner is
delivered, God contented, Satan confounded, and Christ applauded . .
160-162

Second, How Christ manages his office of an Advocate against the
adversary by argument.—1. He pleads the pleasure of his Father in his
merits.—Satan rebuked for finding fault therewith.—2. He pleads
God’s interest in his people.—Haman’s mishap in being engaged
against the king’s queen.—N. B. It seems a weak plea, because of
man’s unworthiness; but it is a strong plea, because of God’s
worthiness.—The elect are bound to God by a sevenfold cord.—The
weight of the plea weighed . . . .162-164

Third, Christ pleads his own interest in them.—A parallel between
cattle in a pound and Christ’s own sheep.—Six weighty reasons in this
plea.—1. They are Christ’s own.—2. They cost him dear.—3. He hath
made them near to himself.—(a.) They are his spouse, his love, his
dove; they are members of his body.—(b.) A man cannot spare a
hand, a foot, a finger.—Nor can Christ spare any member.—4. Christ
pleads his right in heaven to give it to whom he will.—Christ will;
Satan will not; Christ’s will stands.—5. Christ pleads Satan’s enmity
against the godly.—Satan is the cause of the crimes he accuses us
of.—A simile of a weak-witted child.—6. Christ can plead those sins
of saints for them for which Satan would have them damned.—Eight
considerations to clear that.—Seven more considerations to the same
end.—Men care most for children that are infirm.—A father offended
hath been appeased by a brother turning advocate . . . . 164-169

THIRD HEAD.—TO SHOW WHO HAVE CHRIST FOR AN
ADVOCATE; WHEREIN ARE THREE THINGS CONTAINED . . .
. 169

First, This office of advocate differs from that of a priest.—1. They
differ in name.—2. They differ in nature.—3. They differ as to their
extent.—4. They differ as to the persons with whom they have to
do.—5. They differ as to the matter about which they are employed.—
6. Christ, as Priest, precedes; Christ, as Advocate, succeeds . . . . 169

Second, How far this office of an advocate is extended; in five
particulars . . . 169

Third, Who have Christ for their Advocate.—1. In general, all adopted
children.—Object. The text saith, “If any man sin.”—Answ. “Any
man,” is not any of the world; but any of the children of God.—A
difference in children; some bigger than some.—Christ an Advocate
for strong men.—2. In particular, to show if Christ be our Advocate—
(1.) If one have entertained Christ to plead a cause.—Quest. How
shall I know that?—Answ. By being sensible of an action commenced
against thee in the high court of justice.—(2.) If one have revealed a
cause to Christ.—An example of one revealing his cause to Christ, in
a closet.—In order to this, one must know Christ, (a.) To be a
friend.—(b.) To be faithful.—(3.) If one have committed a cause to
Christ.—In order to this, one must be convinced, (a.) Of Christ’s
ability to defend him.—(b.) Of Christ’s courage to plead a cause.—
(c.) Of Christ’s will for this work.—(d.) Of Christ’s tenderness in case
of his client’s dullness.—(e.) Of Christ’s unweariedness—(4.) If one
wait till things come to a legal issue.—Quest. What is it thus to
wait?—Answ . (a.) To be of good courage; look for deliverance.—(b.)
To keep his way in waiting.—(c.) To observe his directions.—(d.) To
hearken to further directions which may come from the advocate.—
(e.) To come to no ill conclusion in waiting, viz., that the cause is lost;
because one hears not from court.—(f.) To wait waking, not
sleeping.—Ordinances and ministers compared to a post house and
carriers of letters.—The client’s comfortable conclusion about his
advocate and cause.—But yet doubting and desponding.—The
author’s reply to, and compliance with, the client’s conclusion; and
his counsel in the case . . . . 169-176

FOURTH HEAD—TO SHOW THE CLIENT’S PRIVILEGES, BY
THE BENEFIT OF THIS OFFICE OF ADVOCATE . . . . 176

First Privilege.—The Advocate pleads a price paid.—Of a rich
brother and his poor brethren.—Of the ill-conditioned man, their
enemy.—Further cleared by three considerations . . . .176

Second Privilege.—The client’s Advocate pleads for himself also;
both concerned in one bottom.—1. He pleads the price of his own
blood.—2. He pleads it for his own.—A simile of a lame horse.—Of
men going to law for a thing of little worth.—Object. I am but one.—
Answ. Christ cannot lose one . . . .177

Third Privilege.—The plea of Satan is groundless.—Satan must be
cast over the bar.—A simile of a widow owing a sum of money.—Of
an old law nulled1 by a new law.—Satan pleads by the old law; Christ
by the new . . . . 177, 178

Fourth Privilege.—Is consequential; the client’s accuser must needs
be overthrown.—The client’s solemn appeal to the Almighty.—In
case the accused have no advocate, Satan prevails . . . . 179

Fifth Privilege.—The Advocate hath pity for his client, and
indignation against the accuser.—Men choose an advocate who hath a
quarrel against their adversary . . . . 179

Sixth Privilege.—The judge counts the accuser his enemy.—To
procure the judge’s son to plead, is desirable . . . .179, 180

Seventh Privilege.—The client’s Advocate hath good courage; he will
set his face like a flint.—He pleads before the God, and all the host, of
heaven.—He is the old friend of publicans and sinners.—He pleads a
cause bad enough to make angels blush.—Love will do, and bear, and
suffer much . . . . 180

Eighth Privilege.—The Advocate is always ready in court.—He
appears NOW in the presence of God . . . . 180, 181

Ninth Privilege.—The Advocate will not be blinded with bribes . . . .
181

Tenth Privilege.—The Advocate is judge in the client’s cause.—
Joseph’s exaltation was Israel’s advantage.—God’s care of his
people’s welfare . . . .182

Eleventh Privilege.—The Advocate hath all that is requisite for an
advocate to have . .182

FIFTH.—LAST HEAD.—TO SHOW THE NECESSITY OF
CHRIST FOR OUR ADVOCATE . . . .182

First.—To vindicate the justice of God against the cavils of the
devil.—Satan charges God with unjust words and actions.—God is
pleased with his design to save sinners . . . . 183

Second.—There is law to be objected against us.—Christ appeals to
the law itself.—Christ is not ashamed to own the way of salvation . . .
. 183, 184

Third.—Many things give our accuser advantage.—1. Many things
relating to the promises.—2. Many things relating to our lives.—3.
The threats annexed to the gospel. . . 184, 185

Fourth.—To plead about our afflictions for sins.—A simile of a man
indicted at the assizes, and his malicious adversary.—An allusion to
Abishai and Shimei, who cursed David . . . . 186

Fifth.—To plead the efficacy of our old titles to our inheritance, if
questionable because of new sins—Saints do not sell their inheritance
by sin . . . . 186, 187

Sixth.—Our evidences are oft out of our hand, and we recover them
by our Advocate 188

SIXTH.—OBJECTIONS REMOVED . . . . 188

First Object.—What need all these offices or nice distinctions.—
Answ. The wisdom of God is not to be charged with folly.—God’s
people are baffled with the devil for want of a distinct knowledge of
Christ in all his offices . . . . 188, 189

Second Object.—My cause being bad, Christ will desert me.—Answ.
Sin is deadly destruction to faith.—A five-fold order observed in the
exercise of faith . . . 189, 190

Third Object.—But who shall pay the Advocate his fee?—Answ.
There is law, and lawyers too, without money.—Christ pleads for the
poor.—David’s strange gift to God . . 190

Fourth Object.—If Christ be my Advocate once, he will always be
troubled with me.—Answ. He is an Advocate to the utmost . . . . 191

SEVENTH.—USE AND APPLICATION . . . . 191

Use First.—To consider the dignity God hath put upon Christ, by
offices, places of trust, and titles of honour, in general . . . . 191, 192

Use Second.—To consider this office of an Advocate in particular; by
which consideration these advantages come:—1. To see one is not
forsaken for sin.—2. To take courage to contend with the devil.—3. It
affords relief for discouraged faith.—4. It helps to put off the visor
Satan puts on Christ.—A simile of a visor on the face of a father.—
Study this peculiar treasure of an advocate.—(1.) With reference to its
peculiarity.—(2.) Study the nature of this office.—(3.) Study its
efficacy and prevalency.—(4.) Study Christ’s faithfulness in his
office.—(5.) Study the need of a share therein . . . . 192-194

Use Third.—To wonder at Christ’s condescension , in being an
Advocate for the base and unworthy.—Christ acts in open court, 1.
With a holy and just God.—2. Before all the heavenly host.—3. The
client is unconcerned for whom the Advocate is engaged.—4. The
majesty of the man that is an Advocate . . . . 194-196

Use Fourth.—Improve this doctrine to strengthen grace. 1.To
strengthen faith.—2. To encourage to prayer.—3. To keep humble.—
4. To encourage to perseverance.—Object. I cannot pray; my mouth is
stopped.—Answ. Satan cannot silence Christ.—5. Improve this
doctrine, to drive difficulties down . . . . 196, 197

Use Fifth.—If Christ pleads for us before God, we should plead for
him before men.—Nine considerations to that end.—The last reserve
for a dead lift . . . .198

Use Sixth.—To be wary of sin against God.—Christianity teaches
ingenuity. 2 Christ is our Advocate, on free cost.—A comely
conclusion of a brute.—Three considerations added . . . . 198, 199

Use Seventh.—The strong are to tell the weak of an Advocate to plead
their cause.—A word in season is good . . . . 199, 200

Use Eighth.—All is nothing to them that have none to plead their
cause.—An instance of God’s terrible judgment.—Object. There is
grace, the promise, the blood of Christ; cannot these save, except
Christ be Advocate?—Answ. These, and Advocate, and all, little
enough.—Christ no Advocate for such as have no sense of, and shame
for sin.—Object. Is not Christ an Advocate for his elect uncalled?—
Answ. He died, and prayeth, for all his elect, as Priest; as Advocate,
pleads for the called only . . . . 200, 201

THE WORK OF JESUS
CHRIST AS AN
ADVOCATE.

“AND IF ANY MAN SIN, WE HAVE AN ADVOCATE WITH THE
FATHER, JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS.”--- I JOHN 2:1.

THAT the apostle might obtain due regard from those to whom he
wrote, touching the things about which he wrote, he tells them that he
received not his message to them at second or third hand, but was
himself an eye and ear witness thereof— That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word
of life, (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear
witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the
Father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and
heard, declare we unto you.3

Having thus told them of his ground for what he said, he proceeds to
tell them also the matter contained in his errand-to wit, that he brought
them news of eternal life, as freely offered in the word of the gospel to
them; or rather, that that gospel which they had received would
certainly usher them in at the gates of the kingdom of heaven, were
their reception of it sincere and in truth--for, saith he, then “the blood
of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth you from all sin.”

Having thus far told them what was his errand, he sets upon an
explication of what he had said, especially touching our being
cleansed from all sin -- “Not,” saith he, “from a being of sin; for
should we say so, we should deceive ourselves,” and should prove
that we have no truth of God in us, but by cleansing, I mean a being
delivered from all sin, so as that none at all shall have the dominion
over you, to bring you down to hell; for that, for the sake of the blood
of Christ, all trespasses are forgiven you.

This done, he exhorts them to shun or fly sin, and not to consent to the
motions, workings, enticings, or allurements thereof, saying, “I write
unto you that ye sin not.” Let not forgiveness have so bad an effect
upon you as to cause you to be remiss in Christian duties, or as to
tempt you to give, way to evil. Shall we sin because we are forgiven?
or shall we not much matter what manner of lives we live, because we
are set free from the law of sin and death? God forbid. Let grace teach
us another lesson, and lay other obligations upon our spirits. “My little
children,” saith he, “these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.”
What things? Why, tidings of pardon and salvation, and of that
nearness to God, to which you are brought by the precious blood of
Christ. Now, lest also by this last exhortation he should yet be
misunderstood, he adds, “And if any man sin, we have an Advocate
with the rather, Jesus Christ the righteous.” I say, he addeth this to
prevent desponding in those weak and sensible Christians that are so
quick of feeling and of discerning the corruptions of their natures ; for
these cry out continually that there is nothing that they do but it is
attended with sinful weaknesses.

Wherefore, in the words we are presented with two great truths--l.
With a supposition, that men in Christ, while in this world, may sin--,
“If any man sin;” any man; none are excluded; for all, or any one of
the all of them that Christ hath redeemed and forgiven, are incident to
sin. By “may” I mean, not a toleration, but a possibility; “For there is
not a man, not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth
not” (Eccl 7:20; 1 Kings 8:46). II. The other thing with which we are
presented is, an Advocate--, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Now there lieth in these two truths two things to be inquired into, as-
First, What the apostle should here mean by sin. Second, And also,
what he here doth mean by an advocate—”If any man sin, we have an
Advocate.” There is ground to inquire after the first of these, because,
though here he saith, they that sin have an advocate, yet in the very
next chapter he saith, “Such are of the devil, have not seen God,
neither know him, nor are of him.” There is ground also to inquire
after the second, because an advocate is supposed in the text to be of
use to them that sin--, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate.”

First, For the first of these--to wit, what the apostle should here mean
by sin--, “If any man sin.”

I answer, since there is a difference in the persons, there must be a
difference in the sin. That there is a difference in the persons is
showed before; one is called a child of God, the other is said to be of
the wicked one. Their sins differ also, in their degree at least; for no
child of God sins to that degree as to make himself incapable of
forgiveness; “for he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that
wicked one toucheth him not” (I John 5:18). Hence, the apostle says,
“There is a sin unto death” (v. 16). See also Matthew 12:32. Which is
the sin from which he that is born of God is kept. The sins therefore
are thus distinguished: The sins of the people of God are said to be
sins that men commit, the others are counted those which are the sins
of devils.

1. The sins of God’s people are said to be sins which men commit,
and for which they have an Advocate, though they who sin after the
example of the wicked one have none. “When a man or woman,” saith
Moses, “shall commit any sin that men commit - they shall confess
their sin - and an atonement shall be made for him” (Num 5:5-7).
Mark, it is when they commit a sin which men commit; or, as Hosea
has it, when they transgress the commandment like Adam (Hosea
6:7). Now, these are the sins under consideration by the apostle, and
to deliver us from which, “we have an Advocate with the Father.”

2. But for the sins mentioned in the third chapter, since the persons
sinning go here under another character, they also must be of another
stamp-to wit, a making head against the person, merits, and grace of
Jesus Christ. These are the sins of devils in the world, and for these
there is no remission. These, they also that are of the wicked one
commit, and therefore sin after the similitude of Satan, and so fall into
the condemnation of the devil.

Second, But what is it for Jesus to be an Advocate for these? “If any
man sin, we have an Advocate.”

An advocate is one who pleadeth for another at any bar, or before any
court of judicature; but of this more in its place. So, then, we have in
the text a Christian, as supposed, committing sin, and a declaration of
an Advocate prepared to plead for him—”If any man sin, we have an
Advocate with the Father.”

And this leads me first to inquire into what, by these words the apostle
must, of necessity, presuppose? For making use here of the similitude
or office of an advocate, thereby to show the preservation of the
sinning Christian, he must,

1. Suppose that God, as judge, is now upon the throne of his
judgment; for an advocate is to plead at a bar, before a court of
judicature. Thus it is among men; and forasmuch as our Lord Jesus is
said to be an “Advocate with the Father,” it is clear that there is a
throne of judgment also. This the prophet Micaiah affirms, saying, “I
saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing
by him on his right hand and on his left” (I Kings 22:19). Sitting upon
a throne for judgment; for from the Lord, as then sitting upon that
throne, proceeded that sentence against king Ahab, that he should go
and fall at Ramoth-gilead; and he did go, and did fall there, as the
award or fruit of that judgment. That is the first.

2. The text also supposeth that the saints as well as sinners are
concerned at that bar; for the apostle saith plainly that there “we have
an Advocate.” And the saints are concerned at that bar; because they
transgress as well as others, and because the law is against the sin of
saints as well as against the sins of other men. If the saints were not
capable of committing of sin, what need would they have of an
advocate (I Chron 21:3-6. I Sam 12:13,14)?4 Yea, though they did sin,
yet if they were by Christ so set free from the law as that it could by
no means take cognizance of their sins, what need would they have of
an advocate? None at all. If there be twenty places where there are
assizes kept in this land, yet if I have offended no law, what need have
I of an advocate? Especially if the judge be just, and knows me
altogether, as the God of heaven does? But here is Judge that is just;
and here is an Advocate also, an Advocate for the children, an
Advocate to plead; for an advocate as such is not of use but before a
bar to plead; therefore, here is an offence, and so a law broken by the
saints as well as others. That is the second thing.

3. As the text supposes that there is a judge, and crimes of saints, so it
supposeth that there is an accuser, one that will carefully gather up the
faults of good men, and that will plead them at this bar against them.
Hence we read of “the accuser of our brethren, that accused them
before our God day and night” (Rev 12:10-12). For Satan doth not
only tempt the godly man to sin, but, having prevailed with him, and
made him guilty, he packs away to the court, to God the judge of all;
and there addresses himself to accuse that man, and to lay to his
charge the heinousness of his offence, pleading against him the law
that he has broken, the light against which he did it, and the like. But
now, for the relief and support of such poor people, the apostle, by the
text, presents them with an advocate; that is, with one to plead for
them, while Satan pleads against them; with one that pleads for
pardon, while Satan, by accusing, seeks to pull judgment and
vengeance upon our heads. “If any man sin, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” That is the third thing.

4. As the apostle supposeth a judge, crimes, and an accuser, so he also
supposeth that those herein concerned—to wit, the sinning children—
neither can nor dare attempt to appear at this bar themselves to plead
their own cause before this Judge and against this accuser; for if they
could or durst do this, what need they have an advocate? for an
advocate is of use to them whose cause themselves neither can nor
dare appear to plead. Thus Job prayed for an advocate to plead his
cause with God (Job 16:21); and David cries out, “Enter not into
judgment with thy servant,” O God, “for in thy sight shall no man
living be justified” (Psa 143:2). Wherefore, it is evident that saints
neither can nor dare adventure to plead their cause. Alas! the Judge is
the almighty and eternal God; the law broken is the holy and perfect
rule of God, in itself a consuming fire. The sin is so odious, and a
thing so abominable, that it is enough to make all the angels blush to
hear it but so much as once mentioned in so holy a place as that is
where this great God doth sit to judge. This sin now hangs about the
neck of him that hath committed it; yea, it covereth him as doth a
mantle. The adversary is bold, cunning, and audacious, and can word
a thousand of us into an utter silence in less than half a quarter of an
hour. What, then, should the sinner, if he could come there, do at this
bar to plead? Nothing; nothing for his own advantage. But now comes
in his mercy—he has an Advocate to plead his cause— “If any man
sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
That is the fourth thing. But again,

5. The apostle also supposeth by the text there is an aptness in
Christians when they have sinned, to forget that they “have an
Advocate with the Father”; wherefore this is written to put them in
remembrance— “If any may sin, [let him remember] we have an
Advocate.” We can think of all other things well enough—namely,
that God is a just judge, that the law is perfectly holy, that my sin is a
horrible and an abominable thing, and that I am certainly thereof
accused before God by Satan.

These things, I say, we readily think of, and forget them not. Our
conscience puts us in mind of these, our guilt puts us in mind of these,
the devil puts us in mind of these, and our reason and sense hold the
knowledge and remembrance of these close to us. All that we forget
is, that we have an Advocate, “an Advocate with the Father”—that is,
one that is appointed to take in hand in open court, before all the
angels of heaven, my cause, and to plead it by such law and
arguments as will certainly fetch me off, though I am clothed with
filthy garments; but this, I say, we are apt to forget, as Job when he
said, “O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth
for his neighbour!” (Job 16:21). Such an one Job had, but he had
almost at this time forgot it; as he seems to intimate also where he
wisheth for a daysman that might lay his hand upon them both (Job
9:33). But our mercy is, we have one to plead our cause, “an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,” who will not suffer our
soul to be spilt and spoiled before the throne, but will surely plead our
cause.

6. Another thing that the apostle would have us learn from the words
is this, that to remember and to believe that Jesus Christ is an
Advocate for us when we have sinned, is the next way to support and
strengthen our faith and hope. Faith and hope are very apt to faint
when our sins in their guilt do return upon us; nor is there any more
proper way to relieve our souls than to understand that the Son of God
is our Advocate in heaven. True, Christ died for our sins as a sacrifice,
and as a priest he sprinkleth with his blood the mercyseat; ay, but here
is one that has sinned after profession of faith, that has sinned
grievously, so grievously that his sins are come up before God; yea,
are at his bar pleaded against him by the accuser of the brethren, by
the enemy of the godly. What shall he do now? Why, let him believe
in Christ. Believe, that is true; but how now must he conceive in his
mind of Christ for the encouraging of him so to do? Why, let him call
to mind that Jesus Christ is an Advocate with the Father, and as such
he meeteth the accuser at the bar of God, pleads for this man that has
sinned against this accuser, and prevaileth for ever against him. Here
now, though Satan be turned lawyer, though he accuseth, yea, though
his charge against us is true, (for suppose that we have sinned,) “yet
our Advocate is with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Thus is
faith encouraged, thus is hope strengthened, thus is the spirit of the
sinking Christian revived, and made to wait for a good deliverance
from a bad cause and a cunning adversary; especially if you consider,

7. That the apostle doth also further suppose by the text that Jesus
Christ, as Advocate, if he will but plead our cause, let that be never so
black, is able to bring us off, even before God’s judgment-seat, to our
joy, and the confounding of our adversary; for when he saith, “We
have an Advocate,” he speaks nothing if he means not thus. But he
doth mean thus, he must mean thus, because he seeketh here to
comfort and support the fallen. “Has any man sinned? We have an
Advocate.” But what of that, if yet he be unable to fetch us off when
charged for sin at the bar, and before the face of a righteous judge?

But he is able to do this. The apostle says so, in that he supposes a
man has sinned, as any man among the godly ever did; for we may
understand it; and if he giveth us not leave to understand it so, he saith
nothing to the purpose neither, for it will be objected by some—But
can he fetch me off, though I have done as David, as Solomon, as
Peter, or the like? It must be answered, Yes. The openness of the
terms ANY MAN, the indefiniteness of the word SIN, doth naturally
allow us to take him in the largest sense; besides, he brings in this
saying as the chief, most apt, and fittest to relieve one crushed down
to death and hell by the guilt of sin and a wounded conscience.

Further, methinks by these words the apostle seems to triumph in his
Christ, saying, My brethren, I would have you study to be holy; but if
your adversary the devil should get the advantage of you, and besmear
you with the filth of sin, you have yet, besides all that you have heard
already, “an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,”
who is as to his person, in interest with God, his wisdom and worth,
able to bring you off, to the comforting of your souls.

Let me, therefore, for a conclusion as to this, give you an exhortation
to believe, to hope, and expect, that though you have sinned, (for now
I speak to the fallen saint) that Jesus Christ will make a good end with
the— “Trust,” I say, “in him, and he shall bring it to pass.” I know I
put thee upon a hard and difficult task for believing and expecting
good, when my guilty conscience doth nothing but clog, burden, and
terrify me with the justice of God, the greatness of thy sins, and the
burning torments is hard and sweating work. But it must be; the text
calls for it, thy case calls for it, and thou must do it, if thou wouldst
glorify Christ; and this is the way to hasten the issue of thy cause in
hand, for believing daunts the devil, pleaseth Christ, and will help thee
beforehand to sing that song of the church, saying, “O Lord, thou hast
pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life” (Lam
3:58). Yea, believe, and hear thy pleading Lord say to thee, “Thus
saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his
people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling,
even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it
again” (Isa 51:22). I am not here discoursing of the sweetness of
Christ’s nature, but of the excellency of his offices, and of his office
of advocateship in particular, which, as a lawyer for his client, he is to
execute in the presence of God for us. Love may be where there is no
office, and so where no power is to do us good; but now, when love
and office shall meet, they will surely both combine in Christ to do the
fallen Christian good. But of his love we have treated elsewhere; we
will here discourse of the office of this loving one. And for thy further
information, let me tell thee that God thy Father counteth that thou
wilt be, when compared with his law, but a poor one all thy days; yea,
the apostle tells thee so, in that he saith there is an Advocate provided
for thee. When a father provides crutches for his child, he doth as
good as say, I count that my child will be yet infirm; and when God
shall provide an Advocate, he doth as good as say, My people are
subject to infirmities. Do not, therefore, think of thyself above what,
by plain texts, and fair inferences drawn from Christ’s offices, thou
are bound to think. What doth it bespeak concerning thee that Christ is
always a priest in heaven, and there ever lives to make intercession for
thee (Heb 7:24), but this, that thou art at the best in thyself, yea, and in
thy best exercising of all thy graces too, but a poor, pitiful, sorry,
sinful man; a man that would, when yet most holy, be certainly cast
away, did not thy high priest take away for thee the iniquity of thy
holy things. The age we live in is a wanton age; the godly are not so
humble, and low, and base in their own eyes as they should, though
their daily experience calls for it, and the priesthood of Jesus Christ
too.

But above all, the advocateship of Jesus Christ declares us to be sorry
creatures; for that office does, as it were, predict that some time or
other we shall basely fall, and by falling be undone, if the Lord Jesus
stand not up to plead. And as it shows this concerning us, so it shows
concerning God that he will not lightly or easily lose his people. He
has provided well for us—blood to wash us in; a priest to pray for us,
that we may be made to persevere; and, in case we foully fall, an
advocate to plead our cause, and to recover us from under, and out of
all that danger, that by sin and Satan, we at any time may be brought
into.

But having thus briefly passed through that in the text which I think
the apostle must necessarily presuppose, I shall now endeavour to
enter into the bowels of it, and see what, in a more particular manner,
shall be found therein. And, for my more profitable doing of this
work, I shall choose to observe this method in my discourse—

[METHOD OF THE DISCOURSE.]

FIRST, I shall show you more particularly of this Advocate’s office,
or what and wherein Christ’s office as Advocate doth lie. SECOND,
After that, I shall also show you how Jesus Christ doth manage this
office of an Advocate. THIRD, I shall also then show you who they
are that have Jesus Christ for their Advocate. FOURTH, I shall also
show you what excellent privileges they have, who have Jesus Christ
for their Advocate. FIFTH, And to silence cavillers, I shall also show
the necessity of this office of Jesus Christ. SIXTH, I shall come to
answer some objections; and, LASTLY, To the use and application.

[WHEREIN CHRIST’S OFFICE AS ADVOCATE DOTH LIE.]

FIRST, To begin with the first of these—namely, to show you more
particularly of Christ’s office as an Advocate, and wherein it lieth; the
which I shall do these three ways—First, Touch again upon the nature
of this office; and then, Second, Treat of the order and place that it
hath among the rest of his offices; and, Third, Treat of the occasion of
the execution of this office.

First, To touch upon the nature of this office. It is that which
empowereth a man to plead for a man, or one man to plead for
another; not in common discourses, and upon common occasions, as
any man may do, but at a bar, or before a court of judicature, where a
man is accused or impleaded by his enemy; I say, this Advocate’s
office is such, both here, and in the kingdom of heaven. An advocate
is as one of our attorneys, at least in the general, who pleads according
to law and justice for one or other that is in trouble by reason of some
miscarriage, or of the naughty temper of some that are about him, who
trouble and vex, and labour to bring him into danger of the law. This
is the nature of this office, as I said, on earth; and this is the office that
Christ executeth in heaven. Wherefore he saith, “If any man sin, we
have an Advocate”; one to stand up for him, and to plead for his
deliverance before the bar of God. (Joel 3:2. Isa 66:16. Eze 38:22. Jer
2.)

For though in some places of Scripture Christ is said to plead for his
with men, and that by terrible arguments, as by fire, and sword, and
famine, and pestilence, yet this is not that which is intended by this
text; for the apostle here saith, he is an Advocate with the Father, or
before the Father, to plead for those that there, or that to the Father’s
face, shall be accused for their transgressions: “If any man sin, we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” So,
then, this is the employ of Jesus Christ as he is for us, an Advocate.
He has undertaken to stand up for his people at God’s bar, and before
that great court, there to plead, by the law and justice of heaven, for
their deliverance; when, for their faults, they are accused, indicted, or
impleaded by their adversary.

Second. And now to treat of the order or place that this office of
Christ hath among the rest of his offices, which he doth execute for us
while we are here in a state of imperfection; and I think it is an office
that is to come behind as a reserve, or for a help at last, when all other
means shall seem to fail. Men do not use to go to law upon every
occasion; or if they do, the wisdom of the judge, the jury, and the
court will not admit that every brangle and foolish quarrel shall come
before them; but an Advocate doth then come into place, and then to
the exercise of his office, when a cause is counted worthy to be taken
notice of by the judge and by the court. Wherefore he, I say, comes in
the last place, as a reserve, or help at last, to plead; and, by pleading,
to set that right by law which would otherwise have caused an
increase to more doubts, and to further dangers.

Christ, as priest, doth always works of service for us, because in our
most spiritual things there may faults and spots be found, and these he
taketh away of course, by the exercise of that office; for he always
wears that plate of gold upon his forehead before the Father, whereon
is written, “Holiness to the Lord.” But now, besides these common
infirmities, there are faults that are highly gross and foul, that oft are
found in the skirts of the children of God. Now, there are they that
Satan taketh hold on; these are they that Satan draweth up a charge
against us for; and to save us from these, it is, that the Lord Jesus is
made an Advocate. When Joshua was clothed with filthy garments,
then Satan stood at his right hand to resist him; then the angel of the
covenant, the Lord Jesus, pleaded for his help (Zech 3). By all which
it appears, that this office comes behind, is provided as a reserve, that
we may have help at a pinch, and then be lifted out, when we sink in
mire, where there is no standing.

This is yet further hinted at by the several postures that Christ is said
to be in, as he exerciseth his priestly and advocate’s office. As a
Priest, he sits; as an Advocate, he stands (Isa 3:13). The Lord stands
up when he pleads; his sitting is more constant and of course (Sit thou,
Psa 110:1,4), but his standing is occasional, when Joshua is indicted,
or when hell and earth are broken loose against his servant Stephen.
For as Joshua was accused by the devil, and as then the angel of the
Lord stood by, so when Stephen was accused by men on earth, and
that charge seconded by the fallen angels before the face of God, it is
said, “the Lord Jesus stood on the right hand of God,” (Acts 7:55)—to
wit, to plead; for so I take it, because standing is his posture as an
Advocate, not as a Priest; for, as a Priest, he must sit down; but he
standeth as an Advocate, as has been showed afore (Heb 10:12).
Wherefore,

Third. The occasion of his exercising of this office of advocate is, as
hath been hinted already, when a child of God shall be found guilty
before God of some heinous sin, of some grievous thing in his life and
conversation. For as for those infirmities that attend the best, in their
most spiritual sacrifices; if a child of God were guilty of ten thousand
of them, they are of course purged, through the much incense that is
always mixed with those sacrifices in the golden censer that is in the
hand of Christ; and so he is kept clean, and counted upright,
notwithstanding those infirmities; and, therefore, you shall find that,
notwithstanding those common faults, the children of God are counted
good and upright in conversation, and not charged as offenders.
“David,” saith the text, “did that which was right in the eyes of the
Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him, all
the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite” (I
Kings 15:5). But was David, in a strict sense, without fault in all
things else? No, verily; but that was foul in a higher degree than the
rest, and therefore there God sets a blot; ay, and doubtless for that he
was accused by Satan before the throne of God; for here is adultery,
and murder, and hypocrisy, in David’s doings; here is notorious
matter, a great sin, and so a great ground for Satan to draw up an
indictment against the king; and a thundering one, to be sure, shall be
preferred against him. This is the time, then, for Christ to stand up to
plead; for now there is room for such a question—Can David’s sin
stand with grace? Or, Is it possible that a man that has done as he has,
should yet be found a saint, and so in a saved state? Or, Can God
repute him so, and yet be holy and just? or, Can the merits of the Lord
Jesus reach, according to the law of heaven, a man in this condition?
Here is a case dubious; here is a man whose salvation, by his foul
offences, is made doubtful; now we must to law and judgment,
wherefore now let Christ stand up to plead! I say, now was David’s
case dubious; he was afraid that God would cast him away, and the
devil hoped he would, and to that end charged him before God’s face,
if, perhaps, he might get sentence of damnation to pass upon his soul
(Psa 51). But this was David’s mercy, he had an Advocate to plead his
cause, by whose wisdom and skill in matters of law and judgment he
was brought off of those heavy charges, from those gross sins, and
delivered from that eternal condemnation, that by the law of sin and
death, was due thereto.

This is then the occasion that Christ taketh to plead, as Advocate, for
the salvation of his people—to wit, the cause: He “pleadeth the cause
of his people” (Is 51:22). Not every cause, but such and such a cause;
the cause that is very bad, and by the which they are involved, not
only in guilt and shame, but also in danger of death and hell. I say, the
cause is bad, if the text be true, if sin can make it bad, yea, if sin itself
be bad— “If any man sin, we have an Advocate”; an Advocate to
plead for him; for him as considered guilty, and so, consequently, as
considered in a bad condition. It is true, we must distinguish between
the person and the sin; and Christ pleads for the person, not the sin;
but yet He cannot be concerned with the person, but he must be with
the sin; for though the person and the sin may be distinguished, yet
they cannot be separated. He must plead, then, not for a person only,
but for a guilty person, for a person under the worst of
circumstances— “If any man sin, we have an Advocate” for him as so
considered.

When a man’s cause is good, it will sufficiently plead for itself, yea,
and for its master too, especially when it is made appear so to be,
before a just and righteous judge. Here, therefore, needs no advocate;
the judge himself will pronounce him righteous. This is evidently seen
in Job— “Thou movedst me against him (this said God to Satan), to
destroy him without cause” (Job 2:3). Thus far Job’s cause was good,
wherefore he did not need an advocate; his cause pleaded for itself,
and for its owner also. But if it was to plead good causes for which
Christ is appointed Advocate, then the apostle should have written
thus: If any man be righteous, we have an Advocate with the Father.
Indeed, I never heard but one in all my life preach from this text, and
he, when he came to handle the cause for which he was to plead,
pretended it must be good, and therefore said to the people, See that
your cause be good, else Christ will not undertake it. But when I heard
it, Lord, thought I, if this be true, what shall I do, and what will
become of all this people, yea, and of this preacher too? Besides, I
saw by the text, the apostle supposeth another cause, a cause bad,
exceeding bad, if sin can make it so. And this was one cause why I
undertook this work.

When we speak of a cause, we speak not of a person simply as so
considered; for, as I said before, person and cause must be
distinguished; nor can the person make the cause good but as he
regulates his action by the Word of God. If, then, a good, a righteous,
man doth what the law condemns, that thing is bad; and if he be
indicted for so doing, he is indicted for a bad cause; and he that will
be his advocate, must be concerned in and about a bad matter; and
how he will bring his client off, therein doth lie the mystery.

I know that a bad man may have a good cause depending before the
judge, and so also good men have (Job 31). But then they are bold in
their own cause, and fear not to make mention of it, and in Christ to
plead their innocency before the God of heaven, as well as before men
(Psa 71:3-5. II Cor 1:23. Gal 1:10. Phil 1:8). But we have in the text a
cause that all men are afraid of—a cause that the apostle concludes so
bad that none but Jesus Christ himself can save a Christian from it. It
is not only sinful, but sin itself— “If any man sin, we have an
Advocate with the Father.”

Wherefore there is in this place handled by the apostle, one of the
greatest mysteries under heaven—to wit, that an innocent and holy
Jesus should take in hand to plead for one before a just and righteous
God, that has defiled himself with sin; yea, that he should take in hand
to plead for such an one against the fallen angels, and that he should
also by his plea effectually rescue, and bring them off from the crimes
and curse whereof they were verily guilty by the verdict of the law,
and approbation of the Judge.

This, I say, is a great mystery, and deserves to be pried into by all the
godly, both because much of the wisdom of heaven is discovered in it,
and because the best saint is, or may be, concerned with it. Nor must
we by any means let this truth be lost, because it is the truth; the text
has declared it so, and to say otherwise is to belie the Word of God, to
thwart the apostle, to soothe up hypocrites, to rob Christians of their
privilege, and to take the glory from the head of Jesus Christ (Luke
18:11,12).

The best saints are most sensible of their sins, and most apt to make
mountains of their mole hills. Satan also, as has been already hinted,
doth labour greatly to prevail with them to sin, and to provoke their
God against them, by pleading what is true, or by surmising evilly of
them, to the end they may be accused by him (Job 2:9). Great is his
malice toward them, great is his diligence in seeking their destruction;
wherefore greatly doth he desire to sift, to try, and winnow them, if
perhaps he may work in their flesh to answer his design—that is, to
break out in sinful acts, that he may have by law to accuse them to
their God and Father. Wherefore, for their sakes this text abides, that
they may see that, when they have sinned, “they have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” And thus have I showed
you the nature, the order, and occasion of this office of our blessed
Lord Jesus.

[HOW CHRIST MANAGES THE OFFICE OF AN ADVOCATE.]

II. I come now to show you how Jesus Christ doth manage this his
office of an Advocate for us. And that I may do this to your
edification, I shall choose this method for the opening of it—First.
Show you how he manages this office with his Father. Second. I shall
show you how he manages it before him against our adversary.

First. How he manages this his office of Advocate with his Father.

1. He doth it by himself, by no other as deputy under him, no angel,
no saint; no work has place here but Jesus, and Jesus only. This the
text implies: “We have an Advocate”; speaking of one, but one, one
alone; without an equal or an inferior. We have but one, and he is
Jesus Christ. Nor is it for Christ’s honour, nor for the honour of the
law, or of the justice of God, that any but Jesus Christ should be an
Advocate for a sinning saint. Besides, to assert the contrary, what doth
it but lessen sin, and make the advocateship of Jesus Christ
superfluous? It would lessen sin should it be removed by a saint or
angel; it would make the advocateship of Jesus Christ superfluous,
yea, needless, should it be possible that sin could be removed from us
by either saint or angel.

Again; if God should admit of more advocates than one, and yet make
mention of never an one but Jesus Christ; or if John should allow
another, and yet speak nothing but of Jesus only; yea, that an advocate
under that title should be mentioned but once, but once only in all the
book of God, and yet that divers should be admitted, stands neither
with the wisdom or love of God, nor with the faithfulness of the
apostle. But saints have but one Advocate, if they will use him, or
improve their faith in that office for their help, so; if not, they must
take what follows. This I thought good to hint at, because the times
are corrupt, and because ignorance and superstition always wait for a
countenance with us, and these things have a natural tendency to
darken all truth, so especially this, which bringeth to Jesus Christ so
much glory, and yieldeth to the godly so much help and relief.

2. As Jesus Christ alone is Advocate, so God’s bar, and that alone, is
that before which he pleads, for God is judge himself (Deut 32:36.
Heb 12:23). Nor can the cause which now he is to plead be removed
into any other court, either by appeals or otherwise.

Could Satan remove us from heaven, to another court, he would
certainly be too hard for us, because there we should want our Jesus,
our Advocate, to plead our cause. Indeed, sometimes he impleads us
before men, and they are glad of the occasion, for they and he are
often one; but then we have leave to remove our cause, and to pray for
a trial in the highest court, saying, “Let my sentence come forth from
thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal” (Psa
17:2). This wicked world doth sentence us for our good deeds, but
how then would they sentence us for our bad ones? But we will never
appeal from heaven to earth for right, for here we have no Advocate;
“our Advocate is with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

3. As he pleadeth by himself alone, and nowhere else but in the court
of heaven with the Father, so as he pleadeth with the Father for us, he
observeth this rule—

(1.) He granteth and confesseth whatever can rightly be charged upon
us; yet so as that he taketh the whole charge upon himself,
acknowledging the crimes to be his own. “O God,” says he, “thou
knowest my foolishness, and my sins”; my guiltiness “is not hid from
thee” (Psa 69:5). And this he must do, or else he can do nothing. If he
hides the sin, or lesseneth it, he is faulty; if he leaves it still upon us,
we die. He must, then, take our iniquity to himself, make it his own,
and so deliver us; for having thus taken the sin upon himself, as
lawfully he may, and lovingly doth, “for we are members of his body”
(‘tis his hand, ‘tis his foot, ‘tis his ear hath sinned), it followeth that
we live if he lives; and who can desire more? 5This, then, must be
thoroughly considered, if ever we will have comfort in a day of
trouble and distress for sin.

And thus far there is, in some kind, a harmony betwixt his being a
sacrifice, a priest, and an Advocate. As a sacrifice, our sins were laid
upon him (Isa 53). As a priest, he beareth them (Exo 28:38). And as
an Advocate, he acknowledges them to be his own (Psa 69:5). Now,
having acknowledged them to be his own, the quarrel is no more
betwixt us and Satan, for the Lord Jesus has espoused our quarrel, and
made it his. All, then, that we in this matter have to do, is to stand at
the bar by faith among the angels, and see how the business goes. O
blessed God! what a lover of mankind art thou! and how gracious is
our Lord Jesus, in his thus managing matters for us.

(2.) The Lord Jesus having thus taken our sins upon himself, next
pleads his own goodness to God on our behalf, saying, “Let not them
that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let
not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel:
because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my
face” (Psa 69:6,7). Mark, let them not be ashamed for my sake, let
them not be confounded for my sake. Shame and confusion are the
fruits of guilt, or of a charge for sin, (Jer 3:25), and are but an entrance
into condemnation (Dan 12:2. John 5:29). But behold how Christ
pleads, saying, Let not that be for my sake, for the merit of my blood,
for the perfection of my righteousness, for the prevalency of my
intercession. Let them not be ashamed for my sake, O Lord God of
hosts. And let no man object, because this text is in the Psalms, as if it
were not spoken by the prophet of Christ; for both John and Paul, yea,
and Christ himself, do make this psalm a prophecy of him. Compare
verse 9 with John 2:17, and with Romans 15:3; and verse 21 with
Matthew 27:48, and Mark 15:25. But is not this a wonderful thing,
that Christ should first take our sins, and account them his own, and
then plead the value and worth of his whole self for our deliverance?
For by these words, “for my sake,” he pleads his own self, his whole
self, and all that he is and has; and thus he put us in good estate again,
though our cause was very bad.

To bring this down to weak capacities. Suppose a man should be
indebted twenty thousand pounds, but has not twenty thousand
farthings wherewith to pay; and suppose also that this man be arrested
for this debt, and that the law also, by which he is sued, will not admit
of a penny bate; this man may yet come well enough off, if his
advocate or attorney will make the debt his own, and will, in the
presence of the judges, out with his bags, and pay down every
farthing. Why, this is the way of our Advocate. Our sins are called
debts (Matt 6:12). We are sued for them at the law (Luke 12:59). And
the devil is our accuser; but behold the Lord Jesus comes out with his
worthiness, pleads it at the bar, making the debt his own (Mark 10:45.
II Cor 3:5). And saith, Now let them not be ashamed for my sake, O
Lord God of hosts: let them not be confounded for my sake, O God of
Israel. And hence, as he is said to be an Advocate, so he is said to be a
propitiation, or amends-maker, or one that appeaseth the justice of
God for our sins— “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our
sins.”

And who can now object against the deliverance of the child of God?
God cannot; for he, for Christ’s sake, according as he pleaded, hath
forgiven us all trespasses (Col 2:13, Eph 4:32). The devil cannot; his
mouth is stopped, as is plain in the case of Joshua (Zech 3). The law
cannot; for that approveth of what Christ has done. This, then, is the
way of Christ’s pleading. You must know, that when Christ pleads
with God, he pleads with a just and righteous God, and therefore he
must plead law, and nothing but law; and this he pleaded in both these
pleas—First, in confessing of the sin he justified the sentence of the
law in pronouncing of it evil; and then in his laying of himself, his
whole self, before God for that sin, he vindicated the sanction and
perfection of the law. Thus, therefore, he magnifies the law, and
makes it honourable, and yet brings off his client safe and sound in the
view of all the angels of God.

(3). The Lord Jesus having thus taken our sins upon himself, and
presented God with all the worthiness that is in his whole self for
them, in the next place he calleth for justice, or a just verdict upon the
satisfaction he hath made to God and to his law. Then proclamation is
made in open court, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from
him,” from him that hath offended, and clothe him with change of
raiment (Zech 3).

Thus the soul is preserved that hath sinned; thus the God of heaven is
content that he should be saved; thus Satan is put to confusion, and
Jesus applauded and cried up by the angels of heaven, and by the
saints on earth. Thus have I showed you how Christ doth advocate it
with God and his Father for us; and I have been the more particular in
this, because the glory of Christ, and the comfort of the dejected, are
greatly concerned and wrapped up in it. Look, then, to Jesus, if thou
hast sinned; to Jesus, as an Advocate pleading with the Father for
thee. Look to nothing else; for he can tell how, and that by himself, to
deliver thee; yea, and will do it in a way of justice, which is a wonder;
and to the shame of Satan, which will be his glory; and also to thy
complete deliverance, which will be thy comfort and salvation.

Second, But to pass this and come to the second thing, which is, to
show you how the Lord Jesus manages this his office of an Advocate
before his Father against the adversary; for he pleadeth with the
Father, but pleadeth against the devil; he pleadeth with the Father law
and justice, but against the adversary he letteth out himself.

I say, as he pleads against the adversary, so he enlargeth himself with
arguments over and besides those which he pleadeth with God his
Father.

Nor is it meet or needful that our advocate, when he pleads against
Satan, should so limit himself to matter of law, as when he pleadeth
with his Father. The saint, by sinning, oweth Satan nothing; no law of
his is broken thereby; why, then, should he plead for the saving of his
people, justifying righteousness to him?

Christ, when he died, died not to satisfy Satan, but his Father; not to
appease the devil, but to answer the demands of the justice of God;
nor did he design, when he hanged on the tree, to triumph over his
Father, but over Satan; “He redeemed us,” therefore, “from the curse
of the law,” by his blood (Gal 3:13). And from the power of Satan, by
his resurrection (Heb 2:14). He delivered us from righteous judgment
by price and purchase; but from the rage of hell by fight and conquest.

And as he acted thus diversely in the work of our redemption, even so
he also doth in the execution of his Advocate’s office. When he
pleadeth with God, he pleadeth so; and when he pleadeth against
Satan, he pleadeth so; and how he pleadeth with God when he dealeth
with law and justice I have showed you. And now I will show you
how he pleadeth before him against the “accuser of the brethren.”

1. He pleads against him the well-pleasedness that his Father has in
his merits, saying, This shall please the Lord, or this doth or will
please the Lord, better than anything that can be propounded (Psa
69:31). Now this plea being true, as it is, being established upon the
liking of God Almighty; whatever Satan can say to obtain our
everlasting destruction is without ground, and so unreasonable. “I am
well pleased,” saith God (Matt 3:17); and again, “The Lord is well
pleased for his (Christ’s) righteousness’ sake” (Isa 42:21). All that
enter actions against others, pretend that wrong is done, either against
themselves or against the king. Now Satan will never enter an action
against us in the court above, for that wrong by us has been done to
himself; he must pretend, then, that he sues us, for that wrong has, by
us, been done to our king. But, behold, “We have an Advocate with
the Father,” and he has made compensation for our offences. He gave
himself for our offences. But still Satan maintains his suit; and our
God, saith Christ, is well pleased with us for this compensation-sake,
yet he will not leave off his clamour. Come, then, says the Lord Jesus,
the contention is not now against my people, but myself, and about the
sufficiency of the amends that I have made for the transgressions of
my people; but he is near that justifieth me, that approveth and
accepteth of my doings, therefore shall I not be confounded. Who is
mine adversary? Let him come near me! Behold, “the Lord God will
help me” (Isa 50:7-9). Who is he that condemneth me? Lo, they all
shall, were there ten thousand times as many more of them, wax old
as a garment; the moth shall eat them up. Wherefore, if the Father
saith Amen to all this, as I have showed already that he hath and doth,
the which also further appeareth, because the Lord God has called him
the Saviour, the Deliverer, and the Amen; what follows, but that a
rebuke should proceed from the throne against him? And this, indeed,
our Advocate calls for from the hand of his Father, saying, O enemy,
“the Lord rebuke thee”; yea, he doubles this request to the judge, to
intimate his earnestness for such a conclusion, or to show that the
enemy shall surely have it, both from our Advocate, and from him
before whom Satan has so grievously accused us (Zech 3).

For what can be expected to follow from such an issue in law as this
is, but sound and severe snibs from the judge upon him that hath thus
troubled his neighbour, and that hath, in the face of the country, cast
contempt upon the highest act of mercy, justice, and righteousness,
that ever the heavens beheld? 6 And all this is true with reference to
the case in hand, wherefore, “The Lord rebuke thee,” is that which, in
conclusion, Satan must have for the reward of his works of malice
against the children, and for his contemning of the works of the Son of
God. Now, our Advocate having thus established, by the law of
heaven, his plea with God for us against our accuser, there is way
made for him to proceed upon a foundation that cannot be shaken;
wherefore, he proceedeth in his plea, and further urges against this
accuser of the brethren.

2. God’s interest in this people; and prayeth that God would remember
that: “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem, rebuke thee.” True, the church, the saints, are despicable in
the world; wherefore men do think to tread them down; the saints are,
also, weak in grace, but have corruptions that are strong, and,
therefore, Satan, the god of this world, doth think to tread them down;
but the saints have a God, the living, the eternal God, and, therefore,
they shall not be trodden down; yea, they “shall be holden up, for God
is able to make them stand” (Rom 14:4).

It was Haman’s mishap to be engaged against the queen, and the
kindred of the queen; it was that that made him he could not prosper;
that brought him to contempt and the gallows. Had he sought to ruin
another people, probably he might have brought his design to a
desired conclusion; but his compassing the death of the queen spoiled
all. Satan, also, when he fighteth against the church, must be sure to
come to the worst, for God has a concern in that; therefore, it is said,
“The gates of hell shall not prevail against it”; but this hindereth not
but that he is permitted to make almost what spoils he will of those
that belong not to God. Oh, how many doth he accuse, and soon get
out from God, against them, a license to destroy them! as he served
Ahab, and many more. But this, I say, is a very great block in his way
when he meddles with the children; God has an interest in them—
“Hath God cast away his people? God forbid!” (Rom 11:1,2). The text
intimates that they for sin had deserved it, and that Satan would fain
have had it been so; but God’s interest in them preserved them—
“God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew.” Wherefore,
when Satan accuseth them before God, Christ, as he pleadeth his own
worth and merit, pleadeth also against him, that interest that God has
in them.

And though this, to some, may seem but an indifferent plea; for what
engagement lieth, may they say, upon God to be so much concerned
with them, for they sin against him, and often provoke him most
bitterly? Besides, in their best state, they are altogether vanity, and a
very thing of nought—“What is man (sorry man), that thou art
mindful of him,” or that thou shouldest be so?

I answer, Thought there lieth no engagement upon God for any
worthiness that is in man, yet there lieth a great deal upon God for the
worthiness that is in himself. God has engaged himself with his
having chosen them to be a people to himself; and by this means they
are so secured from all that all can do against them, that the apostle is
bold, upon this very account, to challenge all despite to do its worst
against them, saying, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s
elect?” (Rom 8:33). Who? saith Satan; why, that will I. Ay, saith he,
but who can do it, and prevail? “It is God that justifieth, who is he that
condemneth?” (ver. 34). By which words the apostle clearly declareth
that charges against the elect, though they may be brought against
them, must needs prove ineffectual as to their condemnation; because
their Lord God still will justify, for that Christ has died for them.
Besides, a little to enlarge, the elect are bound to God by a sevenfold
cord, and a threefold one is not quickly broken.

(1.) Election is eternal as God himself, and so without variableness or
shadow of change, and hence it is called “an eternal purpose,” and a
“purpose of God” that must stand (Eph 3:11; Rom 9:11). (2.) Election
is absolute, not conditional; and, therefore, cannot be overthrown by
the sin of the man that is wrapped up therein. No works foreseen to be
in us was the cause of God’s choosing us; no sin in us shall frustrate
or make election void—“Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God’s elect? It is God that justifieth” (Rom 8:33; 9:11). (3.) By the act
of election the children are involved, wrapped up, and covered in
Christ; he hath chosen us in him; not in ourselves, not in our virtues,
no, not for or because of anything, but of his own will (Eph 1:4-11).
(4.) Election includeth in it a permanent resolution of God to glorify
his mercy on the vessels of mercy, thus foreordained unto glory (Rom
9:15,18,23). (5.) By the act of electing love, it is concluded that all
things whatsoever shall work together for the good of them whose call
to God is the fruit of this purpose, this eternal purpose of God (Rom
8:28-30). (6.) The eternal inheritance is by a covenant of free and
unchangeable grace made over to those thus chosen; and to secure
them from the fruits of sin, and from the malice of Satan, it is sealed
by this our Advocate’s blood, as he is Mediator of this covenant, who
also is become surety to God for them; to wit, to see them
forthcoming at the great day, and to set them then safe and sound
before his Father’s face after the judgment is over (Rom 9:23; Heb
7:22; 9:15,17-24; 13:20; John 10:28,29). (7.) By this choice, purpose,
and decree, the elect, the concerned therein, have allotted them by
God, and laid up for them, in Christ, a sufficiency of grace to bring
them through all difficulties to glory; yea, and they, every one of
them, after the first act of faith—the which also they shall certainly
attain, because wrapped up in the promise for them—are to receive
the earnest and first fruits thereof into their souls (II Tim 1:9; Acts
14:22; Eph 1:4,5,13,14).

Now, put all these things together, and then feel if there be not weight
in this plea of Christ against the devil. He pleads God’s choice and
interest in his saints against him—an interest that is secured by the
wisdom of heaven, by the grace of heaven, by the power, will, and
mercy of God, in Christ—an interest in which all the three Persons in
the Godhead have engaged themselves, by mutual agreement and
operation, to make good when Satan has done his all. I know there are
some that object against this doctrine as false; but such, perhaps, are
ignorant of some things else as well as of this. However, they object
against the wisdom of God, whose truth it is, and against Christ our
Advocate, whose argument, as he is such, it is; yea, they labour, what
in them lieth, to wrest that weapon out of his hand, with which he so
cudgelleth the enemy when, as Advocate, he pleadeth so effectually
against him for the rescuing of us from the danger of judgment,
saying, “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath
chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee.”

Third. As Christ, as Advocate, pleads against Satan the interest that
his Father hath in his chosen, so also he pleads against him by no less
authority—his own interest in them. “Holy Father,” saith he, “keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me” (John
17:11). Keep them while in the world from the evil, the soul-damning
evil of it. These words are directed to the Father, but they are leveled
against the accusations of the enemy, and were spoken here to show
what Christ will do for his, against our foe, when he is above. How, I
say, he will urge before his Father his own interest in us against Satan,
and against all his accusations, when he brings them to the bar of
God’s tribunal, with design to work our utter ruin. And is there not a
great deal in it? As if Christ should say, Father, my people have an
adversary who will accuse them for their faults before thee; but I will
be their Advocate, and as I have bought them of thee, I will plead my
right against him (John 10:28). Our English proverb is, Interest will
not lie; interest will make a man do that which otherwise he would
not. How many thousands are there for whom Christ doth not so much
as once open his mouth, but leaves them to the accusations of Satan,
and to Ahab’s judgment, nay, a worse, because there is none to plead
their cause? And why doth he not concern himself with them? but
because he is not interested in them—“I pray not for the world, but for
them which thou hast given me, for they are thine; and all mine are
thine, and I am glorified in them” (John 17:9,10).

Suppose so many cattle in such a pound, and one goes by whose they
are not, doth he concern himself? No; he beholds them, and goes his
way. But suppose that at his return he should find his own cattle in
that pound, would he now carry it toward them as he did unto the
other? No, no; he has interest here, they are his that are in the pound;
now he is concerned, now he must know who put them there, and for
what cause too they are served as they are; and if he finds them
rightfully there, he will fetch them by ransom; but if wrongfully, he
will replevy7 them, and stand a trial at law with him that has thus
illegally pounded his cattle. And thus it is betwixt Jesus Christ and
his. He is interested in them; the cattle are his own, “his own sheep,”
(John 10:3,4), but pounded by some other, by the law, or by the devil.
If pounded by the law, he delivereth them by ransom; if pounded by
the devil, he will replevy them, stand a trial at law for them, and will
be, against their accuser, their Advocate himself. Nor can Satan
withstand his plea, though he should against them join argument with
the law; forasmuch, as has been proved before, he can and will, by
what he has to produce and plead of his own, save his from all
trespasses, charges, and accusations. Besides, all men know that a
man’s proper goods are not therefore forfeited, because they commit
many, and them too great transgressions—“And if any man sin, we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Now,
the strength of this plea thus grounded upon Christ’s interest in his
people is great, and hath many weighty reasons on its side; as—

1. They are mine; therefore in reason at my dispose, not at the dispose
of an adversary; for while a thing can properly be called mine, no man
has therewith to do but myself; nor doth (a man, nor) Christ close his
right to what he has by the weakness of that thing which is his proper
right. He, therefore, as an Advocate, pleadeth interest, his own
interest, in his people, and right must, with the Judge of all the earth,
take place—“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Gen
18:25).

2. They cost him dear; and that which is dear bought is not easily
parted with (I Cor. 6:20). They were bought with “his blood” (Eph
1:7; I Peter 1:18,19). They were given him for his blood, and therefore
are “dear children” (Eph 5:1); for they are his by the highest price;
and this price he, as Advocate, pleadeth against the enemy of our
salvation; yea, I will add, they are his, because he gave his all for
them (II Cor 8:9). When a man shall give his all for this or that, then
that which he so hath purchased is become his all. Now Christ has
given his all for us; he made himself poor for us, wherefore we are
become his all, his fullness; and so the church is called (Eph 1:23).
Nay, further, Christ likes well enough of his purchase, though it hath
cost him his all—“The lines,” says he, “are fallen to me in pleasant
places; I have a goodly heritage” (Psa 16:6). Now, put all these things
together, and there is a strong plea in them. Interest, such an interest,
will not be easily parted with. But this is not all; for,

3. As they cost him dear, so he hath made them near to himself, near
by way of relation. Now that which did not only cost dear, but that by
way of relation is made so, that a man will plead heartily for. Said
David to Abner, “Thou shalt not see my face, except thou first bring
Michal, Saul’s daughter, when thou comest to see my face” (II Sam
3:13,14). Saul’s daughter cost me dear; I bought her with the jeopardy
of my life; Saul’s daughter is near to me; she is my beloved wife. He
pleaded hard for her, because she was dear and near to him. Now, I
say, the same is true in Christ; his people cost him dear, and he hath
made them near unto him; wherefore, to plead interest in them, is to
hold by an argument that is strong. (a.) They are his spouse, and he
hath made them so; they are his love, his dove, his darling, and he
accounts them so. Now, should a wretch attempt, in open court, to
take a man’s wife away from him, how would this cause the man to
plead! Yea, and what judge that is just, and knows that the man has
this interest in the woman pleaded for, would yield to, or give a
verdict for the wretch, against the man whose wife the woman is?
Thus Christ, in pleading interest—in pleading “thou gavest them
me”—pleads by a strong argument, an argument that the enemy
cannot invalidate. True, were Christ to plead this before a Saul (I Sam
25;44), or before Samson’s wife’s father, the Philistine (Judg 14:20),
perhaps such treacherous judges would give it against all right. But, I
have told you, the court in which Christ pleads is the highest and the
justest, and that from which there can be no appeal; wherefore
Christ’s cause, and so the cause of the children of God, must be tried
before their Father, from whose face, to be sure, just judgment shall
proceed. But,

(b.) As they are called his spouse, so they are called his flesh, and
members of his body. Now, said Paul to the church, “Ye are the body
of Christ, and members in particular” (I Cor 12:27; Eph 5:30). This
relation also makes a man plead hard. Were a man to plead for a limb,
or a member of his own, how would he plead? What arguments would
he use? And what sympathy and feeling would his arguments flow
from? I cannot lose a hand, I cannot lose a foot, cannot lose a finger;
why, saints are Christ’s members, his members are of himself. With

what strength of argument would a man plead the necessariness of his
members to him, and the unnaturalness of his adversary in seeking the
destruction of his members, and the deformity of his body! Yea, a
man would shuck and cringe, and weep, and entreat, and make
demurs, and halts, and delays, to a thousand years, if possible, before
he would lose his members, or any one of them.

But, I say, how would he plead and advocate it for his members, if
judge, and law, and reason, and equity, were all on his side, and if, by
the adversary, there could be nothing urged, but that against which the
Advocate had long before made provision for the effectual overthrow
thereof? And all this is true as to the case that lies before us. Thus we
see what strength there lieth in this second argument, that our
Advocate bringeth for us against the enemy. They are his flesh and
bones, his members; he cannot spare them; he cannot spare this,
because, nor that, because, nor any, because, they are his members. As
such, they are lovely to him; as such, they are useful to him; as such,
they are an ornament to him; yea, though in themselves they are
feeble, and through infirmity weak, much disabled from doing as they
should. Thus, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.” But,

4. As Christ, as Advocate, pleads for us, against Satan, his Father’s
interest in us and his own; so he pleadeth against him that right and
property that he hath in heaven, to give it to whom he will. He has a
right to heaven as Priest and King; it is his also by inheritance; and
since he will be so good a benefactor as to bestow this house on
somebody, but not for their deserts, but not for their goodness, and
since, again, he has to that end spilt his blood for, and taken a
generation into covenant relation to him, that it might be bestowed on
them; it shall be bestowed on them; and he will plead this, if there be
need, if his people sin, and if their accuser seeks, by their sin, their
ruin and destruction: “Father,” saith he, “I will that they also, whom
thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my
glory, which thou hast given me” (John 17:24). Christ’s will is the
will of heaven, the will of God. Shall not Christ, then, prevail?

“I will,” saith Christ; “I will,” saith Satan; but whose will shall stand?
It is true, Christ in the text speaks more like an arbitrator than an
Advocate; more like a judge than one pleading at a bar. I will have it
so; I judge that so it ought to be, and must. But there is also something
of plea in the words both before his Father, and against our enemy;
and therefore he speaketh like one that can plead and determine also;
yea, like one that has power so to do. But shall the will of heaven
stoop to the will of hell? Or the will of Christ to the will of Satan? Or
the will of righteousness to the will of sin? Shall Satan, who is God’s
enemy, and whose charge wherewith he chargeth us for sin, and
which is grounded, not upon love to righteousness, but upon malice
against God’s designs of mercy, against the blood of Christ, and the
salvation of his people—I say, shall this enemy and this charge prevail
with God against the well-grounded plea of Christ, and against the
salvation of God’s elect, and so keep us out of heaven? No, no; Christ
will have it otherwise, he is the great donator, 8 and his eye is good.
True, Satan was turned out of heaven for that he sinned there, and we
must be taken into heaven, though we have sinned here; this is the will
of Christ, and, as Advocate, he pleads it against the face and
accusation of our adversary. Thus, “If any man sin, we have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” But,

5. As Christ, as Advocate, pleadeth for us, against Satan, his Father’s
interest in us, and his own, and pleadeth also what right he has to
dispose of the kingdom of heaven; so he pleadeth against this enemy,
that malice and enmity that is in him, and upon which chiefly his
charge against us is grounded, to the confusion of his face. This is
evident from the title that our Advocate bestows upon him, while he
pleads for us against him: “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, O enemy,”
saith he; for Satan is an enemy, and this name given him signifies so
much. And lawyers, in their pleas, can make a great matter of such a
circumstance as this; saying, My lord, we can prove that what is now
pleaded against the prisoner at the bar is of mere malice and hatred,
that has also a long time lain burning and raging in his enemy’s breast
against him. This, I say, will greatly weaken the plea and accusation
of an enemy. But, says Jesus Christ, “Father, here is a plea brought in
against my Joshua, that clothes him with filthy garments, but it is
brought in against him by an enemy, by an enemy in the superlative or
highest degree. One that hates goodness worse than he, and that loveth
wickedness more than the man against whom at this time he has
brought such a heinous charge.” Then leaving with the Father the
value of his blood for the accused, he turneth him to the accuser, and
pleads against him as an enemy: “O Satan, thou that accusest my
spouse, my love, my members, art SATAN, an enemy.” But it will be
objected that the things charged are true. Grant it; yet what law takes
notice of the plea of one who doth professedly act as an enemy?
because it is not done of love to truth, and justice, and righteousness,
nor intended for the honour of the king, nor for the good of the
prosecuted; but to gratify malice and rage, and merely to kill and
destroy. There is, therefore, a great deal of force and strength in an
Advocate’s pleading of such a circumstance against an accuser;
especially when the crimes now charged are those, and only those for
which the law, in the due execution of it, has been satisfied before;
wherefore now a lawyer has double and treble ground or matter to
plead for his client against his enemy. And this advantage against him
has Jesus Christ.

Besides, it is well known that Satan, as to us, is the original cause of
those very crimes for which he accuses us at the bar of God’s tribunal.
Not to say anything of how he cometh to us, solicits us, tempts us,
flatters us, and always, in a manner, lies at us to do those wicked
things for which he so hotly pursues us to the bar of the judgment of
God. For though it is not meet for us thus to plead,—to wit, laying
that fault upon Satan, but rather upon ourselves,—yet our advocate
will do it, and make work of it too before God. “Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as
wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke
22:31,32). He maketh here mention of Satan’s desires, by way of
advantage against him; and, doubtless, so he did in his prayer with
God for Peter’s preservation. And what he did here, while on earth, as
a Saviour in general, that he doth now in heaven as a Priest and an
Advocate in special.

I will further suppose that which may be supposed, and that which is
suitable to our purpose. Suppose, therefore, that a father that has a
child whom he loveth, but the child has not half that wit that some of
the family hath, and I am sure that we have less wit than angels; and
suppose, also, that some bad-minded neighbour, by tampering with,
tempting of, and by unwearied solicitations, should prevail with this
child to steal something out of his father’s house or grounds, and give
it unto him; and this he doth on purpose to set the father against the
child; and suppose, again, that it comes to the father’s knowledge that
the child, through the allurements of such an one, has done so and so
against his father; will he therefore disinherit this child? Yea, suppose,
again, that he that did tempt this child to steal, should be the first that
should come to accuse this child to its father for so doing, would the
father take notice of the accusation of such an one?—No, verily, we
that are evil can do better than so; how then should we think that the
God of heaven should do such a thing, since also we have a brother
that is wise, and that will and can plead the very malice of our enemy
that doth to us all these things against him for our advantage?—I say,
this is the sum of this fifth plea of Christ our Advocate, against Satan.
O Satan, says he, thou art an enemy to my people; thou pleadest not
out of love to righteousness, not to reform, but to destroy my beloved
and inheritance. The charge wherewith thou chargest my people is
thine own (Job 8:4-6). Not only as to a matter of charge, but the things
that thou accusest them of are thine, thine in the nature of them. Also,
thou hast tempted, allured, flattered, and daily laboured with them, to
do that for which now thou so willingly would have them destroyed.
Yea, all this hast thou done of envy to my Father, and to godliness; of
hatred to me and my people; and that thou mightest destroy others
besides (I Chron 21:1). And now, what can this accuser say? Can he
excuse himself? Can he contradict our Advocate? He cannot; he
knows that he is a Satan, an enemy, and as an adversary has he sown
his tares among the wheat, that it might be rooted up; but he shall not
have his end; his malice has prevented9 him, and so has the care and
grace of our Advocate. The tares, therefore, he shall have returned
unto him again; but the wheat, for all this, shall be gathered into
God’s barn (Matt 13:25-30).

Thus, therefore, our Advocate makes use, in his plea against Satan, of
the rage and malice that is the occasion of the enemy’s charge
wherewith he accuseth the children of God. Wherefore, when thou
readest these words, “O Satan,” say with thyself, thus Christ our
Advocate accuseth our adversary of malice and envy against God and
goodness, while he accuseth us of the sins which we commit, for
which we are sorry, and Christ has paid a price of redemption—“And
(thus) if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.” But,

6. Christ, when he pleads as an Advocate for his people, in the
presence of God against Satan, he can plead those very weaknesses of
his people for which Satan would have them damned, for their relief
and advantage. “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” This is
part of the plea of our Advocate against Satan for his servant Joshua,
when he said, “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan” (Zech3:2). Now, to be
a brand plucked out of the fire is to be a saint, impaired, weakened,
defiled, and made imperfect by sin; for so also the apostle means
when he saith, “And others save with fear, pulling them our of the
fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 23). By fire,
in both these places, we are to understand sin; for that it burns and
consumes as fire (Rom 1:27). Wherefore a man is said to burn when
his lusts are strong upon him; and to burn in lusts to others, when his
wicked heart runs wickedly after them (I Cor 7:9).

Also, when Abraham said, “I am but dust and ashes,” (Gen 18:27), he
means he was but what sin had left; yea, he had something of the
smutch and besmearings of sin yet upon him. Wherefore it was a
custom with Israel, in days of old, when they set days apart for
confession of sin, and humiliation for the same, to sprinkle themselves
with, or to wallow in dust and ashes, as a token that they did confess
they were but what sin had left, and that they also were defiled,
weakened, and polluted by it (Esth 4:1,3; Jer 6:26; Job 30:19, 42:6).

This, then, is the next plea of our goodly Advocate for us: O Satan,
this is “a brand plucked out of the fire.” As who should say, Thou
objected against my servant Joshua that he is black like a coal, or that
the fire of sin at times is still burning in him. And what then? The
reason why he is not totally extinct, as tow; is not thy pity, but my
Father’s mercy to him; I have plucked him out of the fire, yet not so
out but that the smell thereof is yet upon him; and my Father and I, we
consider his weakness, and pity him; for since he is as a brand pulled
out, can it be expected by my Father or me that he should appear
before us as clear, and do our biddings as well, as if he had never been
there? This is “a brand plucked out of the fire,” and must be
considered as such, and must be borne with as such. Thus, as
Mephibosheth pleaded for his excuse, his lameness,(II Sam 19:24-26),
so Christ pleads the infirm and indigent condition of his people,
against Satan, for their advantage. Wherefore Christ, by such pleas as
these for his people, doth yet further show the malice of Satan (for all
this burning comes through him), yea, and by it he moveth the heart of
God to pity us, and yet to be gentle, and long-suffering, and merciful
to us; for pity and compassion are the fruits of the yearning of God’s
bowels towards us, while he considereth us as infirm and weak, and
subject to slips, and stumbles, and falls, because of weakness.

And that Christ our Advocate, by thus pleading, doth turn things to
our advantage, consider, (1.) That God is careful, that through our
weakness, our spirits do not fail before him when he chides (Isa
57:16-18). (2.) “He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east
wind,” and debates about the measure of affliction, when, for sin, we
should be chastened, lest we should sink thereunder (Isa 27:7-9). (3.)
He will not strictly mark what is done amiss, because if he should, we
cannot stand (Psa 130:3). (4.) When he threateneth to strike, his
bowels are troubled, and his repentings are kindled together (Hosea
11:8,9). (5.) He will spin out his patience to the utmost length,
because he knows we are such bunglers at doing (Jer 9:24). (6.) He
will accept of the will for the deed, because he knows that sin will
make our best performances imperfect (II Cor 8:12). (7.) He will
count our little a very great deal, for that he knows we are so unable to
do anything at all (Job 1:21). (8.) He will excuse the souls of his
people, and lay the fault upon their flesh, which has greatest affinity
with Satan, if through weakness and infirmity we do not do as we
should (Matt 26:41; Rom 7). Now, as I said, all these things happen
unto us, both infirmities and pity, because and for that we were once
in the fire, and for that the weakness of sin abides upon us to this day.
But none of this favour could come to us, nor could we, by any
means, cause that our infirmities should work for us thus
advantageously; but that Christ our Advocate stands our friend, and
pleads for us as he doth.

But again, before I pass this over, I will, for the clearing of this,
present you with a few more considerations, which are of another
rank—to wit, that Christ our Advocate, as such, makes mention of our
weaknesses so, against Satan, and before his Father, as to turn all to
our advantage.

(1.) We are therefore to be saved by grace, because by reason of sin
we are disabled from keeping of the law (Deut 9:5; Isa 64:6). (2.) We
have given unto us the Spirit of grace to help, because we can do
nothing that is good without it (Eph 2:5; Rom 8:26). (3.) God has put
Christ’s righteousness upon us to cover our nakedness with, because
we have none of our own to do it withal (Phil 3:7,8; Eze 16:8). (4.)
God alloweth us to ride in the bosom of Christ to the grave, and from
thence in the bosom of angels to heaven, because our own legs are not
able to carry us thither (Isa 40:11, 46:4; Psa 48:14; Luke 16:22). (5.)
God has made his Son our Head, our Priest, our Advocate, our
Saviour, our Captain, that we may be delivered from all the infirmities
and all the fiends that attend us, and that plot to do us hurt (Eph 1:22;
Col 1:18; Heb 7:21). (6.) God has put the fallen angels into chains, (II
Peter 2:4; Rev 20:1,2), that they might not follow us too fast, and has
enlarged us, (Psa 4:1), and directed our feet in the way of his steps,
that we may haste us to the strong tower and city of refuge for succour
and safety, and has given good angels a charge to look to us (Heb
1:14; Psa 34:7). (7.) God has promised that we, at our counting days,
shall be spared, “as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (Mal
3:17).

Now, from all these things, it appears that we have indulgence at
God’s hand, and that our weaknesses, as our Christ manages the
matter for us, are so far off from laying a block or bar in the way to
the enjoyment of favour, that they also work for our good; yea, and
God’s foresight of them has so kindled his bowels and compassion to
us, as to put him upon devising of such things for our relief, which by
no means could have been, had not sin been with us in the world, and
had not the best of saints been “as a brand plucked out of the
burning.”

I have seen men (and yet they are worse than God) take most care of,
and, also, best provide for, those of their children that have been most
infirm and helpless; 10 and our Advocate “shall gather his lambs with
his arms, and carry them in his bosom”; yea, and I know that there is
such an art in showing and making mention of weaknesses as shall
make the tears stand in a parent’s eyes, and as shall make him search
to the bottom of his purse to find out what may do his weakling good.
Christ, also, has that excellent art, as he is an Advocate with the
Father for us; he can so make mention of us and of our infirmities,
while he pleads before God, against the devil, for us, that he can make
the bowels of the Almighty yearn towards us, and to wrap us up in
their compassions. You read much of the pity, compassion, and of the
yearning of the bowels of the mighty God towards his people; all
which, I think, is kindled and made burn towards us, by the pleading
of our Advocate. I have seen fathers offended with their children; but
when a brother had turned a skillful advocate, the anger has been
appeased, and the means have been concealed. We read but little of
this Advocate’s office of Jesus Christ, yet much of the fruit of it is
extended to the churches; but as the cause of smiles, after offences
committed, is made manifest afterwards, so at the day when God will
open all things, we shall see how many times our Lord, as an
Advocate, pleaded for us, and redeemed us by his so pleading, unto
the enjoyments of smiles and embraces, who, for sin, but a while
before, were under frowns and chastisements. And thus much for the
making out how Christ doth manage his office of being an Advocate
for us with the Father—“If any man sin, we have an Advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

[WHO HAVE CHRIST FOR AN ADVOCATE]

THIRDLY, And I shall come now to the third head; to wit, to show
you more particularly who they are that have Jesus Christ for their
Advocate.

In my handling of this head, I shall show, First, That this office of an
advocate differeth from that of a priest, and how. Second, I shall show
you how far Christ extendeth this his office of advocateship—I mean,
in matters concerning the people of God, And then, Third, I shall
come more directly to show who they are that have Christ for their
Advocate.

First, For the first of these, That this office of Christ, as an Advocate,
differeth from that of a Priest. That he is a Priest, a Priest for ever, I
heartily acknowledge; but that his priesthood and advocateship should
be one and the self-same office, I cannot believe.

1. Because they differ in name. We may as well say a father, as such,
is a son, or that father and son is the self-same relation, as say a priest
and an advocate, as to office, are but one and the same thing. They
differ in name as much as priest and sacrifice do: a priest is one, and a
sacrifice is another; and though Christ is Priest and Sacrifice too, yet,
as a Priest, he is not a Sacrifice, nor, as a Sacrifice, a Priest.

2. As they differ in name, so they differ in the nature of office. A
priest is to slay a sacrifice; an advocate is to plead a cause; a priest is
to offer his sacrifice, to the end that, by the merit thereof, he may
appease; an advocate is to plead, to plead according to law; a priest is
to make intercession, by virtue of his sacrifice; an advocate is to plead
law, because amends is made.

3. As they differ in name and nature, so they also differ as to their
extent. The priesthood of Christ extendeth itself to the whole of God’s
elect, whether called or in their sins; but Christ, as Advocate, pleadeth
only for the children.

4. As they differ in name, in nature, and extent, so they differ as to the
persons with whom they have to do. We read not anywhere that
Christ, as Priest, has to do with the devil as an antagonist, but, as an
Advocate, he hath.

5. As they differ in these, so they differ as to the matters about which
they are employed. Christ, as Priest, concerns himself with every wry
thought, and, also, with the least imperfection or infirmity that attends
our most holy things; but Christ, as Advocate, doth not so, as I have
already showed.

6. So that Christ, as Priest, goes before, and Christ, as an Advocate,
comes after; Christ, as Priest, continually intercedes; Christ, as
Advocate, in case of great transgressions, pleads: Christ, as Priest, has
need to act always, but Christ, as Advocate, sometimes only. Christ,
as Priest, acts in times of peace; but Christ, as Advocate, in times of
broils, turmoils, and sharp contentions; wherefore, Christ, as
Advocate, is, as I may call him, a reserve, and his time is then to arise,
to stand up and plead, when HIS are clothed with some filthy sin that
of late they have fallen into, as David, Joshua, or Peter. When some
such thing is committed by them, as ministereth to the enemy a show
of ground to question the truth of their grace; or when it is a question,
and to be debated, whether it can stand with the laws of heaven, with
the merits of Christ, and the honour of God, that such a one should be
saved. Now let an advocate come forth, now let him have time to
plead, for this is a fit occasion for the saints’ Advocate to stand up to
plead for the salvation of his people. But,

Second, I come next to show you how far this office of an Advocate is
extended. I hinted at this before, so now shall be the more brief. 1. By
this office he offereth no sacrifice; he only, as to matter of justice,
pleads the sacrifice offered. 2. By this office he obtains the conversion
of none; he only thereby secureth the converted from the damnation
which their adversary, for sins after light and profession,
endeavoureth to bring them to. 3. By this office he prevents not
temporal punishment, but by it he chiefly preserveth the soul from
hell. 4. By this office he brings in no justifying righteousness for us,
he only thereby prevaileth to have the dispose of that brought in by
himself, as Priest, for the justifying of those, by a new and fresh act,
who had made their justification doubtful by new falls into sin. And
this is plain in the history of our Joshua, so often mentioned before
(Zech 3). 5. As Priest, he hath obtained eternal redemption for us; and
as Advocate, he by law, maintaineth our right thereto, against the
devil and his angels.

Third, I come now to show you who they are that have Jesus Christ
for their Advocate. And this I shall do—first, more generally, and then
shall be more particular and distinct about it.

1. More generally. They are all the truly gracious; those that are the
children by adoption; and this the test affirmeth—“My little children,
these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” They
are, then, the children, by adoption, that are the persons concerned in
the advocateship of Jesus Christ. The priesthood of Christ extendeth
itself to the whole body of the elect, but the advocateship of Christ
doth not so. This is further cleared by this apostle; and in this very
text, if you consider what immediately follows—“We have an
Advocate,” says he, “and he is the propitiation for our sins.” He is our
Advocate, and also our Priest. As an Advocate, ours only; but as a
propitiation, not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world; to
be sure, for the elect throughout the world, and they that will extend it
further, let them.

And I say again, had he not intended that there should have been a
straiter limit put to the Advocateship of Christ than he would have us
put to his priestly office, what needed he, when he speaketh of the
propitiation which relates to Christ as Priest, have added—“And not
for ours only”? As an Advocate, then, he engageth for us that are
children; and as a Priest, too, he hath appeased God’s wrath for our
sins; but as an Advocate his offices are confined to the children only,
but as a Priest he is not so. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not
for ours only. The sense, therefore, of the apostle should, I think, be
this—That Christ, as a Priest, hath offered a propitiatory sacrifice for
all; but as an Advocate he pleadeth only for the children. Children, we
have an Advocate to ourselves, and he is also our Priest; but as he is a
Priest, he is not ours only, but maketh, as such, amends for all that
shall be saved. The elect, therefore, have the Lord Jesus for their
Advocate then, and then only, when they are by calling put among the
children; because, as Advocate, he is peculiarly the children’s—“My
little children, WE have an Advocate.”

Objection. But he also saith, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate”;
any man that sinneth seems, by the text, notwithstanding what you
say, “to have an Advocate with the Father.”

Answer. By any man, must not be meant any of the world, nor any of
the elect, but any man in faith and grace; for he still limits this general
term, “any man,” with this restriction, “we”—Children, “if any man
sin, we have an Advocate.” We, any man of us. And this is yet further
made appear, since he saith that it is to them he writes, not only here,
but further in this chapter—“I write unto YOU, little children; I write
unto you, fathers; I write unto you, young men” (I John 2: 12,13).
These are the persons intended in the text, for under these three heads
are comprehended all men; for they are either children, and so men in
nature, or young men, and so men in strength; or else they are fathers,
and so aged, and of experience. Add to this, by “any man,” that the
apostle intendeth not to enlarge himself beyond the persons that are in
grace; but to supply what was wanting by that term “little children”;
for since the strongest saint may have heed of an Advocate, as well as
the most feeble of the flock, why should the apostle leave it to be so
understood as if the children, and the children only, had an interest in
that office? Wherefore, after he had said, “My little children, I write
unto you, that ye sin not”; he then adds, with enlargement, “If any
man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father.” Yet the little children
may well be mentioned first, since they most want the knowledge of
it, are most feeble, and so by sin may be forced most frequently to act
faith on Christ, as Advocate. Besides, they are most ready, through
temptation, to question whether they have so good a right to Christ in
all his offices as have better and more well-grown saints; and,
therefore, they, in this the apostle’s salutation, are first set down in the
catalogue of names—“My little children, I write unto you, that ye sin
not. If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous.” So, then, the children of God are they who have the
Lord Jesus, an Advocate for them with the Father. The least and
biggest, the oldest and youngest, the feeblest and the strongest; ALL
the children have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.

(1.) Since, then, the children have Christ for their advocate, art thou a
child? Art thou begotten of God by his Word? (James 1:18). Hast thou
in thee the spirit of adoption? (Gal 4:1-6). Canst thou in faith say,
Father, Father, to God? Then is Christ thy Advocate, thine Advocate,
“now to appear in the presence of God for thee” (Heb 9:24). To
appear there, and to plead there, in the face of the court of heaven, for
thee; to plead there against thine adversary, whose accusations are
dreadful, whose subtlety is great, whose malice is inconceivable, and
whose rage is intolerable; to plead there before a just God, a righteous
God, a sin-revenging God: before whose face thou wouldst die if thou
wast to show thyself, and at his bar to plead thine own cause. But,

(2.) There is a difference in children; some are bigger than some; there
are children and little children—“My little children, I write unto you.”
Little children; some of the little children can neither say Father, nor
so much as know that they themselves are children.

This is true in nature, and so it is in grace; wherefore, notwithstanding
what was said under the first head, it doth not follow, that if I be a
child I must certainly know it, and also be able to call God, Father.
Let the first, then, serve to poise and balance the confident ones, and
let this be for the relief of those more feeble; for they that are children,
whether they know it or no, have Jesus Christ for their Advocate, for
Christ is assigned to be our Advocate by the Judge, by the King, by
our God and Father, although we have not known it. True, at present,
there can come from hence, to them that are thus concerned in the
advocateship of Christ, but little comfort; but yet it yields them great
security; they have “an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.” God knows this, the devil feels this, and the children shall
have the comfort of it afterwards. I say, the time is coming when they
shall know that even then, when they knew it not, they had an
Advocate with the Father; an Advocate who was neither loath, nor
afraid, nor ashamed, to plead for their defense against their proudest
foe. And will not this, when they know it, yield them comfort?
Doubtless it will; yea, more, and of a better kind, than that which
flows from the knowledge that one is born to crowns and kingdoms.

Again; as he is an Advocate for the children, so he is also, as before
was hinted, for the strong and experienced; for no strength in this
world secureth from the rage of hell; nor can any experience, while
we are here, fortify us against his assaults. There is also an incidency
in the best to sin; and the bigger man, the bigger fall; for the more
hurt, the greater damage. Wherefore it is of absolute necessity that an
advocate be provided for the strong as for the weak. “Any man”; he
that is most holy, most reformed, most refined, and most purified,
may as soon be in the dirt as the weakest Christian; and, so far as I can
see, Satan’s design is against them most. I am sure the greatest sins
have been committed by the biggest saints. This wayfaring man came
to David’s house, and when he stood up against Israel, he provoked
David to number the people (II Sam 12:4,7; I Chron 21:1). Wherefore
they have as much need of an advocate as have the youngest and most
feeble of the flock. What a mind had he to try a fall with Peter! And
how quickly did he break the neck of Judas! The like, without doubt,
he had done to Peter, had not Jesus, by stepping in, prevented. As long
as sin is in our flesh, there is danger. Indeed, he saith of the young
men that they are strong, and that they have overcome the wicked one;
but he doth not say they have killed him. As long as the devil is alive
there is danger; and though a strong Christian may be too hard for,
and may overcome him in one thing, he may be too hard for, yea, and
may overcome him two for one afterwards. Thus he served David, and
thus he served Peter, and thus he, in our day, has served many more.
The strongest are weak, the wisest are fools, when suffered to be
sifted as wheat in Satan’s sieve; yea, and have often been so proved,
to the wounding of their great hearts, and the dishonour of religion. To
conclude this: God of his mercy hath sufficiently declared the truth of
what I say, by preparing for the best, the strongest, and most
sanctified, as well as for the least, weakest, and most feeble saint, as
Advocate—“My little children, I write unto you, that ye sin not. And
if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.”

2. But some may object, that what has been said as to discovering for
whom Christ is an Advocate has been too general, and, therefore,
would have me come more to particulars, else they can get no
comfort. Well, inquiring soul, so I will; and, therefore, hearken to
what I say.

(1.) Wouldest thou know whether Christ is thine Advocate or no? I
ask, Hast thou entertained him so to be? When men have suits of law
depending in any of the king’s courts above, they entertain their
attorney or advocate to plead their cause, and so he pleads for them. I
say, hast thou entertained Jesus Christ for thy lawyer to plead thy
cause? “Plead my cause, O Lord,” said David (Psa 35:1); and again,
“Judge me, O God, and plead my cause” (Psa 43:1). This, therefore, is
the first thing that I would propound to thee: Hast thou, with David,
entertained him for thy lawyer, or, with good Hezekiah, cried out, “O
Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me” (Isa 38:14). What sayest
thou, soul? Hast thou been with him, and prayed him to plead thy
cause, and cried unto him to undertake for thee? This I call
entertaining of him to be thy advocate, and I choose to follow the
similitude, both because the Scripture seems to smile upon such a way
of discourse, and because thy question doth naturally lead me to it.
Wherefore, I ask again, hast thou been with him? Hast thou
entertained him? Hast thou desired him to plead thy cause?

Question. Thou wilt say unto me, How should I know that I have done
so?

Answer. I answer, Art thou sensible that thou hast an action
commenced against thee in that high court of justice that is above? I
say, Art thou sensible of this? For the defendants—and all God’s
people are defendants—do not use to entertain their lawyers, but from
knowledge, that an action either is, or may be, commenced against
them before the God of heaven. If thou sayest yea, then I ask, Who
told thee that thou standest accused for transgression before the
judgment-seat of God? I say, Who told thee so? Hath the Holy Ghost,
hath the world, or hath thy conscience? For nothing else, as I know of,
can bring such tidings to thy soul.

Again; Hast thou found a failure in all others that might have been
entertained to plead thy cause? Some make their sighs, their tears,
their prayers, and their reformations, their advocates—“Hast thou
tried these, and found them wanting?” Hast thou seen thy state to be
desperate, if the Lord Jesus doth not undertake to plead thy cause? for
Jesus is not entertained so long as men can make shift without him.
But when it comes to this point I perish for ever, notwithstanding the
help of all, if the Lord Jesus steps not in. Then Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus,
good Lord Jesus! undertake for me. Hast thou therefore been with
Jesus Christ as concerned in thy soul, as heartily concerned about the
action that thou perceivest to be commenced against thee?

Question. You will say, How should I know that?

Answer. I answer, Hast thou well considered the nature of the crime
wherewith thou standest charged at the bar of God? Hast thou also
considered the justness of the Judge? Again I ask, Hast thou
considered what truth, as to matter of fact, there is in the things
whereof thou standest accused? Also, Hast thou considered the
cunning, the malice, and diligence of thy adversary, with the greatness
of the loss thou art like to sustain, shouldst thou with Ahab, in the
book of Kings, (I Kings 22:17-23), or with the hypocrites in Isaiah,
(Isa 6:5-10), have the verdict of the Lord God go out from the throne
against thee? I ask thee these questions, because if thou art in the
knowledge of these things to seek, or if thou art not deeply concerned
about the greatness of the damage that will certainly overtake thee,
and that for ever, shouldest thou be indeed accused before God, and
have none to plead thy cause, thou hast not, nor canst not, let what
will come upon thee, have been with Jesus Christ to plead thy cause;
and so, let thy case be never so desperate, thou standest alone, and
hast no helper (Job 30:13, 9:13) Or if thou hast, they, not being the
advocate of God’s appointing, must needs fall with thee, and with thy
burden. Wherefore, consider of this seriously, and return thy answer
to God, who can tell if truth shall be found in thy answers, better by
far than any; for it is he that tries the reins and the heart, and therefore
to him I refer thee. But,

(2.) Wouldst thou know whether Jesus Christ is thine advocate? Then
I ask again, Hast thou revealed thy cause unto him?—I say, Hast thou
revealed thy cause unto him? For he that goeth to law for his right,
must not only go to a lawyer, and say, Sir, I am in trouble, and am to
have a trial at law with mine enemy, pray undertake my cause; but he
must also reveal to his lawyer his cause. He must go to him and tell
him what is the matter, how things stand, where the shoe pinches, and
so. Thus did the church of old, and thus doth every true Christian
now; for though nothing can be hid from him, yet he will have things
out of thine own mouth; he will have thee to reveal thy matters unto
him (Matt 20:32). “O Lord of hosts,” said Jeremiah, “that judgest
righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy
vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause” (Jer
11:20). And again; “But, O Lord of hosts, that triest the righteous, and
seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for
unto thee have I opened my cause” (Jer 20:12). Seest thou here, how
saints of old were wont to do? how they did, not only in a general
way, entreat Christ to plead their cause, but in a particular way, go to
him and reveal, or open their cause unto him?

O! it is excellent to behold how some sinners will do this when they
get Christ and themselves in a closet alone; when they, upon their bare
knees, are pouring out of their souls before him; or, like the woman in
the gospel, telling him all the truth (Mark 5). O! saith the soul, Lord, I
am come to thee upon an earnest business; I am arrested by Satan; the
bailiff was mine own conscience, and I am like to be accused before
the judgment-seat of God. My salvation lies at stake; I am questioned
for my interest in heaven; I am afraid of the Judge; my heart
condemns me (I John 3:20). Mine enemy is subtle, and wanteth not
malice to prosecute me to death, and then to hell. Also, Lord, I am
sensible that the law is against me, for indeed I have horribly sinned,
and thus and thus have I done. Here I lie open to law, and there I lie
open to law; here I have given the adversary advantage, and there he
will surely have a hank11 against me. Lord, I am distressed, undertake
for me! And there are some things that thou must be acquainted with
about thine Advocate, before thou wilt venture to go thus far with
him. As,

(a.) Thou must know him to be a friend, and not an enemy, unto
whom thou openest thy heart; and until thou comest to know that
Christ is a friend to thee, or to souls in thy condition, thou wilt never
reveal thy cause unto him, not thy whole cause unto him. And it is
from this that so many that have soul causes hourly depending before
the throne of God, and that are in danger every day of eternal
damnation, forbear to entertain Jesus Christ for their Advocate, and so
wickedly conceal their matters from him; but “he that hideth his sins
shall not prosper” (Prov 28:13) 12 This, therefore, must first be
believed by thee before thou wilt reveal thy cause unto him.

(b.) A man, when his estate is called in question, I mean his right and
title thereto, will be very cautious, especially if he also questions his
title to it himself, unto whom he reveals that affair; he must know him
to be one that is not only friendly, but faithful, to whom he reveals
such a secret as this. Why, thus it is with Christ and the soul. If the
soul is not somewhat persuaded of the faithfulness of Christ—to wit,
that if he can do him no good, he will do him no harm, he will never
reveal his cause unto him, but will seek to hide his counsel from the
Lord. This, therefore, is another thing by which thou mayest know
that thou hast Christ for thine Advocate, if thou hast heartily and in
very deed revealed thy cause unto him. Now, they that do honestly
reveal their cause to their lawyer, will endeavour to possess him, as I
hinted before, with the worst; they will, with words, make it as bad as
they may; for, think they, by that means I shall prepare him for the
worst that mine enemy can do. And thus souls deal with Jesus Christ;
see Psalms 51 and 38, with several others that might be named, and
see if God’s people have not done so. “I said,” saith David, “I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the
iniquity of my sin.” But,

(3.) Hast thou Jesus Christ for thine Advocate? or wouldst thou know
if thou hast? Then I ask again, Hast thou committed thy cause to him?
When a man entertains13 his lawyer to stand for him and to plead his
cause, he doth not only reveal, but commit his cause unto him. “I
would seek unto God,” says Eliphaz to Job, “and unto God would I
commit my cause” (Job 5:8). Now there is a difference betwixt
revealing my cause and committing of it to a man. To reveal my cause
is to open it to one; and to commit it to him is to trust it in his hand.
Many a man will reveal his cause to him unto whom he will yet be
afraid to commit it; but now, he that entertains a lawyer to plead his
cause, doth not only reveal but commit his cause into him. As,
suppose right to his estate be called in question; why, then, he not
only reveals his cause to his lawyer, but puts into his hands his
evidences, deeds, leases, mortgages, bonds, or what else he hath, to
show a title to his estate by. And thus doth Christians deal with Christ;
they deliver up all unto him—to wit, all their signs, evidences,
promises, and assurances, which they have thought they had for
heaven and the salvation of their souls, and have desired him to
peruse, to search, and try them every one. “And see if there be any
wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psa 139:23-
24). This is committing of thy cause to Christ, and this is the hardest
task of all, for the man that doth thus, he trusteth Christ with all; and it
implieth, that he will live and die, stand and fall, lose and win,
according as Christ will manage his business. Thus did Paul, (II Tim
1:12), and thus Peter admonishes us to do. Now he that doth this must
be convinced,

(a.) Of the ability of Jesus Christ to defend him; for a man will not
commit so great a concern as his all is to his friend. No; not to his
friend, be he never so faithful, if he perceives not in him ability to
save him, and to preserve what he hath, against all the cavils of an
enemy. And hence it is that the ability of Jesus Christ, as to the saving
of his people, is so much insisted on in the Scripture; as, “I have laid
help upon one that is mighty” (Psa 89:19). “I that speak in
righteousness, mighty to save” (Isa 63:1). And again, “He shall send
them a Saviour, and a great one” (Isa 19:20).

(b.) As they must be convinced of his ability to help them, so they
must of his courage; a man that has parts sufficient may yet fail his
friend for want of courage; wherefore, the courage and greatness of
Christ’s Spirit, as to his undertaking of the cause of his people, is also
amply set out in Scripture. “He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till
he have set judgment in the earth,” “till he send forth judgment unto
victory” (Isa 42:4; Matt 12:20).

(c.) They must also be convinced of his willingness to do this for
them; for though one be able and of courage sufficient, yet if he is not
willing to undertake one’s cause, what is it the better? Wherefore, he
declareth his willingness also, and how ready he is to stand up to
plead the cause of the poor and of them that are in want. “The Lord
will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them”
(Prov 22:23).

(d.) They must also be convinced of this—that Christ is tender, and
will not be offended at the dullness of his client. Some men can reveal
their cause to their lawyers better than some, and are more serviceable
and handy in that affair than others. But, saith the Christian, I am dull
and stupid that way, will not Christ be shuff14 and shy with me
because of this? Honest heart! He hath a supply of thy defects15 in
himself, and knoweth what thou wantest, and where the shoe pinches,
though thou art not able distinctly to open matters to him. The child is
pricked with a pin, and lies crying in the mother’s lap, but cannot
show its mother where the pin is; but there is pity enough in the
mother to supply this defect of the child; wherefore she undresses it,
opens it, searches every clout from head to the foot of the child, and
so finds where the pin is. Thus will thy lawyer do; he will search and
find out thy difficulties, and where Satan seeketh an advantage of
thee, accordingly will provide his remedy.

(e.) O, but will he not be weary? The prophet complains of some,
“that they weary God” Isa 7:13). And mine is a very cross and
intricate cause; I have wearied many a good man while I have been
telling my tale unto him, and I am afraid that I shall also weary Jesus
Christ. Answer. Soul, he suffered and did bear with the manners of
Israel forty years in the wilderness; and hast thou tried him half so
long? (Acts 13:18). The good souls that have gone before thee have
found him “a tried stone,” a sure one to be trusted to as to this (Isa
28:16). And the prophet saith positively that “he fainteth not, neither
is weary”; and that “there is no searching of his understanding” (Isa
40:28). Let all these things prevail with thee to believe, that if thou
hast committed by cause unto him, he will bring it to pass, to a good
pass, to so good a pass as will glorify God, honour Christ, save thee,
and shame the devil. But,

(4.) Wouldst thou know whether Jesus Christ is thine Advocate,
whether he has taken in hand to plead thy cause? Then, I ask, dost
thou, together with what has been mentioned before, wait upon him
according to his counsel, until things shall come to a legal issue?
Thus must clients do. There is a great many turnings and windings
about suits and trials at law; the enemy, also, with his supersedeas16
cavils, and motions, often defers a speedy issue; wherefore, the man
whose is the concern must wait; as the prophet said, “I will look,” said
he, “unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation.” But how
long, prophet, wilt thou wait? Why, says he, “until he plead my cause,
and execute judgment for me” (Micah 7:7-10).

Perhaps when thy cause is tried, things for the present are upon this
issue; thy adversary, indeed, is cast, but whether thou shalt have an
absolute discharge, as Peter had, or a conditional one, as David, and as
the Corinthians had, that is the question (II Sam 12:10-14). True, thou
shalt be completely saved at last; but yet whether it is not best to leave
to thee a memento of God’s displeasure against thy sin, by awarding
that the sword shall never depart from thy house, or that some sore
sickness or other distresses shall haunt thee as long as thou livest, or,
perhaps, that thou shalt walk without the light of God’s countenance
for several years and a day. Now, if any of these three things happen
unto thee, thou must exercise patience, and wait; thus did David—“I
waited patiently”; and again he exercises his soul in this virtue, saying
“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him”
(Psa 62:5). For now we are judged of the Lord, that we may not be
condemned with the world. And by this judgment, though it sets us
free from their damnation, yet we are involved in many troubles, and,
perhaps, must wait many a day before we can know that, as to the
main, the verdict hath gone on our side. Thus, therefore, in order to
thy waiting upon him without fainting, it is meet that thou shouldest
know the methods of him that manages thy cause for thee in heaven;
and suffer not mistrust to break in and bear sway in thy soul, for “he
will” at length “bring thee forth to the light, and thou shalt behold his
righteousness. She, also, that is thine enemy shall see it, and shame
shall cover her which saith unto thee, Where is the Lord thy God?”
(Micah 7: 9-10).

Question. But what is it to wait upon him according to his counsel?

Answer. (a.) To wait is to be of good courage, to live in expectation,
and to look for deliverance, though thou hast sinned against thy God.
“Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine
heart; wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psa 27:14).

(b.) To wait upon him is to keep his way, to walk humbly in his
appointments. “Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt
thee to inherit the land” (Psa 37:34).

(c.) To wait upon him is to observe and keep those directions which
he giveth thee; to observe even while he stands up to plead thy cause;
for without this, or not doing this, a man may mar his cause in the
hand of him that is to plead it; wherefore, keep thee far from an evil
matter, have no correspondence with thine enemy, walk humbly for
the wickedness thou hast committed, and loathe and abhor thyself for
it, in dust and ashes. To these things doth the Scripture everywhere
direct us.

(d.) To wait, is also to incline, to hearken to those further directions
which thou mayest receive from the mouth of thine advocate, as to
any fresh matters that may forward and expedite a good issue of thine
affair in the court of heaven. The want of this was the reason that the
deliverance of Israel did linger so long in former times. “O,” says he,
“that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my
ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand
against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have
submitted themselves unto him; but their time should have endured
for ever” (Psa 81:13-15).

(e.) Also, if it tarry long, wait for it. Do not conclude that thy cause is
lost because at present thou dost not hear from court. Cry, if thou wilt,
O, when wilt thou come unto me? But never let such a wicked thought
pass through thy heart, saying, “This evil is of the Lord; what should I
wait for the Lord any longer?” (II Kings 6:33).

(f.) But take heed that thou turnest not thy waiting into sleeping. Wait
thou must, and wait patiently too; but yet wait with much longing and
earnestness of spirit, to see or hear how matters go above. You may
observe, that when a man that dwells far down in the country, and has
some business at the term, in this or another of the king’s courts,
though he will wait his lawyer’s time and convenience, yet he will so
wait as still to inquire at the post house, or at the carrier’s, or if a
neighbour comes down from term, at his mouth, for letters, or any
other intelligence, if possibly he may arrive to know how his cause
speeds, and whether his adversary, or he, has the day. Thus, I say,
thou must wait upon thine Advocate. His ordinances are his post
house, his ministers are his carriers, where tidings from heaven are to
be had, and where those that are sued in that court by the devil may, at
one time or another, hear from their lawyer, their advocate, how
things are like to go. Wherefore, I say, wait at the posts of wisdom’s
house, go to ordinances with expectation to hear from thy Advocate
there; for he will send in due time; “though it tarry, wait for it;
because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Hab 2:1-3). And now,
soul, I have answered thy request, and let me hear what thou sayest
unto me.

Soul.—Truly, says the soul, methinks that by what you have said, I
may have this blessed Jesus to be mine Advocate; for I think, verily, I
have entertained him to be mine Advocate. I have also revealed my
cause unto him, yea, committed both it and myself unto him; and, as
you say, I wait; oh! I wait! and my eyes fail with looking upward.
Fain would I hear how my soul standeth in the sight of God, and
whether my sins, which I have committed since light and grace were
given unto me, be by mine Advocate, taken out of the hand of the
devil, and by mine Advocate removed as far from me as the ends of
the earth are asunder; whether the verdict has gone on my side, and
what a shout there was among the angels when they saw it went well
with me! But alas! I have waited, and that a long time, and have, as
you advise, run from ordinance to minister, and from minister to
ordinance, or, as you phrase it, from the post to the carrier, and from
the carrier to the post house, to see if I could hear aught from heaven
how matters went about my soul there. I have also asked those that
pass by the way, “if they saw him whom my soul loveth,” and if they
had anything to communicate to me? But nothing can I get or find but
generals; as, that I have an Advocate there, and that he pleadeth the
cause of his people, and that he will thoroughly plead their cause. But
what he has done for ME, of that as yet I am ignorant. I doubt if my
soul shall by him be effectually secured, that yet a conditional verdict
will be awarded concerning me, and that much bitter will be mixed
with my sweet, and that I must drink gall and wormwood for my folly;
for if David, and Asa, and Hezekiah and such good men, were so
served for their sins, (II Chron 16:7,12), why should I look for other
dealing at the hand of God? But as to this, I will endeavour to “bear
the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him,”
(Micah 7:9), and shall count it an infinite mercy, if this judgment
comes to me from him, that I may “not be condemned with the world”
(I Cor 11:32). I know it is dreadful walking in darkness; but if that
also shall be the Lord’s lot upon me; I pray God I may have faith
enough to stay upon him till death, and then will the clouds blow over,
and I shall see him in the light of the living.

Mine, enemy, the devil, as you see, is of an inveigling temper; and
though he has accused my before the judgment-seat of God, yet when
he comes to me at any time, he glavers17 and flatters as if he never did
mean me harm; but I think it is that he might get further advantage
against me. But I carry it now at a greater distance than formerly; and
O that I was at the remotest distance, not only from him, but also from
that self of mine, that laboureth with him for my undoing!

But although I say these things now, and to you, yet I have my solitary
hours, and in them I have other strange thoughts; for thus I think, my
cause is bad, I have sinned, and I have been vile. I am ashamed myself
of mine own doings, and have given mine enemy the best end of the
staff. The law, and reason, and my conscience, plead for him against
me, and all is true; he puts into his charge against me, that I have
sinned more times than there be hairs on my head. I know not
anything that ever I did in my life but it had flaw, or wrinkle, or spot,
or some such thing in it. Mine eyes have seen vileness in the best of
my doings; what, then, think you, must God needs see in them? Nor
can I do anything yet, for all I know that I am accused by my enemy
before the judgment-seat of God, better than what already is
imperfect. “I lie down in my shame, and my confusion covers my
face.” “I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of
men” (Jer 3:25, Job 7:20).

Reply.—Well, soul, I have heard what thou hast said, and if all be true
which thou hast said, it is good, and gives me ground of hope that
Jesus Christ is become thine Advocate; and if that be so, no doubt but
thy trial will come to a good conclusion. And be not afraid because of
the holiness of God; for thine Advocate has this for his advantage, that
he pleads before a judge that is just, and against an enemy that is
unholy and rejected. Nor let the thoughts of the badness of thy cause
terrify thee overmuch. Cause thou hast indeed to be humble, and thou
dost well to cover thy face with shame; and it is no matter how base
and vile thou art in thine own eyes, provided that it comes not by
renewed acts of rebellion, but through a spiritual sight of thine
imperfections. Only let me advise thee here to stop. Let not thy shame
nor thy self-abasing apprehension of thyself, drive thee from the firm
and permanent ground of hope, which is the promise, and the doctrine
of an Advocate with the Father. No; let not the apprehension of the
badness of thy cause do it, forasmuch as he did never yet take cause in
hand that was good, perfectly good of itself; and his excellency is, to
make a man stand that has a bad cause; yea, he can make a bad cause
good, in a way of justice and righteousness.

[THE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE WHO HAVE CHRIST FOR AN
ADVOCATE.]

FOURTHLY, And for thy further encouragement in this matter, I will
here bring in the fourth chief head—to wit, to show what excellent
privilege (I mean over and above what has already been spoken of)
they have that are made partakers of the benefit of this office:—“If
any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.”

First Privilege. Thy Advocate pleads to a price paid, to a propitiation
made; and this is a great advantage; yea, he pleads to a satisfaction
made for all wrongs done, or to be done, by his elect—“For by one
offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb
10:10,14; 9:26). “By one offering”—that is, by the offering of
himself—by one offering once offered, once offered in the end of the
world. This, I say, thine Advocate pleads. When Satan brings in fresh
accusations for more transgressions against the law of God, he forces
not Christ to shift his first plea. I say, he puts him not to his shifts at
all; for the price once paid hath in it sufficient value, would God
impute it to that end, to take away the sin of the whole world. There is
a man that hath brethren; he is rich, and they are poor (and this is the
case betwixt Christ and us), and the rich brother goeth to his father,
and saith, Thou art related to my brethren with me, and out of my
store, I pray thee, let them have sufficient, and for thy satisfaction I
will put into thy hand the whole of what I have, which perhaps is
worth an hundred thousand pounds by the year; and this other sum I
also give, that they be not disinherited. Now, will not this last his poor
brethren to spend upon a great while? But Christ’s worth can never be
drawn dry.

Now, set the case again, that some ill-conditioned man should take
notice that these poor men live all upon the spend (and saints do so),
and should come to the good man’s house, and complain to him of the
spending of his sons, and that while their elder brother stands by, what
do you think the elder brother would reply, if he was as good-natured
as Christ? Why, he would say, I have yet with my father in store for
my brethren, wherefore then seekest thou to stop his hand? As he is
just, he must give them for their convenience; yea, and as for their
extravagances, I have satisfied for them so well, that, however he
afflicteth them, he will not disinherit them. I hope you will read and
hear this, not like them that say, “Let us do evil that good may come,”
but like those whom the love of Christ constrains to be better.
However, this is the children’s bread, that which they have need of,
and without which they cannot live; and they must have it, though
Satan should put pins into it, therewith to choke the dogs.18 And for
the further clearing of this, I will present you with these few
considerations:

1. Those that are most sanctified have yet a body of sin and death in
them, and so also it will be, while they continue in this world (Rom
7:24). 2. This body of sin strives to break out, and will break out, to
the polluting of the conversation, if saints be not the more watchful
(Rom 6:12). Yea, it has broken out in a most sad manner, and that in
the strongest saints (Gal 5:17). 3. Christ offereth no new sacrifice for
the salvation of these his people. “For, being raised from the dead, he
dieth no more” (Rom 6:9). So then, if saints sin, they must be saved, if
saved at all, by virtue of the offering already offered; and if so, then
all Christ’s pleas, as an Advocate, are grounded upon that one offering
which before, as a Priest, he presented God with, for the taking away
of sin. So then, Christians live upon this old stock; their transgressions
are forgiven for the sake of the worth, that yet God finds in the
offering that Christ hath offered. And all Christ’s pleadings, as an
Advocate, are grounded upon the sufficiency and worth of that one
sacrifice; I mean, all his pleadings with his Father, as to the charge
which the accuser brings in against them. For though thou art a man of
infirmity, and so incident to nothing [so much] as to stumble and fall,
if grace doth not prevent, and it doth not always prevent; yet the value
and worth of the price that was once paid for thee is not yet worn out;
and Christ, as an Advocate, still pleadeth, as occasion is given, that,
with success, to thy salvation. And this privilege they have, who
indeed have Christ for their Advocate; and I put it here, in the first
place, because all other do depend upon it.

Second Privilege. Thine Advocate, as he pleadeth a price already paid,
so, and therefore, he pleads for himself as for thee. We are all
concerned in one bottom; if he sinks, we sink; if we sink, he sinks. 19
Give me leave to make out my meaning.

1. Christ pleads the value and virtue of the price of his blood and
sacrifice for us. And admit of this horrible supposition a little, for
argument’s sake, that though Christ pleads the worth of what, as
Priest, he offereth, yet the soul for whom he so pleads perishes
eternally. Now, where lieth the fault? In sin, you say: true; but it is
because there was more virtue in sin to damn, than there was in the
blood pleaded by Christ to save; for he pleaded his merit, he put it into
the balance against sin; but sin hath weighed down the soul of the
sinner to hell, notwithstanding the weight of merit that he did put in
against it. Now, what is the result, but that the Advocate goes down,
as well as we; we to hell, and he in esteem? Wherefore, I say, he is
concerned with us; his credit, his honour, his glory and renown, flies
all away, if those for whom he pleads as an Advocate perish for want
of worth in his sacrifice pleaded. But shall this ever be said of Christ?
Or will it be found that any, for whom Christ as Advocate pleads, yet
perish for want of worth in the price, or of neglect in the Advocate to
plead it? No, no; himself is concerned, and that as to his own
reputation and honour, and as to the value and virtue of his blood; nor
will he lose these for want of pleading for them concerned in this
office.

2. I argue again; Christ, as Advocate, must needs be concerned in his
plea; for that every one, for whose salvation he advocates, is his own;
so, then, if he loses, he loses his own—his substance and inheritance.
Thus, if he lose the whole, and if he lose a part, one, any one of his
own, he loseth part of his all, and of his fullness; wherefore we may
well think, that Christ, as Advocate, is concerned, even concerned
with his people, and therefore will thoroughly plead their cause.

Suppose a man should have a horse, though lame, and a piece of
ground, though somewhat barren, yet if any should attempt to take
these away, he would not sit still, and so lose his own; no, saith he,
“since they are mine own, they shall cost me five times more than
they are worth, but I will maintain my right.” I have seen men
sometimes strongly engaged in law for that which, when considered
by itself, one would think was not worth regarding; but when I have
asked them, why so concerned for a thing of so little esteem, they
have answered, O, it is some of that by which I hold a title of honour,
or my right to a greater income, and therefore I will not lose it. Why,
thus is Christ engaged; what he pleads for is his own, his all, his
fullness; yea, it is that by which he holds his royalty, for he is “King
of saints” (Rev 15:3, John 6:37-39, Psa 16:5,6). It is part of his estate,
and that by which he holds some of his titles of honour (Eph 5:23, Jer
50:34, Rom 11:26, Heb 2:10). Saviour, Redeemer, Deliverer, and
Captain, are some of his titles of honour; but if he loseth any of those,
upon whose account he weareth those titles of honour, for want of
virtue in his plea, or for want of worth in his blood, he loseth his own,
and not only so, but part of his royalty, and does also diminish and lay
a blot upon his glorious titles of honour; and he is jealous of his
honour; his honour he will not give to another.

Wherefore he will not, be not afraid, he never will leave nor forsake
those who have given themselves unto him, and for whom he is
become an Advocate with the Father, to plead their cause; even
because thou art one, one of his own, one by whom he holdeth his
glorious titles of honour.

Objection. O, but I am but one, and a very sorry one, too; and what is
one, especially such an one as I am? Can there be a miss of the loss of
such an one?

Answer. One and one makes two, and so ad infinitum. Christ cannot
lose one, but as he may lose more, and so, in conclusion, lose all: but
of all that God has given him, he will lose nothing (John 6:38,39).
Besides, to lose one would encourage Satan, disparage his own
wisdom, make him incapable of giving in, at the day of account, the
whole tale20 to God of those that he has given him. Further, this would
dishearten sinners, and make them afraid of venturing their cause and
their souls in his hand; and would, as I said before, either prove his
propitiation in some sense ineffectual, or else himself defective in his
pleading on it; but none of these things must be supposed. He will
thoroughly plead the cause of his people, execute judgment for them,
bring them out to the light, and cause them to behold his righteousness
(Micah 7:9).

Third Privilege. The plea of Satan is groundless, and that is another
privilege: for albeit thou hast sinned, yet since Christ before has paid
thy debt, and also paid for more; since thou hast not yet run beyond
the price of thy redemption; it must be concluded that Satan wants a
good bottom to ground his plea upon, and therefore must, in
conclusion, fail of his design. True, there is sin committed, there is a
law transgressed, but there is also a satisfaction for this transgression,
and that which superabounds; so, though there be sin, yet there wants
a foundation for a plea. Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, but
Christ had other garments provided for him, change of raiment:
wherefore iniquity, as to the charge of Satan, vanishes. “And the angel
answered and said, Take away the filthy garments from him” [this
intimates that there was no ground, no sufficient ground, for Satan’s
charge]; “and unto him he said, Behold I have caused thine iniquity to
pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment” (Zech
3:4). 21

Now, if there be no ground, no sound and sufficient ground, to build a
charge against the child upon, I mean, as to eternal condemnation; for
that is the thing contended for; then, as I said, Satan must fall “like
lightning to the ground,” and be cast over the bar, as a corrupt and
illegal pleader. But this is so, as in part is proved already, and will be
further made out by that which follows. They that have indeed Christ
to be their Advocate, are themselves, by virtue of another law than
that against which they have sinned, secured from the charge that
Satan brings in against them. I granted before, that the child of God
has sinned, and that there is a law that condemneth for this sin; but
here is the thing, this child is removed by an act of grace into and
under another law: “For we are not under the law,” and so,
consequently, “there is now no condemnation for them” (Rom 6:14,
8:1). Wherefore, when God speaketh of his dealing with his, he saith,
It shall “not be by their covenant,” that is, not by that of the law, they
then being not under the law (Eze 16:61). What if a plea be
commenced against them, a plea for sin, and they have committed sin;
a plea grounded upon the law, and the law takes cognizance of their
sin? Yet, I say, the plea wants a good bottom, for that the person thus
accused is put under another law; hence, he says, “Sin shall not have
dominion over you, for ye are not under the law.” If the child was
under the law, Satan’s charge would be good, because it would have a
substantial ground of support; but since the child is dead to the law,
(Gal 2:19), and that also dead to him, for both are true as to
condemnation, (Rom 7:6), how can it be that Satan should have a
sufficient ground for his charge, though he should have matter of fact,
sufficient matter of fact, that is sin? For by his change of relation, he
is put out of the reach of that law. There is a woman, a widow, that
oweth a sum of money, and she is threatened to be sued for the debt;
now what doth she but marrieth; so, when the action is commenced
against her as a widow, the law finds her a married woman; what now
can be done? Nothing to her; she is not who she was; she is delivered
from that state by her marriage; if anything be done, it must be done
to her husband. But if Satan will sue Christ for my debt, he oweth him
nothing; and as for what the law can claim of me while I was under it,
Christ has delivered me by redemption from that curse, “being made a
curse for me” (Gal 3:13).

Now the covenant into which I am brought by grace, by which also I
am secured from the law, is not a law of sin and death, as that is from
under which I am brought, (Rom 8:2), but a law of grace and life; so
that Satan cannot come at me by that law; and by grace, I am by that
secured also from the hand, and mouth, and sting of all other; I mean
still, as to an eternal concern. Wherefore God saith, “If we break his
law, the law of works, he will visit our sin with a rod, and our iniquity
with stripes; but his covenant, his new covenant, will he not break,”
but will still keep close to that, and so secure us from eternal
condemnation (Psa 89:30-37).

Christ also is made the mediator of that covenant, and therefore an
Advocate by that; for his priestly office and advocateship are included
by his mediation; wherefore when Satan pleads by the old, Christ
pleads by the new covenant, for the sake of which the old one is
removed. “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first
old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish
away” (Heb 8:13). So, then, the ground of plea is with Jesus Christ,
and not with our accuser. Now, what doth Christ plead, and what is
the ground of his plea? Why, he pleads for exemption and freedom
from condemnation, though by the law of works his children have
deserved it; and the ground for this his plea, as to law, is the matter of
the covenant itself, for thus it runs: “For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no
more” (Heb 8:12). Now here is a foundation—a foundation in law, for
our Advocate to build his plea upon; a foundation in a law not to be
moved, or removed, or made to give place, as that is forced to do,
upon which Satan grounds his plea against us.
Men, when they plead before a judge, use to plead matter of law.
Now, suppose there is an old law in the realm, by which men deserve
to be condemned to death, and there is a new law in this realm that
secureth men from that condemnation which belongs to them by the
old; and suppose also, that I am completely comprehended by all the
provisos of the new law, and not by any tittle thereof excluded from a
share therein; and suppose, again, that I have a brangling adversary
that pursues me by the old law, which yet cannot in right touch me,
because I am interested in the new; my advocate also is one that
pleads by the new law, where only there is a ground of plea; shall not
now mine adversary feel the power of his plea to the delivering of me,
and the putting of him to shame? Yes, verily; especially since the plea
is good, the judge just; nor can the enemy find any ground for a
demur22 to be put in against my present discharge in open court, and
that by proclamation; especially since my Advocate has also, by his
blood, fully satisfied the old law, that he might establish the new (Heb
10: 9, 11, 12).

Fourth Privilege. Since that which goeth before is true, it follows, that
he that entereth his plea against the children must needs be
overthrown; for always before just judges it is the right that taketh
place. Judge the right, O Lord, said David; or, “let my sentence come
forth from thy presence,” according to the law of grace. And he that
knows what strong ground, or bottom, our Advocate has for his
pleadings, and how Satan’s accusations are without sound foundation,
will not be afraid, he speaking in Christ, to say, I appeal to God
Almighty, since Christ is my Advocate by the new law, whether I
ought to be condemned to death and hell for what Satan pleads against
me by the old. Satan urgeth that we have sinned, but Christ pleads to
his propitiatory sacrifice; and so Satan is overthrown. Satan pleads the
law of works, but Christ pleads the law of grace. Further, Satan pleads
the justice and holiness of God against us; and there the accuser is
overthrown again. And to them Christ appeals, and his appeal is good,
since the law testifies to the sufficiency of the satisfaction that Christ
has made thereto by his obedience (Rom 3:22, 23). And also, since by
another covenant, God himself has given us to Jesus Christ, and so
delivered us from the old. Wherefore you read nothing as an effect of
Satan’s pleading against us, but that his mouth is stopped, as appears
by Zechariah 3; and that he is cast; yea, cast down, as you have it in
Revelation 12.

Indeed, when God admits not, when Christ wills not to be an
Advocate, and when Satan is bid stand at the right hand of one
accused, to enforce, by pleading against him, the things charged on
him by the law, then he can prevail—prevail for ever against such a
wretched one (Psa 109: 6, 7). But when Christ stands up to plead,
when Christ espouses this or that man’s cause, then Satan must
retreat, then he must go down. And this necessarily flows from the
text, “We have an Advocate,” a prevailing one, one that never lost
cause, one that always puts the children’s enemy to the rout before the
judgment-seat of God. 23

This, therefore, is another privilege that they have, who have Jesus
Christ for their Advocate; their enemy must needs be overthrown,
because both law and justice are on their side.

Fifth Privilege. Thine advocate has pity for thee, and great indignation
against thine accuser: and these are two excellent things. When a
lawyer hath pity for a man whose cause he pleadeth, it will engage
him much; but when he has indignation also against the man’s
accuser, this will yet engage him more. Now, Christ has both these,
and that not of humour, but by grace and justice; grace to us, and
justice to our accuser. He came down from heaven that he might be a
Priest, and returned thither again to be Priest and Advocate for his;
and in both these offices he levelleth his whole force and power
against thine accuser: “For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:8).

Cunning men will, if they can, retain such an one to be their
Advocate, who has a particular quarrel against their adversary; for
thus, think they, he that is such, will not only plead for me, but for
himself, and to right his own wrongs also; and since, if it be so, and it
is so here, my concerns and my Advocate’s are interwoven, I am like
to fare much the better for the anger that is conceived in his heart
against him. And this, I say, is the children’s case; their Advocate
counteth their accuser his greatest enemy, and waiteth for a time to
take vengeance, and he usually then takes the opportunity when he has
aught to do for his people against him. Hence he says, “The day of
vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come”
(Isa 63:3, 4).

I do not say that this revenge of Christ is, as ofttimes is a man’s, of
spite, prejudice, or other irregular lettings out of passions; but it
ariseth from righteousness and truth; nor can it be but that Jesus must
have a desire to take vengeance on his enemy and ours, since holiness
is in him, to the utmost bounds of perfection. And I say again, that in
all his pleading as an Advocate, as well as in his offering as a Priest,
he has a hot and flaming desire and design to right himself upon his
foe and ours; hence he triumphed over him when he died for us upon
the cross, and designed the spoiling of his principality, while he
poured out his blood for us before God. We then have this advantage
more, in that Christ is our Advocate, our enemy is also his, and the
Lord Jesus counts him so (Col 2:14, 15).

Sixth Privilege. As thine Advocate, so thy judge holdeth thine accuser
for his enemy also; for it is not of love to righteousness and justice
that Satan accuseth us to God, but that he may destroy the
workmanship of God. Wherefore he also fighteth against God when
he accuseth the children; and this thy Father knows right well. He
must therefore needs distinguish between the charge and the mind that
brings it; especially when what is charged upon us is under the
gracious promise of a pardon, as I have showed it is. Shall not the
Judge then hear his Son—for our Advocate is his Son—in the cause of
one that he favours, and that he justly can, against an enemy who
seeks his dishonour, and the destruction of his eternal dishonour, and
the destruction of his eternal designs of grace?

A mention of the judge’s son goes far with countrymen; and great
striving there is with them who have great enemies and bad causes to
get the judge’s son to plead, promising themselves that the judge is as
like to hear him, and to yield a verdict to his plea, as to any other
lawyer. But what now shall we say concerning our Judge’s Son, who
takes part, not only with his children, but with him, and with law and
justice, in pleading against our accuser? Yea, what shall we say when
both Judge, and Advocate, and law, are all bent to make our persons
stand and escape, whatever, and how truly soever, the charge and
accusation is by which we are assaulted of the devil. And yet all this is
true; wherefore, here is another privilege of them that have Jesus for
their Advocate.

Seventh Privilege. Another privilege that they have who have Jesus
Christ for their Advocate is, that he is undaunted, and of a good
courage, as to the cause that he undertakes; for that is a requisite
qualification for a lawyer, to be bold and undaunted in a man’s cause.
Such an one is coveted, especially by him that knows he has a brazen-
faced antagonist. Wherefore, he saith that “he will set his face like a
flint,” when he stands up to plead the cause of his people (Isa 50:5-7).
Lawyers, of all men, need this courage, and to be above others, men
of hard foreheads, because of the affronts that sometimes they meet
with, be their cause never so good, in the face sometimes, of the chief
of a kingdom. Now Christ is our lawyer, and stands up to plead, not
only sometimes, but always, for his people, before the God of gods,
and that not in a corner, but while all the host of heaven stands by,
both on the right hand and on the left. Nor is it to be doubted but that
our accuser brings many a sore charge against us into the court; but,
however, we have an Advocate that is valiant and courageous, one
that will not fail nor be discouraged till he has brought judgment unto
victory. Hence John asserts his name, saying, “If any man sin, we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.”

Men love to understand a man before they commit their cause unto
him—to wit, whether he be fitly qualified for their business. Well,
here is an Advocate propounded, an Advocate to plead our cause
against our foe. But what is he? What is his name? Is he qualified for
my business? The answer is, It is Jesus Christ. How? Jesus Christ,
what! That old friend of publicans and sinners? Jesus Christ! He used
never to fail, he used to set his face like a flint against Satan when he
pleaded the cause of his people. Is it Jesus Christ? says the knowing
soul; then he shall be mine Advocate.

For my part, I have often wondered, when I have considered what sad
causes Jesus Christ sometimes takes in hand, and for what sad souls
he sometimes pleads with God his Father. He had need of a face as
hard as flint, else how could he bear up in that work in which for us
sometimes he is employed—a work enough to make angels blush.
Some, indeed, will lightly put off this, and say, “It is his office”; but, I
say, his office, notwithstanding the work in itself is hard, exceeding
hard, when he went to die, had he not despised the shame, he had
turned his back upon the cross, and left us in our blood. And now it is
his turn to plead, the case would be the same, only he can make
argument upon that which to us seems to yield no argument at all, to
take courage to plead for a Joshua, for a Joshua clothed, clothed with
filthy garments. He, saith he, that “shall be ashamed of me and of my
words in this adulterous and sinful generation: of him shall the Son of
man be ashamed,” &C (Mark 8:38). Hence it follows that Christ will
be ashamed of some; but why not ashamed of others? It is not because
their cause is good, but because they are kept from denying of him
professedly; wherefore, for such he will force himself, and will set his
face like a flint, and will, without shame, own, plead, and improve his
interest with God for them, even for them whose cause is so horribly
bad and gross that themselves do blush while they think thereof. But
what will not love do? What will not love bear with? And what will
not love suffer? Of all the offices of Jesus Christ, I think this trieth
him as much as any! True, his offering himself in sacrifice tried him
greatly, but that was but for awhile; his grappling, as a captain, with
the curse, death, and hell, tried him much, but that also was but for
awhile; but this office of being an Advocate, though it meeteth not
with such sudden depths of trouble, yet what is wants in shortness it
may meet with in length of time. I know Christ, being raised from the
dead, dies no more; yet he has not left off, though in heaven, to do
some works of service for his saints on earth; for there he pleads as an
Advocate or lawyer for his people (Heb 8:1, 2). And let it be that he
has no cause of shame when he standeth thus up to plead for so vile a
wretch as I, who have so vilely sinned, yet I have cause to think that
well he may, and to hold my hands before my face for shame, and to
be confounded with shame, while he, to fetch me off from
condemnation for my transgressions, sets his face like a flint to plead
for me with God, and against my accuser. But thus much for the
seventh privilege that they have by Christ who have him for their

Advocate.

Eighth Privilege. Another privilege that they have who have Jesus
Christ to be their Advocate is this, He is always ready, always in
court, always with the judge, then and there to oppose, if our accuser
comes, and to plead against him what is pleadable for his children.
And this the text implies where it saith, “We have an Advocate with
the Father,” always with the Father. Some lawyers, though they are
otherwise able and shrewd, yet not being always in court and ready,
do suffer their poor clients to be baffled and nonsuited24 by their
adversary; yea, it so comes to pass because of this neglect, that a
judgment is got out against them for whom they have undertaken to
plead, to their great perplexity and damage: but no such opportunity
can Satan have of our Advocate, for he is with the Father, always with
the Father; as to be a Priest, so to be an Advocate—“We have an
Advocate with the Father.” It is said of the priests, they wait at the
altar, and that they give attendance there, (I Cor 9:13); also of the
magistrate, that as to his office, he should attend “continually on this
very thing” (Rom 13:6). And as these, so Christ, as to his office of an
Advocate, attends continually upon that office with his Father. “We
have an Advocate with the Father,” always with the Father. And truly
such an Advocate becomes the children of God, because of the
vigilance of their enemy; for it is said of him, that “he accuseth us day
and night,” so unweariedly doth he both seek and pursue our
destruction (Rev 12:10). But behold how we are provided for him—
“We have an Advocate with the Father.” If he come a-days, our
Advocate is with the Father; if he come a-nights, our Advocate is with
the Father25

Thus, then, is our Advocate ready to put check to Satan, come he
when he will or can, to accuse us to the Father. Wherefore these two
texts are greatly to be minded, one of them, for that it shows us the
restlessness of our enemy, the other, for that it shows us the diligence
of our Advocate.

That, also, in the Hebrews shows us the carefulness of our Advocate,
where it saith, He is gone “into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us” (Heb 9:24). Now, just the time present;
NOW, the time always present; NOW, let Satan come when he will!
Nor is it to be omitted that this word that thus specifies the time, the
present time, doth also conclude it to be that time in which we are
imperfect in grace, in which we have many failings, in which we are
tempted and accused of the devil to God; this is the time, and in it, and
every whit of it, he now appeareth in the presence of God for us. Oh,
the diligence of our enemy; oh, the diligence of our friend!—the one
against us, the other for us, and that continually—“If any man sin, we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” This,
then, that Jesus Christ is always an Advocate with the Father for us,
and so continually ready to put a check to every accusation that Satan
brings into the presence of God against us, is another of the privileges
that they have, who have Jesus Christ for their Advocate.

Ninth Privilege. Another privilege that they have who have Jesus
Christ to be their Advocate is this, he is such an one that will not, by
bribes, by flattery, nor fair pretenses, be turned aside from pursuing of
his client’s business. This was the fault of lawyers in old time, that
they would wrest judgment for a bribe. Hence the Holy One
complained, that a bribe did use to blind the eyes of the wise, and
pervert the judgment of the righteous (I Sam 12:3; Amos 5:12; Deut
16:19).

There are three things in judgment that a lawyer must take heed of—
one is the nature of the offence, the other is the meaning and
intendment of the law-makers, and a third is to plead for them in
danger, without respect to affection or reward; and this is the
excellency of our Advocate, he will not, cannot be biased to turn aside
from doing judgment. And this the apostle intendeth when he calleth
our Advocate “Jesus Christ the righteous.” “We have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”; or, as another prophet
calls him, to wit, “The just Lord—one that will not do iniquity”—that
is, no unrighteousness in judgment (Zeph 3:5). He will not be
provoked to do it, neither by the continual solicitations of thine
enemy; nor by thy continual provocations wherewith, by reason of thy
infirm condition, thou dost often tempt him to do it. And remember
that thy Advocate pleads by the new covenant, and thine adversary
accuses by the old; and again, remember that the new covenant is
better and more richly provided with grounds of pleading for our
pardon and salvation, than the old can be with grounds for a charge to
be brought in by the devil against us, suppose our sin be never so
heinous. It is a better covenant, established upon better promises.

Now, put these two together—namely, that Jesus Christ is righteous,
and will not swerve in judgment; also, that he pleads for us by the new
law, with which Satan hath nothing to do, nor, had he, can he by it
bring in a plea against us, because that law, in the very body of it,
consists in free promises of giving grace unto us, and of an everlasting
forgiveness of our sin (Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:25-30; Heb 8:8-13) O
children, your Advocate will stick to the law, to the new law, to the
new and everlasting covenant, and will not admit that anything should
be pleaded by our foe that is inconsistent with the promise of the gift
of grace, and of the remission of all sin. This, therefore, is another
privilege that they are made partakers of who have Jesus Christ to be
their Advocate. He is just, he is righteous, he is “Jesus Christ the
righteous”; he will not be turned aside to judge awry, either of the
crime or the law, for favour or affection. Nor is there any sin but what
is pardonable committed by those that have chosen Jesus Christ to be
their Advocate.

Tenth Privilege. Another privilege that they have who have Jesus
Christ to be their Advocate, is this, the Father has made him, even him
that is thine Advocate, the umpire and judge in all matters that have,
do, or shall fall out betwixt him and us. Mark this well; for when the
judge himself, before whom I am accused, shall make mine Advocate,
the judge of the nature of the crime for which I am accused, and of
matter of law by which I am accused—to wit, whether it is in force
against me to condemnation, or whether by the law of grace I am set
free, especially since my Advocate has espoused my cause, promised
me deliverance, and pleaded my right to the state of eternal life—must
it not go well with me? Yes, verily. The judge, then, making thine
Advocate the judge, for he “hath committed all judgment unto the
Son,” hath done it also for thy sake who hast chosen him to be thine
Advocate (John 5:22) It was a great thing that happened to Israel
when Joseph was become their advocate, and when Pharaoh had made
him a judge. “Thou,” says he, “shalt be over my house, and according
unto thy word shall all my people be ruled. See, I have set thee over
all the land of Egypt—and without thee shall no man lift up his hand
or foot in all the land of Egypt—only in the throne will I be greater
than thou” (Gen 41:40,44). Joseph in this was a type of Christ, and his
government here of the government of Christ for his church. Kings
seldom make a man’s judge his advocate; they seldom leave the issue
of the whole affair to the arbitration of the poor man’s lawyer; but
when they do, methinks it should even go to the heart’s desire of the
client whose the advocate is, especially when, as I said before, the
cause of the client is become the concern of the advocate, and that
they are both wrapped up in the self-same interest; yea, when the
judge himself also is therein concerned; and yet thus it is with that
soul who has Jesus Christ for his Advocate. What sayest thou, poor
heart, to this? The judge—to wit, the God of heaven , has made thy
Advocate, arbitrator in thy business; he is to judge; God has referred
the matter to him, and he has a concern in thy concern, an interest in
thy good speed. Christian man, dost thou hear? Thou hast put thy
cause into the hand of Jesus Christ, and hast chosen him to be thine
Advocate to plead for thee before God and against thy adversary; and
God has referred the judgment of that matter to thy Advocate, so that
he has power to determine the matter. I know Satan is not pleased
with this. He had rather things should have been referred to himself,
and then woe had been to the child of God; but, I say, God has
referred the business to Jesus Christ, has made him umpire and judge
in thine affair. Art thou also willing that he should decide the matter?
Canst thou say unto him as David, “Judge me, O God, and plead my
cause” (Psa 43:1)? Oh, the care of God towards his people, and the
desire of their welfare! He has provided them an Advocate, and he has
referred all causes and things that may by Satan be objected and
brought in against us, to the judgment and sentence of Christ our
Advocate. But to come to a conclusion for this; and therefore,

Eleventh Privilege. The advantage that he has that has the Lord Jesus
for his Advocate is very great. Thy Advocate has the cause, has the
law, has the judge, has the purse, and so consequently has all that is
requisite for an Advocate to have, since together with these he has
heart, he has wisdom, he has courage, and loves to make the best
improvement of his advantages for the benefit of his client; and that
which adds to all is, he can prove the debt paid, about which Satan
makes such ado—a price given for the ransom of my soul and for the
pardon of my sins. Lawyers do use to make a great matter of it, when
they can prove, that that very debt is paid for which their client is sued
at law. Now this Christ Jesus himself is witness to; yea, he himself has
paid it, and that out of his own purse, for us, with his own hands,
before and upon the mercy-seat, according as the law requireth (Lev
16:13-15; Heb 9:11-24). What then can accrue to our enemy? or what
advantage can he get by his thus vexing and troubling the children of
the Most High? Certainly nothing, but, as has been said already, to be
cast down; for the kingdom of our God, which is a kingdom of grace,
and the power of his Christ will prevail. Samson’s power lay in his
hair, but Christ’s power, his power to deliver us from the accusation
and charge of Satan, lieth in the worth of his undertakings. And hence
it is said again, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb,”
and he was cast out and down (Rev 12:10-12). And thus much for the
privileges that those are made partakers of, who have Jesus Christ to
be their Advocate.

[THE NECESSITY OF HAVING CHRIST FOR OUR
ADVOCATE.]

Fifthly, I come now to the fifth thing, which is, to show you what
necessity there is that Christ should be our Advocate.

That Christ should be a Priest to offer sacrifice, a King to rule, and a
Prophet to teach, all seeing men acknowledge is of necessity; but that
he should be an Advocate, a pleader for his people, few see the reason
of it. But he is an Advocate, and as an Advocate has a work and
employ distinct from his priestly, kingly, or prophetical offices. John
says, “He is our Advocate,” and signifieth also the nature of his work
as such, in that very place where he asserteth his office; as also I have
showed you in that which goes before. But having already showed
you the nature, I will now show you the necessity of this office.

First. It is necessary for the more full and ample vindication of the
justice of God against all the cavils of the infernal spirits. Christ died
on earth to declare the justice of God to men in his justifying the
ungodly. God standeth upon the vindication of his justice, as well as
upon the act thereof. Hence the Holy Ghost, by the prophets and
apostles, so largely disputeth for the vindication thereof, while it
asserteth the reality of the pardon of sin, the justification of the
unworthy, and their glorification with God (Rom 3:24; Isa, Jer, Mal;
Rom 3, 4, 8; Gal 3,4). I say, while it disputeth the justness of this high
act of God against the cavils of implacable sinners. Now the prophets
and apostles, in those disputes by which they seek to vindicate the
justice of God in the salvation of sinners, are not only ministers of
God to us, but advocates for him; since, as Elihu has it, they “speak on
God’s behalf,” or, as the margin has it, “I will show thee that there are
yet words for God,” words to be spoken and pleaded against his
enemies for the justification of his actions (Job 36:2). Now, as it is
necessary that there should be advocates for God on earth to plead for
his justice and holiness, while he saveth sinners, against the cavils of
an ungodly people, so it is necessary that there should be an Advocate
also in heaven, that may there vindicate the same justice and holiness
of God from all those charges that the fallen angels are apt to charge it
with, while it consenteth that we, though ungodly, should be saved.

That the fallen angels are bold enough to charge God to his face with
unjustness of language, is evident in the 1st and 2nd of Job; and that
they should not be as bold to charge him with unjustness of actions,
nothing can be showed to the contrary. Further, that God seeks to
clear himself of this unjust charge of Satan is as manifest; for all the
troubles of his servant Job were chiefly for that purpose. And why he
should have one also in heaven to plead for the justness of his doing in
the forgiveness and salvation of sinners appears also as necessary,
even because there is one, even an Advocate with the Father, or on the
Father’s side, seeking to vindicate his justice, while he pleadeth with
him for us, against the devil and his objections. God is wonderfully
pleased with his design in saving of sinners; it pleases him at the
heart. And since he also is infinitely just, there is need that an
Advocate should be appointed to show how, in a way of justice as
well as mercy, a sinner may be saved.

The good angels did not at first see so far into the mysteries of the
gospel of the grace of God, but that they needed further light therein
for the vindication of their Lord as servants. Wherefore they yet did
pry and look narrowly into it further, and also bowed their heads and
hearts to learn yet more, by the church, of “the manifold wisdom of
God” (I Peter 1:12; Eph 3:9,10). And if the standing angels were not
yet, to the utmost, perfect in the knowledge of this mystery, and yet
surely they must know more thereof than those that fell could do, no
wonder if those devils, whose enmity could not but animate their
ignorance, made, and do make, their cavils against justice, insinuating
that it is not impartial and exact, because it, as it is just, justifieth the
ungodly.

That Satan will quarrel with God I have showed you, and that he will
also dispute against his works with the holy angels, is more than
intimated by the apostle Jude, verse 9, and why not quarrel with, and
accuse the justice of God as unrighteous, for consenting to the
salvation of sinners, since his best qualifications are most profound
and prodigious attempts to dethrone the Lord God of his power and
glory.

Nay, all this is evident, since “we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.” And again, I say, it is evident that one part
of his work as an Advocate, is to vindicate the justice of God while he
pleadeth for our salvation, because he pleadeth a propitiation; for a
propitiation respects God as well as us; the appeasing his wrath, and
the reconciling of his justice to us, as well as the redeeming us from
death and hell; yea, it therefore doth the one, because it doth the other.
Now, if Christ, as an Advocate, pleadeth a propitiation with God, for
whose conviction doth he plead it? Not for God’s; for he has ordained
it, allows it, and gloriously acquiesces therein, because he knows the
whole virtue thereof. It is therefore for the conviction of the fallen
angels, and for the confounding of all those cavils that can be invented
and objected against our salvation by those most subtle and envious
ones. But,

Second. There is matter of law to be objected, and that both against
God and us; at least, there seems to be so, because of the sanction that
God has put upon the law, and also because we have sinned against it.
God has said, “In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die”;
and, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” God also standeth still upon
the vindication of his justice, he also saveth sinners. Now, in comes
our accuser, and chargeth us of sin, of being guilty of sin, because we
have transgressed the law. God also will not be put out of his way, or
steps of grace, to save us; also he will say, he is just and righteous
still. Ay, but these are but say-so’s. How shall this be proved? Why,
now, here is room for an advocate that can plead to matter of law, that
can preserve the sanction of the law in the salvation of the sinner—
“He will magnify the law, and make it honourable” (Isa 42:21). The
margin saith, “and make him honourable”26—that is, he shall save the
sinner, and preserve the holiness of the law, and the honour of his
God. But who is this that can do this? “It is the servant of God,” saith
the prophet, (Isa 42:1, 13), “the Lord, a man of war.” But how can this
be done by him? The answer is, It shall be done, “for God is well
pleased for his righteousness’ sake”; for it is by that he magnifies the
law, and makes his Father honourable—that is, he, as a public person,
comes into the world under the law, fulfills it, and having so done, he
gives that righteousness away, for he, as to his own person, never had
need thereof; I say, he gives that righteousness to those that have
need, to those that have none of their own, that righteousness might be
imputed to them. This righteousness, then, he presenteth to God for
us, and God, for this righteousness’ sake, is well pleased that we
should be saved, and for it can save us, and secure his honour, and
preserve the law in its sanction. And this Christ pleadeth against Satan
as an Advocate with the Father for us; by which he vindicates his
Father’s justice, holdeth the child of God, notwithstanding his sins, in
a state of justification, and utterly overthroweth and confoundeth the
devil.

For Christ, in pleading thus, appeals to the law itself, if he has not
done it justice, saying, “Most mighty law, what command of thine
have I not fulfilled? What demand of thine have I not fully answered?
Where is that jot or tittle of the law that is able to object against my
doings for want of satisfaction?” Here the law is mute; it speaketh not
one word by way of the least complaint, but rather testifies of this
righteousness that it is good and holy, (Rom 3:22, 23; 5:15-19). Now,
then, since Christ did this as a public person, it follows that others
must be justified thereby; for that was the end and reason of Christ’s
taking on him to do the righteousness of the law. Nor can the law
object against the equity of this dispensation of heaven; for why might
not that God, who gave the law his being and his sanction, dispose as
he pleases of the righteousness which it commendeth? Besides, if men
be made righteous, they are so; and if by a righteousness which the
law commendeth, how can fault be found with them by the law? Nay,
it is “witnessed by the law and the prophets,” who consent that it
should be unto all, and upon all them that believe, for their
justification (Rom 3:20,21).

And that the mighty God suffereth the prince of the devils to do with
the law what he can, against this most wholesome and godly doctrine;
it is to show the truth, goodness, and permanency thereof; for this is as
who should say, Devil, do thy worst! When the law is in the hand of
an easy pleader, though the cause that he pleadeth be good, a crafty
opposer may overthrow the right; but here is the salvation of the
children in debate, whether it can stand with law and justice; the
opposer of this is the devil, his argument against it is the law; he that
defends the doctrine is Christ the Advocate, who, in his plea, must
justify the justice of God, defend the holiness of the law, and save the
sinner from all the arguments, pleas, stops and demurs that Satan is
able to put in against it. And this he must do fairly, righteously,
simply, pleading the voice of the self-same law for the justification of
what he standeth for, which Satan pleads against it; for though it is by
the new law that our salvation comes, yet by the old law is the new
law approved of and the way of salvation thereby by it consented to.

This shows, therefore, that Christ is not ashamed to own the way of
our justification and salvation, no, not before men and devils. It shows
also that he is resolved to dispute and plead for the same, though the
devil himself shall oppose it. And since our adversary pretends a plea
in law against it, it is meet that there should be an open hearing before
the Judge of all about it; but, forasmuch as we neither can nor dare
appear to plead for ourselves, our good God has thought fit we should
do it by an advocate: “We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.” This, therefore, is the second thing that shows
the need that we have of an Advocate—to wit, our adversary pretends
that he has a plea in law against us, and that by law we should be
otherwise disposed of than to be made possessors of the heavenly
kingdom. But,

Third. There are many things relating to the promise, to our life, and
to the threatenings, that minister matter of question and doubt, and
give the advantage of objections unto him that so eagerly desireth to
be putting in cavils against our salvation, all which it hath pleased
God to repel by Jesus Christ our Advocate.

1. There are many things relating to the promises, as to the largeness
and straitness of words, as to the freeness and conditionality of them,
which we are not able so well to understand; and, therefore, when
Satan dealeth with us about them, we quickly fall to the ground before
him; we often conclude that the words of the promise are too narrow
and strait to comprehend us; we also think, verily, that the conditions
of some promises do utterly shut us out from hope of justification and
life; but our Advocate, who is for us with the Father, he is better
acquainted with, and learned in, this law than to be baffled out with a
bold word or two, or with a subtle piece of hellish sophistication (Isa
50:4). He knows the true purport, intent, meaning, and sense of every
promise, and piece of promise that is in the whole Bible, and can tell
how to plead it for advantage against our accuser, and doth so. And I
gather it not only from his contest with Satan for Joshua, (Zech 3),
and from his conflict with him in the wilderness, (Matt 4), and in
heaven, (Rev 14), but also from the practice of Satan’s emissaries
here; for what his angels do, that doth he. Now there is here nothing
more apparent than that the instruments of Satan do plead against the
church, from the pretended intricacy, ambiguity, and difficulty of the
promise; whence I gather, so doth Satan before the tribunal of God;
but there we have one to match him; “we have an Advocate with the
Father,” that knows law and judgment better than Satan, and statute
and commandment better than all his angels; and by the verdict of our
Advocate, all the words, and limits, and extensions of words, with all
conditions of the promises, are expounded and applied! And hence it
is that it sometimes so falleth out that the very promise we have
thought could not reach us, to comfort us by any means, has at another
time swallowed us up with joy unspeakable. Christ, the true Prophet,
has the right understanding of the Word as an Advocate, has pleaded
it before God against Satan, and having overcome him at the common
law, he hath sent to let us know it by his good Spirit, to our comfort,
and the confusion of our enemy. Again,

2. There are many things relating to our lives that minister to our
accuser occasions of many objections against our salvation; for,
besides our daily infirmities, there are in our lives gross sins, many
horrible backslidings; also we ofttimes suck and drink in many
abominable errors and deceitful opinions, of all which Satan accuseth
us before the judgment-seat of God, and pleadeth hard that we may be
damned for ever for them. Besides, some of these things are done after
light received, against present convictions and dissuasions to the
contrary, against solemn engagements to amendment, when the bonds
of love were upon us (Jer 2:20). These are crying sins; they have a
loud voice in themselves against us, and give to Satan great advantage
and boldness to sue for our destruction before the bar of God; nor doth
he want skill to aggravate and to comment profoundly upon all
occasions and circumstances that did attend us in these our
miscarriages—to wit, that we did it without a cause, also, when we
had, had we had grace to have used them, many things to have helped
us against such sins, and to have kept us clean and upright. “There is
also a sin unto death,” (I John 5:16), and he can tell how to labour, by
argument and sleight of speech, to make our transgressions, not only
to border upon, but to appear in the hue, shape, and figure of that, and
thereto make his objection against our salvation. He often argueth thus
with us, and fasteneth the weight of his reasons upon our consciences,
to the almost utter destruction of us, and the bringing of us down to
the gates of despair and utter destruction; the same sins, with their
aggravating circumstances, as I said, he pleadeth against us at the bar
of God. But there he meeteth with Jesus Christ, our Lord and
Advocate, who entereth his plea against him, unravels all his reasons
and arguments against us, and shows the guile and falsehood of them.
He also pleadeth as to the nature of sin, as also to all those high
aggravations, and proveth that neither the sin in itself, nor yet as
joined with all its advantageous circumstances, can be the sin unto
death, (Col 2:19), because we hold the head, and have not “made
shipwreck of faith,” (I Tim 1:19), but still, as David and Solomon, we
confess, and are sorry for our sins. Thus, though we seem, through our
falls, to come short of the promise, with Peter, (Heb 4:1-3), and leave
our transgressions as stumbling blocks to the world, with Solomon,
and minister occasion of a question of our salvation among the godly,
yet our Advocate fetches us off before God, and we shall be found
safe and in heaven at last, by them in the next world, who were afraid
they had lost us in this.

But all these points must be managed by Christ for us, against Satan,
as a lawyer, an advocate, who to that end now appears in the presence
of God for us, and wisely handleth the very crisis of the word, and of
the failings of his people, together with all those nice and critical
juggles by which our adversary laboureth to bring us down, to the
confusion of his face.

3. There are also the threatenings that are annexed to the gospel, and
they fall now under our consideration. They are of two sorts—such as
respect those who altogether neglect and reject the gospel, or those
that profess it, yet fall in or from the profession thereof.

The first sort of threatening cannot be pleaded against the professors
of the gospel as against those that never professed it; wherefore he
betaketh himself to manage those threatenings against us that belong
to those that have professed, and that have fallen from it (Psa 109:1-
6). Joshua fell in it (Zech 3:1, 2). Judas fell from it, and the accuser
stands at the right hand of them before the judgment of God, to resist
them, by pleading the threatenings against them—to wit, that God’s
soul should have no pleasure in them. “If any man draw back, my soul
shall have no pleasure in him.” Here is a plea for Satan, both against
the one and the other; they are both apostatized, both drawn back, and
he is subtle enough to manage it.

Ay, but Satan, here is also matter sufficient for a plea for our
Advocate against thee, forasmuch as the next words distinguish
betwixt drawing back, and drawing back “unto perdition”; every one
that draws back, doth not draw back unto perdition (Heb 10:38, 39).
Some of them draw back from, and some in the profession of, the
gospel. Judas drew back from, and Peter in the profession of his faith;
wherefore Judas perishes, but Peter turns again, because Judas drew
back unto perdition, but Peter yet believed to the saving of the soul.27
Nor doth Jesus Christ, when he sees it is to no boot, at any time step in
to endeavour to save the soul. Wherefore, as for Judas, for his
backsliding from the faith, Christ turns him up to Satan, and leaveth
him in his hand, saying, “When he shall be judged, let him be
condemned: and let his prayer become sin” (Psa 109:7) But he will
not serve Peter so—“The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor
condemn him when he is judged” (Psa 37:33). He will pray for him
before, and plead for him after, he hath been in the temptation, and so
secure him, by virtue of his advocation, from the sting and lash of the
threatening that is made against final apostasy. But,

Fourth. The necessity of the Advocate’s office in Jesus Christ appears
plainly in this—to plead about the judgments, distresses, afflictions,
and troubles that we meet withal in this life for our sins. For though,
by virtue of this office, Christ fully takes us off from the
condemnation that the unbelievers go down to for their sins, yet he
doth not thereby exempt us from temporal punishments, for we see
and feel that they daily overtake us; but for the proportioning of the
punishment, or affliction for transgression, seeing that comes under
the sentence of the law, it is fit that we should have an Advocate that
understands both law and judgment, to plead for equal distribution of
chastisement, according, I say, to the law of grace; and this the Lord
Jesus doth.

Suppose a man for transgression be indicted at the assizes; his
adversary is full of malice, and would have him punished sorely
beyond what by the law is provided for such offence; and he pleads
that the judge will so afflict and punish as he in his malicious mind
desireth. But the man has an advocate there, and he enters his plea
against the cruelty of his client’s accuser, saying, My lord, it cannot
be as our enemy would have it; the punishment for these
transgressions is prescribed by that law that we here ground our plea
upon; nor may it be declined to satisfy his envy; we stand here upon
matters of law, and appeal to the law. And this is the work of our
Advocate in heaven. Punishments for the sin of the children come not
headlong, not without measure, as our accuser would have them, nor
yet as they fall upon those who have none to plead their cause.28 Hath
he smote the children according to the stroke wherewith he hath
smitten others? No; “in measure when it shooteth forth,” or seeks to
exceed due bounds, “thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough
wind in the day of the east wind” (Isa 27:8). “Thou wilt debate with
it,” inquiring and reasoning by the law, whether the shootings forth of
the affliction (now going out for the offence committed) be not too
strong, too heavy, too hot, and of too long a time admitted to distress
and break the spirit of this Christian; and if it be, he applies himself to
the rule to measure it by, he fetches forth his plumb line, and sets it in
the midst of his people, (Amos 7:8; Isa 28:17), and lays righteousness
to that, and will not suffer it to go further; but according to the quality
of the transgression, and according to the terms, bounds, limits, and
measures which the law of grace admits, so shall the punishment be.
Satan often saith of us when we have sinned, as Abishai said of
Shimei after he had cursed David, Shall not this man die for this? (II
Sam 19:21). But Jesus, our Advocate, answers as David, What have I
to do with thee, O Satan? Thou this day art an enemy to me; thou
seekest for a punishment for the transgressions of my people above
what is allotted to them by the law of grace, under which they are, and
beyond what their relation that they stand in to my Father and myself
will admit. Wherefore, as Advocate, he pleadeth against Satan when
he brings in against us a charge for sins committed, for the regulating
of punishments, both as to the nature, degree, and continuation of
punishment; and this is the reason why, when we are judged, we are
not condemned, but chastened, “that we should not be condemned
with the world” (I Cor 11:32). Hence king David says, the Lord hath
not given him over to the will of his enemy (Psa 27:12). And again,
“The Lord hath chastened me sore; but he hath not given me over unto
death” (Psa 118:18). Satan’s plea was, that the Lord would give David
over to his will, and to the tyranny of death. No, says our Advocate,
that must not be; to do so would be an affront to the covenant under
which grace has put them; that would be to deal with them by a
covenant of works, under which they are not. There is a rod for
children; and stripes for those of them that transgress. This rod is in
the hand of a Father, and must be used according to the law of that
relation, not for the destruction, but correction of the children; not to
satisfy the rage of Satan, but to vindicate the holiness of my Father;
not to drive them further from, but to bring them nearer to their God.
But,

Fifth. The necessity of the advocateship of Jesus Christ is also
manifest in this, for that there is need of one to plead the efficacy of
old titles to our eternal inheritance, when our interest thereunto seems
questionable by reason of new transgressions. That God’s people may,
by their new and repeated sins, as to reason at least, endanger their
interest in the eternal inheritance, is manifest by such groanings of
theirs as these—“Why dost thou cast me off?” (Psa 43:2). “Cast me
not away from thy presence” (Psa 51:11). And, “O God, why hast
thou cast us off for ever?” (Psa 74:1). Yet I find in the book of
Leviticus , that though any of the children of Israel should have sold,
mortgaged, or made away with their inheritance, they did not thereby
utterly make void their title to an interest therein, but it should again
return to them, and they again enjoy the possession of it, in the year of
jubilee. In the year of jubilee, saith God, you shall return every man to
his possession; “the land shall not be sold for ever,” nor be quite cut
off, “for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
And in all the land of your possession, ye shall grant a redemption for
the land” (Lev 25:23,24).

The man in Israel that, by waxing poor, did sell his land in Canaan,
was surely a type of the Christian who, by sin and decays in grace, has
forfeited his place and inheritance in heaven; but as the ceremonial
law provided that the poor man in Canaan should not, by his poverty,
lose his portion in Canaan for ever, but that it should return to him in
the year of jubilee; so the law of grace has provided that the children
shall not, for their sin, lose their inheritance in heaven for ever, but
that it shall return to them in the world to come (I Cor 11:32)29

All therefore that happeneth in this case is, they may live without the
comfort of it here, as he that had sold his house in Canaan might live
without the enjoyment of it till the jubilee. They may also seem to
come short of it when they die, as he in Canaan did that deceased
before the year of jubilee; but as certainly as he that died in Canaan
before the jubilee did yet receive again his inheritance by the hand of
his relative survivor when the jubilee came, so certainly shall he that
dieth, and that seemeth in his dying to come short of the celestial
inheritance now, be yet admitted, at his rising again, to the
repossession of his old inheritance at the day of judgment. But now
here is room for a caviler to object, and to plead against the children,
saying, They have forfeited their part of paradise by their sin; what
right, then, shall they have to the kingdom of heaven? Now let the
Lord stand up to plead, for he is Advocate for the children; yea, let
them plead the sufficiency of their first title to the kingdom, and that it
is not their doings can sell the land for ever. The reason why the
children of Israel could not sell the land for ever was, because the
Lord, their head, reserved to himself a right therein—“The land shall
not be sold for ever, for the land is mine.” Suppose two or three
children have a lawful title to such an estate, but they are all profuse
and prodigal, and there is a brother also that has by law a chief right to
the same estate: this brother may hinder the estate from being sold for
ever, because it is his inheritance, and he may, when the limited time
that his brethren had sold their share therein is out, if he will, restore it
to them again. And in the meantime, if any that are unjust should go
about utterly and for ever to deprive his brethren, he may stand up and
plead for them; that in law the land cannot be sold for ever, for that it
is his as well as theirs, he being resolved not to part with his right. O
my brethren! Christ will not part with his right of the inheritance unto
which you are also born; your profuseness and prodigality shall not
make him let go his hold that he hath for you of heaven; nor can you,
according to law, sell the land for ever, since it is his, and he hath the
principal and chief title thereto. This also gives him ground to stand
up to plead for you against all those that would hold the kingdom
from you for ever; for let Satan say what he can against you, yet
Christ can say, “The land is mine,” and consequently that his brethren
could not sell it.
Yes, says Satan, if the inheritance be divided.

O but, says Christ, the land is undivided; no man has his part set out
and turned over to himself; besides, my brethren yet are under age,
and I am made their guardian; they have not power to sell the land for
ever; the land is mine; also my Father has made me feoffee in trust for
my brethren, that they may have what is allotted them when they are
all come to a perfect man, “unto the measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). And not before, and I will reserve it for
them till then; and thus to do is the will of my Father, the law of the
Judge, and also my unchangeable resolution. And what can Satan say
against this plea? Can he prove that Christ has no interest in the
saints’ inheritance? Can he prove that we are at age, or that our
several parts of the heavenly house are already delivered into our own
power? And if he goes about to do this, is not the law of the land
against him? Doth it not say that our Advocate is “Lord of all,” (Acts
10:36), that the kingdom is Christ’s, that it is laid up in heaven for us,
(Eph 5:5, Col 1:5); yea, that the “inheritance which is incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away, is reserved in heaven for us, who
are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation” (I Peter
1:4, 5). Thus therefore is our heavenly inheritance made good by our
Advocate against the thwartings and branglings30 of the devil; nor can
our new sins make it invalid, but it abideth safe to us at last,
notwithstanding our weaknesses; though, if we sin, we may have but
little comfort of it, or but little of its present profits, while we live in
this present world. A spendthrift, though he loses not his title, may yet
lose the present benefit, but the principal will come again at last; for
“we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Sixth. The necessity of the advocateship of Jesus Christ for us further
appears in this—to wit, for that our evidences, which declare that we
have a right to the eternal inheritance, are often out of our own hand,
yea, and also sometimes kept long from us, the which we come not at
the sight or comfort of again but by our Advocate, especially when
our evidences are taken from us, because of a present forfeiture of this
inheritance to God by this or that most foul offence. Evidences, when
they are thus taken away, as in David’s case they were, (Psa 51:12),
why then they are in our God’s hand, laid up, I say, from the sight of
them to whom they belong, till they even forget the contents thereof
(II Peter 1:5-9).31

Now when writings and evidences are out of the hand of the owners,
and laid up in the court, where in justice they ought to be kept, they
are not ordinarily got thence again but by the help of a lawyer—an
Advocate. Thus it is with the children of God. We do often forfeit our
interest in eternal life, but the mercy is, the forfeit falls into the hand
of God, not of the law nor of Satan, wherefore he taketh away also our
evidences, if not all, yet some of them, as he saith—“I have taken
away my peace from this people, even loving-kindness and mercies”
(Jer 16:5). This he took from David, and he entreats for the restoration
of it, saying, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me
with thy free Spirit” (I Chron 17:13; Psa 51:12). And, “Lord, turn us
again, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved” (Psa 80:3, 7,
19.)

Satan now also hath an opportunity to plead against us, and to help
forward the affliction, as his servants did of old, when God was but a
little angry (Zech 1:15); but Jesus Christ our Advocate is ready to
appear against him, and to send us from heaven our old evidences
again, or to signify to us that they are yet good and authentic, and
cannot be gainsaid. “Gabriel,” saith he, “make this man to understand
the vision” (Dan 8:16). And again, saith he to another, “Run, speak to
this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without
walls” (Zech 2:4). Jerusalem had been in captivity, had lost many
evidences of God’s favour and love by reason of her sin, and her
enemy stepped in to augment her sin and sorrow; but there was a man
[the angel of the Lord] “among the myrtle trees” that were in the
bottom that did prevail with God to say, I am returned to Jerusalem
with mercies; and then commands it to be proclaimed that his “cities
through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad” (Zech 1:11-17). Thus,
by virtue of our Advocate, we are either made to receive our old
evidences for heaven again, or else are made to understand that they
yet are good, and stand valid in the court of heaven; nor can they be
made ineffectual, but shall abide the test at last, because our Advocate
is also concerned in the inheritance of the saints in light. Christians
know what it is to lose their evidences for heaven, and to receive them
again, or to hear that they hold their title by them; but perhaps they
know not how they come at this privilege; therefore the apostle tells
them “they have an Advocate”; and that by him, as Advocate, they
enjoy all these advantages is manifest, because his Advocate’s office
is appointed for our help when we sin—that is, commit sins that are
great and heinous—“If any man sin, we have an Advocate.”32

By him the justice of God is vindicated, the law answered, the
threatenings taken off, the measure of affliction that for sin we
undergo determined, our titles to eternal life preserved, and our
comfort of them restored, notwithstanding the wit, and rage, and envy
of hell. So, then, Christ gave himself for us as a priest, died for us as a
sacrifice, but pleadeth justice and righteousness in a way of justice
and righteousness; for such is his sacrifice, for our salvation from the
death that is due to our foul or high transgressions—as an Advocate.
Thus have I given you thus far, an account of the nature, end, and
necessity of the Advocateship of Jesus Christ, and should now come
to the use and application, only I must first remove an objection or
two.

[OBJECTIONS REMOVED.]

SIXTHLY, [I now come to answer some objections.]

First Objection. But what need all these offices of Jesus Christ? or,
what need you trouble us with these nice distinctions? It is enough for
us to believe in Christ in the general, without considering him under
this and that office.

Answer. The wisdom of God is not to be charged with needless doing
when it giveth to Jesus Christ such variety of offices, and calleth him
to so many sundry employments for us; they are all thought necessary
by heaven, and therefore should not be counted superfluous by earth.
And to put a question upon thy objection—What is a sacrifice without
a priest, and what is a priest without a sacrifice? And the same I say of
his Advocate’s office—What is an advocate without the exercise of
his office? And what need of an Advocate’s office to be exercised, if
Christ, as sacrifice and Priest, was thought sufficient by God? Each of
these offices is sufficient for the perfecting the work for which it is
designed; but they are not all designed for the self-same particular
thing. Christ as sacrifice offereth not himself; it is Christ as Priest
does that. Christ as Priest dieth not for our sins; it is Christ as sacrifice
does so. Again, Christ as a sacrifice and a Priest limits himself to
those two employs, but as an Advocate he launches out into a third.
And since these are not confounded in heaven, nor by the Scriptures,
they should not be confounded in our apprehension, nor accounted
useless.

It is not, therefore, enough for us that we exercise our thoughts upon
Christ in an indistinct and general way, but we must learn to know
him in all his offices, and to know the nature of his offices also; our
condition requires this, it requireth it, I say, as we are guilty of sin, as
we have to do with God, and with our enemy the devil. As we are
guilty of sin, so we need a sacrifice; and as we are also sinners, we
need one perfect to present our sacrifice to God for us. We have need
also of him as priest to present our persons and services to God. And
since God is just, and upon the judgment-seat, and since also we are
subject to sin grievously, and again, since we have an accuser who
will by law plead at this bar of God our sins against us, to the end we
might be condemned, we have need of, and also “have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Alas! How many of God’s precious people, for want of a distinct
knowledge of Christ in all his offices, are at this day sadly baffled
with the sophistications of the devil? To instance no more than this
one thing—when they have committed some heinous sin after light
received, how are they, I say, tossed and tumbled and distressed with
many perplexities! They cannot come to any anchor in this their
troubled sea; they go from promise to promise, from providence to
providence, from this to that office of Jesus Christ, but forget that he
is, or else understand not what it is for this Lord Jesus to be an
Advocate for them. Hence they so oft sink under the fears that their
sin is unpardonable, and that therefore their condition is desperate;
whereas, if they could but consider that Christ is their Advocate, and
that he is therefore made an Advocate to save them from those high
transgressions that are committed by them, and that he waits upon this
office continually before the judgment-seat of God, they would
conceive relief, and be made to hold up their head, and would more
strongly twist themselves from under that guilt and burden, those
ropes and cords wherewith by their folly they have so strongly bound
themselves, than commonly they have done, or do.
 

Second Objection. But notwithstanding what you have said, this sin is
a deadly stick in my way; it will not out of my mind, my cause being
bad, but Christ will desert me.

Answer. It is true, sin is, and will be, a deadly stick and stop to faith,
attempt to exercise it on Christ as considered under which of his
offices or relations you will; and, above all, the sin of unbelief is “the
sin that doth so,” or most “easily beset us” (Heb 12:1, 2). And no
marvel; for it never acteth alone, but is backed, not only with guilt and
ignorance, but also with carnal sense and reason. He that is ignorant of
this knows but little of himself, or what believing is. He that
undertakes to believe sets upon the hardest task that ever was
proposed to man; not because the things imposed upon us are
unreasonable or unaccountable, but because the heart of man, the
more true anything is, the more it sticks and stumbles thereat; and,
says Christ, “Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not” (John
8:45). Hence believing is called labouring, (Heb 4:11); and it is the
sorest labour, at times that any man can take in hand, because
assaulted with the greatest oppositions; but believe thou must, be the
labour never so hard, and that not only in Christ in a general way, but
in him as to his several offices, and to this of his being an Advocate in
particular, else some sins and some temptations will not, in their guilt
or vexatious trouble, easily depart from thy conscience; no, not by
promise, nor by thy attempts to apply the same by faith. And this the
text insinuateth by its setting forth of Christ as Advocate, as the only
or best and most speedy way of relief to the soul in certain cases.

There is, then, an order that thou must observe in exercising of thy
soul in a way of believing.

1. Thou must believe unto justification in general; and for this thou
must direct thy soul to the Lord Christ as he is a sacrifice for sin; and
as a Priest offering that sacrifice, so as a sacrifice thou shalt see him
appeasing Divine displeasure for thy sin, and as a Priest spreading the
skirt of his garment over thee, for the covering of thy nakedness; thus
being clothed, thou shalt not be found naked.

2. This, when thou hast done as well as thou canst, thou must, in the
next place, keep thine eye upon the Lord Christ as improving, as
Priest in heaven, the sacrifice which he offered on earth for the
continuing thee in a state of justification in thy lifetime,
notwithstanding those common infirmities that attend thee, and to
which thou art incident in all thy holy services or best performances
(Rom 5:10; Exo 28:31-38). For therefore is he a Priest in heaven, and
by his sacrifices interceding for thee.

3. But if thy foot slippeth, if it slippeth greatly, then know thou it will
not be long before a bill be in heaven preferred against thee by the
accuser of the brethren; wherefore then thou must have recourse to
Christ as Advocate, to plead before God thy judge against the devil
thine adversary for thee.

4. And as to the badness of thy cause, let nothing move thee, save to
humility and self-abasement, for Christ is glorified by being
concerned for thee; yea, the angels will shout aloud to see him bring
thee off. For what greater glory can we conceive Christ to obtain ad
Advocate, than to bring off his people when they have sinned,
notwithstanding Satan so charging of them for it as he doth?

He gloried when he was going to the cross to die; he went up with a
shout and the sound of a trumpet, to make intercession for us; and
shall we think that by his being an Advocate he receives no additional
glory? It is glory to him, doubtless, to bear the title of an Advocate,
and much more to plead and prosper for us against our adversary, as
he doth.

5. And, I say again, for thee to think that Christ will reject thee for that
thy cause is bad, is a kind of thinking blasphemy against this his office
and his Word; for what doth such a man but side with Satan, while
Christ is pleading against him? I say, it is as the devil would have it,
for it puts strength into his plea against us, by increasing our sin and
wickedness. But shall Christ take our cause in hand, and shall we
doubt of good success?

This is to count Satan stronger than Christ; and that he can longer
abide to oppose, than Christ can to plead for us. Wherefore, away
with, it, not only as to the notion, but also as to the heart and root
thereof. Oh! When shall Jesus Christ our Lord be honoured by us as
he ought? This dastardly heart of ours, when shall it be more subdued
and trodden under foot of faith? When shall Christ ride Lord, and
King, and Advocate, upon the faith of his people, as he should? He is
exalted before God, before angels, and above all the power of the
enemy; there is nothing comes behind but the faith of his people.

Third Objection. But since you follow the metaphor so close, I will
suppose, if an advocate be entertained, some recompense must be
given him. His fee—who shall pay him his fee? I have nothing. Could
I do anything to make this advocate part of amends, I could think I
might have benefit from him; but I have nothing. What say you to
this?33

Answer. Similitudes must not be strained too far; but yet I have an
answer for this objection. There is, in some cases, law for them that
have no money; ay, law and lawyers too; and this is called a suing in
forma pauperis;34 and such lawyers are appointed by authority for that
purpose. Indeed, I know not that it is thus in every nation, but it is
sometimes so with us in England; and this is the way altogether in the
kingdom of heaven before the bar of God. All is done there for us in
forma pauperis, on free cost; for our Advocate or lawyer is thereto
designed and appointed of his Father.

Hence Christ is said to plead the cause, not of the rich and wealthy,
but of the poor and needy; not of those that have many friends, but of
the fatherless and widow; not of them that are fat and strong, but of
those under sore afflictions (Prov 22:22, 23; 23:10, 11; 31:9). “He
shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that
condemn his soul,” or, as it is in the margin, “from the judges of his
soul” (Psa 109:31). This, then, is the manner of Jesus Christ with men;
he doth freely what he doth, not for price nor reward. “I have raised
him up,” says God, “and I will direct all his ways; he shall build my
city, and he shall let go my captives, not for a price nor reward” (Isa
45:13). [This scripture speaks of Cyrus, a type of Christ.]

This, I say, is the manner of Jesus Christ with men; he pleads, he sues
in forma pauperis, gratis, and of mere compassion; and hence it is that
you have his clients give him thanks; for that is all the poor can give.
“I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him
among the multitude. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor,
to save him from those that condemn his soul” (Psa 109:30,31).

They know but little that talk of giving to Christ, except they mean
they would give him blessing and praise. He bids us come freely, take
freely, and tells us that he will give and do freely (Rev 22:17; 21:6).
Let him have that which is his own—to wit, thyself; for thou art the
price of his blood. David speaks very strangely of giving to God for
mercy bestowed on him; I call it strangely, because indeed it is so to
reason. “What,” says he, “shall I render to the Lord for all his
benefits? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of
the Lord” for more (Psa 116:12, 13). God has no need of thy gift, nor
Christ of thy bribe, to plead thy cause; take thankfully what is offered,
and call for more; that is the best giving to God. God is rich enough;
talk not then of giving, but of receiving, for thou art poor. Be not too
high, nor think thyself too good to live by the alms of heaven; and
since the Lord Jesus is willing to serve thee freely, and to maintain thy
right to heaven against thy foe, to the saving of thy soul, without price
or reward, “let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also
ye are called,” as is the rest of “the body, and be ye thankful” (Col
3:15). This, then, is the privilege of a Christian—“We have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”; one that
pleadeth the cause of his people against those that rise up against
them, of his love, pity, and mere good-will. Lord, open the eyes of
dark readers, of disconsolate saints, that they may see who is for them,
and on what terms!

Fourth Objection. But if Christ doth once begin to plead for me, and
shall become mine Advocate, he will always be troubled with me,
unless I should, of myself, forsake him; for I am ever in broils and
suits of law, action after action is laid upon me, and I am sometimes
ten times in a day summoned to answer my doings before God.

Answer. Christ is not an Advocate to plead a cause or two; nor to
deliver the godly from an accusation or two. “He delivereth Israel out
of all his troubles” (Psa 25:22; II Sam 22:28); and chooses to be an
Advocate for such; therefore, the godly of old did use to make, from
the greatness of their troubles, and the abundance of their troublers, an
argument to the Lord Christ to send and lend them help—“Have
mercy upon me,” saith David; “consider my trouble which I suffer of
them that hate me” (Psa 9:13). And again, “Many are they that rise up
against me; many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for
him in God” (Psa 3:1,2). Yea the troubles of this man were so many
and great, that his enemies began to triumph over him, saying, “There
is no help for him in God.” But could he not deliver him, or did the
Lord forsake him? No, no; “Thou hast smitten,” saith he, “all mine
enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the
ungodly.” And as he delivereth them from their troublers, so also he
pleadeth all their causes; “O Lord,” saith the church, “thou hast
pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life” (Lam
3:58). Mark, troubled Christian, thou sayest thou hast been arrested
ofttimes in a day, and as often summoned to appear at God’s bar,
there to answer to what shall be laid to thy charge. And here, for thy
encouragement, thou readest that the church hath an Advocate that
pleadeth the causes of her soul; that is, all her causes, to deliver her.
He knows that, so long as we are in this world, we are subject to
temptation and weakness, and through them made guilty of many bad
things; wherefore, he hath prepared himself to our service, and to
abide with the Father, an Advocate for us. As Solomon saith of a man
of great wrath, so it may be said of a man of great weakness, and the
best of saints are such—he must be delivered again and again, (Prov
19:19); yea, “many a time,” saith David, “did he deliver them,” (Psa
106:43); to wit, more than once or twice; and he will do so for thee, if
thou entertain him to be thine Advocate. Thou talkest of leaving him,
but then whither wilt thou go? All else are vain things, things that
cannot profit; and he will not forsake his people, (I Sam 12:20-23),
“though their land be filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel”
(Jer 51:5). I know the modest saint is apt to be abashed to think what a
troublesome one he is, and what a make-work he has been in God’s
house all his days; and let him be filled with holy blushing; but let him
not forsake his Advocate.

[THE USE AND APPLICATION.]

SEVENTHLY, Having thus spoken to these objections, let us now
come to make some use of the whole. And,

Use First. I would exhort the children to consider the dignity that God
hath put upon Jesus Christ their Saviour; for by how much God hath
called his Son to offices and places of trust, by so much he hath
heaped dignities upon him. It is said of Mordecai, that he was next to
the king Ahasuerus. And what then? Why, then the greatness of
Mordecai, and his high advance, must be written in the book of the
Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia, to the end his fame might
not be buried nor forgotten, but remembered and talked of in
generations to come (Esth 10). Why, my brethren, God exalted Jesus
of Nazareth, hath made him the only great one, having given him a
name above every name—a name, did I say?—a name and glory
beyond all names, and above all names, as doth witness both his being
set above all, and the many offices which he executeth for God on
behalf of his people. It is counted no little addition to honour when
men are not only made near to the king, but also entrusted with most,
if not almost with all the most weighty affairs of the kingdom. Why,
this is the dignity of Christ; he is, it is true, the natural Son of God,
and so high, and one that abounds with honour. But this is not all; God
has conferred upon him, as man, all the most mighty honours of
heaven; he hath made him Lord Mediator betwixt him and the world.
This in general. And particularly, he hath called him to be his High
Priest for ever, and hath sworn he shall not be changed for another
(Heb 7:21-24). He hath accepted of his offering once for ever,
counting that there is wholly enough in what he did once “to perfect
for ever them that are sanctified”; to wit, set apart to glory (Heb
10:11-14).

He is Captain-general of all the forces that God hath in heaven and
earth, the King and Commander of his people (ch. 9:25, 28). He is
Lord of all, and made “head over all things to the church,” and is our
Advocate with the Father (Eph 1:22). O, the exaltation of Jesus
Christ! Let Christians, therefore, in the first place, consider this. Nor
can it be but profitable to them, if withal they consider that all this
trust and honour is put and conferred upon him in relation to the
advantage and advancement of Christians. If Christians do but
consider the nearness that is betwixt Christ and them, and, withal,
consider how he is exalted, it must needs be matter of comfort to
them. He is my flesh and my bone that is exalted; he is my friend and
brother that is thus set up and preferred. It was something to the Jews
when Mordecai was exalted to honour; they had, thereby, ground to
rejoice and be glad, for that one of themselves was made lord-chief by
the king, and the great governor of the land, for the good of his
kindred. True, when a man thinks of Christ as severed from him, he
sees but little to his comfort in Christ’s exaltation; but when he looks
upon Christ, and can say, My Saviour, my Priest, or the chief Bishop
of my soul, then he will see much in his being thus promoted to
honour. Consider, then, of the glories to which God has exalted our
Saviour, in that he hath made him so high. It is comely, also, when
thou speakest of him, that thou name his name with some additional
title, thereby to call thy mind to the remembrance, and so to the
greater reverence of the person of thy Jesus; as, our Lord Jesus, our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, “the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, Christ Jesus” (II Peter 2:20; Heb 3:1, &c). Men write
themselves by their titles; as, John, earl of such a place, Anthony, earl
of such a place, Thomas, lord, &c. It is common, also, to call men in
great places by their titles rather than by their names; yea, it also
pleaseth such great ones well; as, My lord high chancellor of England,
My lord privy seal, My lord high admiral, &c. And thus should
Christians make mention of Jesus Christ our Lord, adding to his name
some of his titles of honour; especially since all places of trust and
titles of honour conferred on him are of special favour to us. I did use
to be much taken with one sect of Christians; for that it was usually
their way, when they made mention of the name of Jesus, to call him
“The blessed King of Glory.” Christians should do thus; it would do
them good; for why doth the Holy Ghost, think you, give him all these
titles but that we should call him by them, and so make mention of
him one to another; for the very calling of him by this or that title, or
name, belonging to this or that office of his, giveth us occasion, not
only to think of him as exercising that office, but to inquire, by the
Word, by meditation, and one of another, what there is in that office
and what, by his exercising of that, the Lord Jesus profiteth his
church.

How will men stand for that honour that, by superiors, is given to
them, expecting and using all things; to wit, actions and carriages, so
as that thereby their grandeur may be maintained; and saith Christ,
“Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am” (John
13:13). Christ Jesus our Lord would have us exercise ourselves in the
knowledge of his glorious offices and relative titles, because of the
advantage that we get by the knowledge of them, and the reverence of,
and love to, him that they beget in our hearts. “That disciple,” saith
the text, “whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when
Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto
him (for he was naked), and did cast himself into the sea. And the
other disciples came in a little ship”: to wit, to shore, to wait upon
their Lord (John 21). The very naming of him under the title of Lord,
bowed their hearts forthwith to come with joint readiness to wait upon
him. Let this also teach us to distinguish Christ’s offices and titles, not
to confound them, for he exerciseth those offices, and beareth those
titles, for great reason, and to our commodity.
Every circumstance relating both to Christ’s humiliation and
exaltation ought to be duly weighed by us, because of that mystery of
God, and of man’s redemption that is wrapped therein; for as there
was not a pin, nor a loop, nor a tack in the tabernacle but had in it use
of instruction to the children of Israel, so there is not any part, whether
more near or more remote to Christ’s suffering and exaltation, but is,
could we get into it, full of spiritual advantage to us.

To instance the water that came out of Christ’s side, a thing little
taken notice of either by preachers or hearers, and yet John makes it
one of the witnesses of the truth of our redemption, and a
confirmation of the certainty of that record that God, to the world,
hath given of the sufficiency that is in his Son to save (John 19:34; I
John 3:5-9; 5:5-9; I John 4:9-12).

When I have considered that the very timing of Scripture expressions,
and the season of administering ordinances, have been argumentative
to the promoting of the faith and way of justification by Christ, it has
made think that both myself and most of the people of God look over
the Scriptures too slightly, and take too little notice of that or of those
many honours that God, for our good, has conferred upon Christ.
Shall he be called a King, a Priest, a Prophet, a Sacrifice, an Altar, a
Captain, a Head, a Husband, a Father, a Fountain, a Door, a Rock, a
Lion, a Saviour, &c., and shall we not consider these things? And
shall God to all these add, moreover, that he is an Advocate, and shall
we take no notice thereof, or jumble things so together, that we lose
some of his titles and offices; or so be concerned with one as not to
think we have need of the benefit of the rest? Let us be ashamed thus
to do or think, and let us give to him that is thus exalted the glory due
unto his name.

Use Second. As we should consider the titles and offices of Christ in
general, so we should consider this of his being an Advocate in
particular; for this is one of the reasons which induced the apostle to
present him here under that very notion to us—namely, that we should
have faith about it, and consider of it to our comfort—“If any man sin,
we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” “An
advocate”—an advocate, as I said, is one that hath power to plead for
another in this, or that, or any court of judicature. Be much therefore
in the meditation of Christ, as executing of this his office for thee, for
many advantages will come to thee thereby. As,

1. This will give thee to see that thou art not forsaken when thou hast
sinned; and this has not in it a little relief only, but yieldeth
consolation in time of need. There is nothing that we are more prone
unto than to think we are forsaken when we have sinned, when for this
very thing—to wit, to keep us from thinking so, is the Lord Jesus
become our Advocate—“If any man sin, we have an Advocate.”
Christian, thou that hast sinned, and that with the guilt of thy sin art
driven to the brink of hell, I bring thee news from God—thou shalt not
die, but live, for thou hast “an Advocate with the Father.” Let this
therefore be considered by thee, because it yieldeth this fruit.

2. The study of this truth will give thee ground to take courage to
contend with the devil concerning the largeness of grace by faith,
since thy Advocate is contending for thee against him at the bar of
God. It is a great encouragement for a man to hold up his head in the
country, when he knows he has a special friend at court. Why, our
Advocate is a friend at court, a friend there ready to give the onset to
Satan, come he when he will. “We have an Advocate with the Father”;
an Advocate, or one to plead against Satan for us.

3. This consideration will yield relief, when, by Satan’s abuse of some
other of the offices of Christ, thy faith is discouraged and made afraid.
Christ as a prophet pronounces many a dreadful sentence against sin;
and Christ as a king is of power to execute them; and Satan as an
enemy has subtlety enough to abuse both these, to the almost utter
overthrow of the faith of the children of God. But what will he do
with him as he is an Advocate? Will he urge that he will plead against
us? He cannot; he has no such office. “Will he plead against me with
his great power? No, but he would put strength into me”(Job 23:6).
Wherefore Satan doth all he may to keep thee ignorant of this office;
for he knows that as Advocate, when he is so apprehended, the saints
are greatly relieved by him, even by a believing thought of that office.

4. This consideration, or the consideration of Christ as exercising of
this office, will help thee to put by that visor wherewith Christ by
Satan is misrepresented to thee, to the weakening and affrighting of
thee. There is nothing more common among saints than thus to be
wronged by Satan; for as he will labour to fetch fire out of the offices
of Christ to burn us, so to present him to us with so dreadful and so
ireful a countenance, that a man in temptation, and under guilt, shall
hardly be able to lift up his face to God. But now, to think really that
he is my Advocate, this heals all! Put a visor upon the face of a father,
and it may perhaps for a while fright the child; but let the father speak,
let him speak in his own fatherly dialect to the child, and the visor is
gone, if not from the father’s face, yet from the child’s mind; yea, the
child, notwithstanding that visor, will adventure to creep into its
father’s bosom. Why, thus it is with the saints when Satan deludes and
abuses them by disfiguring the countenance of Christ to their view.
Let them but hear their Lord speak in his own natural dialect (and then
he doth so indeed when we hear him speak as an Advocate), and their
minds are calmed, their thoughts settled, their guilt made to vanish,
and their faith to revive.

Indeed, the advocateship of Jesus Christ is not much mentioned in the
Word, and because it is no oftener made mention of, therefore perhaps
it is that some Christians do so lightly pass it over; when, on the
contrary, the rarity of the thing should make it the more admirable;
and perhaps it is therefore so little made mention of in the Bible,
because it should not by the common sort be abused, but is as it were
privately dropped in a corner, to be found by them that are for finding
relief for their soul by a diligent search of the Scriptures; for Christ in
this office of advocateship is only designed for the child of God, the
world hath nothing therewith to do.35 Methinks that which alone is
proper to saints, and that which by God is peculiarly designed for
them, they should be mightily taken withal; the peculiar treasure of
kings, the peculiar privilege of saints, oh, this should be affecting to
us!—why, Christ, as an Advocate, is such. “Remember me, O Lord,”
said the Psalmist, “with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people:
O visit me with thy salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen,
that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with
thine inheritance” (Psa 106:4, 5). The Psalmist, you see here, is crying
out for a share in, and the knowledge of, the peculiar treasure of
saints; and this of Christ as Advocate is such; wherefore study it, and
prize it so much the more, this Advocate is ours.

(1.) Study it with reference to its peculiarity. It is for the children, and
nobody else; for the children, little and great. This is children’s bread;
this is a mess for Benjamin; this is to be eaten in the holy place.
Children use to make much of that which, by way of specialty, is by
their relations bestowed on them—“And Naboth said to Ahab, The
Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to
thee” (I Kings 21:3). No, truly will I not. Why so? Because it was my
father’s gift, not in common to all, but to me in special.

(2.) Study this office in the nature of it; for therein lies the excellency
of anything, even in the nature of it. Wrong thoughts of this or that
abuses it, and takes its natural glory from it. Take heed, therefore, of
misapprehending, while thou art seeking to apprehend Christ as thy
Advocate. Men judge of Christ’s offices while they are at too great a
distance from them; but “let them come near,” says God, “then let
them speak,” (Isa 41:1); or as Elihu said to his friends, when he had
seen them judge amiss, “Let us choose to us judgment, let us know
among ourselves what is good” (Job 34:4). So say I; study to know,
rightly to know, the Advocate-office of Jesus Christ. It is one of the
easiest things in the world to miss of the nature, while we speak of the
name and offices of Jesus Christ; wherefore look to it, that thou study
the nature of the office of his advocateship, of his advocateship for,
for so you ought to consider it. There is an Advocate for, not against,
the children of God—“Jesus Christ the righteous.”

(3.) Study this office with reference to its efficacy and prevalency. Job
says, “After my words, they spake not again” (Job 29:22). And when
Christ stands up to plead, all must keep silence before him. True,
Satan had the first word, but Christ the last, in the business of Joshua,
and such a last as brought the poor man off well, though “clothed with
filthy garments” (Zech 3). Satan must be speechless after a plea of our
Advocate, how rampant soever he is afore; or as Elihu has it, “They
were amazed; they answered no more; they left off speaking.” Shall
he that speaks in righteousness give place, and he who has nothing but
envy and deceit be admitted to stand his ground? Behold, the angels
cover their faces when they speak of his glory, how then shall not
Satan bend before him? In the days of his humiliation, he made him
cringe and creep, how much more, then, now he is exalted to glory, to
glory to be an Advocate, an Advocate for his people! “If any man sin,
we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

(4.) Study the faithfulness of Christ in his execution of this office, for
he will not fail nor forsake them that have entertained him for their
Advocate: “He will thoroughly plead their cause” (Jer 50:34). Faithful
and true, is one of his titles; and you shall be faithfully served by him;
you may boldly commit your cause unto him, nor shall the badness of
it make him fail, or discourage him in his work; for it is not the
badness of a cause that can hinder him from prevailing, because he
hath wherewith to answer for all thy sins, and a new law to plead by,
through which he will make thee a conqueror. He is also for sticking
to a man to the end, if he once engages for him (John 13:1, 2). He will
threaten and love, he will chastise and love, he will kill and love, and
thou shalt find it so. And he will make this appear at the last; and
Satan knows it is so now, for he finds the power of his repulses while
he pleadeth for him at the bar against him. And all this is in very
faithfulness.

(5.) Study also the need that thou hast of a share in the execution of
the advocateship of Jesus Christ. Christians find that they have need
of washing in the blood of Christ, and that they have need of being
clothed with the righteousness of Christ; they also find that they have
need that Christ should make intercession for them, and that by him,
of necessity, they must approach God, and present their prayers and
services to him; but they do not so well see that they need that Christ
should also be their Advocate. And the reason thereof is this: they
forget that their adversary makes it his business to accuse them before
the throne of God; they consider not the long scrolls and many crimes
wherewith he chargeth them in the presence of the angels of God. I
say, this is the cause that the advocateship of Christ is so little
considered in the churches; yea, many that have been relieved by that
office of his, have not understood what he has thereby done for them.
But perhaps this is to be kept from many till they come to behold his
face, and till all things shall be revealed, that Christ might have glory
given him in the next world for doing of that for them which they so
little thought of in this. But do not thou be content with this ignorance,
because the knowledge of his advocating it for thee will yield thee
present relief. Study, therefore, thine own weakness, the holiness of
the judge, the badness of thy cause, the subtlety, malice, and rage, of
thine enemy; and be assured that whenever thou sinnest, by and by
thou art for it accused before God at his judgment seat. These things
will, as it were, by way of necessity, instill into thy heart the need that
thou hast of an advocate, and will make thee look as to the blood and
righteousness of Jesus Christ to justify thee, so to Christ as an
Advocate to plead thy cause, as did holy Job in his distresses (Job
16:21).

Use Third. Is Christ Jesus not only a priest of, and a King over, but an
Advocate for his people? Let this make us stand and wonder, and be
amazed at his humiliation and condescension. We read of his
humiliation on earth when he put himself into our flesh, took upon
him our sins, and made them as his own unto condemnation and
death. And to be an advocate is an office reproachful to the malicious,
if any man be such an one, for those that are base and unworthy. Yea,
and the higher and more honourable the person is that pleads for such,
the more he humbles himself. The word doth often in effect account
him now in heaven as a servant for us, and acts of service are acts of
condescension; and I am sure some acts of service have more of that
in them than some; and I think when all things are considered, that
Christ neither doth nor can do anything for us there, of a more
condescending nature, than to become our Advocate. True, he glories
in it; but that doth not show that the work is excellent in itself. It is
also one of his titles of honour; but that is to show how highly God
esteems of, and dignifies all his acts; and though this shall tend at last
to the greatening of his honour and glory in his kingdom, yet the work
itself is amazingly mean.

I speak after the manner of men. It is accounted so in this world. How
ignoble and unrespectful doth a man make himself, especially to his
enemy, when he undertakes to plead a bad cause, if it happeneth to be
the cause of the base and unworthy! And I am sure we are, every one,
so in ourselves, for whom he is become an Advocate with the Father.
True, we are made worthy in him, but that is no thanks to us; as to
ourselves and our cause, both are bad enough. And let us now leave
off disputing, and stand amazed at his condescension; “Who humbleth
himself to behold the things that are in heaven” (Psa 113:6). And men
of old did use to wonder to think that God should so much stoop, as to
open his eyes to look upon man, or once so much as to mind him (Job
7:17; 14:1-3; Psa 8:4; 144:3, 4). And if these be acts that speak a
condescension, what will you count of Christ’s standing up as an
Advocate to plead the cause of his people? Must not that be much
more so accounted? O, the condescension of Christ in heaven! While
cavillers quarrel at such kind of language, let the saints stay
themselves and wonder at it, and be so much the more affected with
his grace. The persons are base, the crimes are base, with which the
persons are charged; wherefore one would think that has but the
reason to think, that it is a great condescension of Christ, now in
heaven, to take upon him to be an Advocate for such a people,
especially if you consider the openness of this work of Christ; for this
thing is not done in a corner. This is done in open court.

1. With a holy and just God; for he is the judge of all, and his eyes are
purer than to behold iniquity; yea, his very essence and presence is a
consuming fire; yet, before and with this God, and that for such a
people, Jesus Christ, the King, will be an Advocate. For one mean
man to be an Advocate for the base, with one that is not considerable,
is not so much; but for Christ to be an Advocate for the base, and for
the base, too, under the basest consideration, this is to be wondered at.
When Bathsheba, the queen became an advocate for Adonijah unto
king Solomon, you see how he flounced at her, for that his cause was
bad. “And why,” saith he, “dost thou ask Abishag for Adonijah? Ask
for him the kingdom also” (I Kings 2:16-23). I told you before, that to
be an advocate did run one upon hazards of reproach; and it may
easily be thought that the queen did blush, when, from the king, her
son, she received such a repulse; nor do we hear any more of her
being an advocate; I believe she had enough of this. But oh! This
Christ of God, who himself is greater that Solomon, he is become an
Advocate, “an Advocate with the Father,” who is the eternally just,
and holy, and righteous God; and that for a people, with respect to
him, far worse than could be Adonijah in the eyes of his brother
Solomon. Majesty and justice are dreadful in themselves, and much
more so when approached by any, especially when the cause, as to
matter of fact, is bad, that the man is guilty of who is concerned in the
advocateship of his friend; and yet Jesus Christ is still an Advocate for
us, “an Advocate with the Father.”

2. Consider, also, before whom Jesus Christ doth plead as an
Advocate, and that is before, or in the presence and observation of, all
the heavenly host; for whilst Christ pleadeth with God for his people,
all the host of heaven stand by on the right hand and on the left (Matt
10:32). And though as yet there may seem to be but little in this
consideration, yet Christ would have us know, and account it an
infinite kindness of his to us that he will confess, and not be ashamed
of us before the angels of his Father (Mark 8:38). Angels are holy and
glorious creatures, and, in some respect, may have a greater
knowledge of the nature and baseness of sin than we while here are
capable of; and so may be made to stand and wonder while the
Advocate pleads with God for a people, from head to foot, clothed
therewith. But Christ will not be ashamed to stand up for us before
them, though they know how bad we are, and what vile things we
have done. Let this, therefore, make us wonder.

3. Add to these, how unconcerned ofttimes those are with themselves,
and their own desolate condition, for whom Christ, as an Advocate,
laboureth in heaven with God. Alas! The soul is as far off of knowing
what the devil is doing against it at God’s bar as David was when Saul
was threatening to have his blood, while he was hid in the field (I Sam
20:26-34). But, O true Jonathan! How didst thou plead for David!
Only here thou hadst the advantage of our Advocate, thou hadst a
good cause to plead; for when Saul, thy father, said, “David shall
surely die,” thy reply was, “Wherefore shall he be slain? What [evil]
hath he done?” But Christ cannot say thus when he pleadeth for us at
God’s bar; nor is our present senselessness and unconcernedness
about his pleading but an aggravation to our sin. Perhaps David was
praying while Jonathan was playing the advocate for him before the
king his father; but perhaps the saint is sleeping, yea, sinning more,
whilst Christ is pleading for him in heaven. Oh! This should greatly
affect us; this should make us wonder; this should be so considered by
us, as to heighten our souls to admiration of the grace and kindness of
Christ.

4. Join to these the greatness and gravity, the highness and glorious
majesty of the Man that is become our Advocate. Says the text, it is
Jesus Christ—“We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.”
Now, that he should become an Advocate, that he should embrace
such an employ as this of his advocateship, let this be a wonderment,
and so be accounted. But let us come to the fourth use.

Use Fourth. Is it so? Is Jesus Christ the Saviour also become our
Advocate? Then let us labour to make that improvement of this
doctrine as tendeth to strengthen our graces, and us, in the
management of them. Indeed, this should be the use that we should
make of all the offices of Christ; but let us, at this time, concern
ourselves about this; let, I say, the poor Christian thus expostulate
with himself—

1. Is Christ Jesus the Lord mine Advocate with the Father? Then
awake, my faith, and shake thyself like a giant; stir up thyself, and be
not faint; Christ is the Advocate of his people, and pleadeth the cause
of the poor and needy. And as for sin, which is one great stumble to
thy actings, O my faith, Christ has not only died for that as a sacrifice,
nor only carried his sacrifice unto the Father, in the holiest of all, but
is there to manage that offering as an Advocate, pleading the efficacy
and worth thereof before God, against the devil, for us. Thus, I say,
we should strengthen our faith; for faith has to do not only with the
Word, but also with the offices of Christ. Besides, considering how
many the assaults are that are made upon our faith, we find all little
enough to support it against all the wiles of the devil.

Christians too little concern themselves, as I have said, with the
offices of Jesus Christ; and therefore their knowledge of him is so
little, and their faith in him so weak. We are bid to have our
conversation in heaven, and then a man so hath, when he is there, in
his spirit, by faith, observing how the Lord Jesus doth exercise his
offices there for him. Let us often, by faith, go to the bar of God, there
to hear our Advocate plead our cause; we should often have our faith
to God’s judgment-seat, because we are concerned there; there we are
accused of the devil, there we have our crimes laid open, and there we
have our Advocate to plead; and this is suggested in the text, for it
saith, “We have an Advocate with the Father”; therefore, thither our
faith should go for help and relief in the day of our straits. I say, we
should have our faith to God’s judgment-seat, and show it there, by
the glass of our text,36 what Satan is doing against, and the Lord Jesus
for, our souls. We should also show it how the Lord Jesus carries
away every cause from the devil, and from before the judgment-seat,
to the comfort of the children, the joy of angels, and the shame of the
enemy. This would strengthen and support our faith indeed, and
would make us more able than, for the most part, we are to apply the
grace of God to ourselves, and hereafter to give more strong repulses
to Satan. It is easy with a man, when he knows that his advocate has
overthrown his enemy at the King’s Bench bar or Court of Common
Pleas, less to fear him the next time he sees him, and more boldly to
answer him when he reneweth his threats on him. Let faith, then, be
strengthened, from its being exercised about the advocateship of Jesus
Christ.

2. As we should make use of Christ’s advocateship for the
strengthening of our faith, so we should also make use thereof to the
encouraging us to prayer. As our faith is, so is our prayer; to wit, cold,
weak, and doubtful, if our faith be so. When faith cannot apprehend
that we have access to the Father by Christ, or that we have an
Advocate, when charged before God for our sins by the devil, then we
flag and faint in our prayer; but when we begin to take courage to
believe—and then we do so when most clearly we apprehend Christ—
then we get up in prayer. And according as a man apprehends Christ
in his undertakings and offices, so he will wrestle with and supplicate
God. As, suppose a man believes that Christ died for his sins; why,
then, he will plead that in prayer with God. Suppose, also, that a man
understands that Christ rose again for his justification; why, then, he
will also plead that in prayer; but if he knows no more, no further will
he go. But when he shall know that there is also for him an Advocate
with the Father, and that that Advocate is Jesus Christ; and when the
glory of this office of Christ shall shine in the face of this man’s soul;
oh, then, he takes courage to pray with that courage he had not before;
yea, then is his faith so supported and made strong, that his prayer is
more fervent, and importuning abundance. So that, I say, the
knowledge of the advocateship of Christ is very useful to strengthen
our graces; and, as of graces in general, so of faith and prayer in
particular. Wherefore, our wisdom is, so to improve this doctrine that
prayer may be strengthened thereby.

3. As we should make use of this doctrine to strengthen faith and
prayer, so we should make use of it to keep us humble; for the more
offices Christ executeth for us with the Father, the greater sign that we
are bad; and the more we see our badness, the more humble should we
be. Christ gave for us the price of blood; but that is not all; Christ as a
Captain has conquered death and the grave for us, but that is not all:
Christ as a Priest intercedes for us in heaven; but that is not all. Sin is
still in us, and with us, and mixes itself with whatever we do, whether
what we do be religious or civil; for not only our prayers and our
sermons, our hearings and preaching, and so; but our houses, our
shops, our trades, and our beds, are all polluted with sin. Nor doth the
devil, our night and day adversary, forbear to tell our bad deeds to our
Father, urging that we might for ever be disinherited for this. But what
should we now do, if we had not an Advocate; yea, if we had not one
who would plead in forma pauperis; yea, if we had not one that could
prevail, and that would faithfully execute that office for us? Why, we
must die. But since we are rescued by him, let us, as to ourselves, lay
our hand upon our mouth, and be silent, and say, “Not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.” And, I say again,
since the Lord Jesus is fain to run through so many offices for us
before he can bring us to glory, oh! how low, how little, how vile and
base in our own eyes should we be.

It is a shame for a Christian to think highly of himself, since Christ is
fain to do so much for him, and he again not at all able to make him
amends; but some, whose riches consist in nothing but scabs and lice,
will yet have lofty looks. But are not they much to blame who sit
lifting up of lofty eyes in the house, and yet know not how to turn
their hand to do anything so, but that another, their betters, must come
and mend their work? I say, is it not more meet that those that are
such, should look and speak, and act as such that declare their sense of
their unhandiness, and their shame, and the like, for their
unprofitableness? Yea, is it not meet that to every one they should
confess what sorry ones they are? I am sure it should be thus with
Christians, and God is angry when it is otherwise. Nor doth it become
these helpless ones to lift up themselves on high. Let Christ’s
advocateship therefore teach us to be humble.

4. As we should improve this doctrine to strengthen faith, to
encourage prayer, and keep us humble, so we should make use of it to
encourage perseverance—that is, to hold on, to hold out to the end;
for, for all those causes the apostle setteth Christ before us as an
Advocate. There is nothing more discourages the truly godly than the
sense of their own infirmities, as has been hinted all along;
consequently, nothing can more encourage them to go on than to think
that Christ is an Advocate for them. The services, also, that Christ has
for us to do in this world are full of difficulty, and so apt to
discourage: but when a Christian shall come to understand that—if we
do what we can—it is not a failing either in matter or manner that
shall render it wholly unserviceable, or give the devil that advantage
as to plead thereby to prevail for our condemnation and rejection; but
that Christ, by being our Advocate, saves us from falling short, as also
from the rage of hell. This will encourage us to hold on, though we do
but hobble in all our goings, and fumble in all our doings; for we have
Christ for an Advocate in case we sin in the management of any
duty—“If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.” Let us, therefore, go on in all God’s ways as
well as we can for our hearts; and when our foot slips, let us tell God
of it, and his mercy in Christ shall hold us up (Psa 84:9-12).

Darkness, and to be shut up in prison, is also a great discouragement
to us; but our Advocate is for giving us light, and for fetching us out
of our prison. True, he that Joseph chose to be his Advocate with
Pharaoh remembered not Joseph, but forgat him (Gen 40:14, 23); but
he that has Jesus Christ to be his Advocate shall be remembered
before God, (Micah 7:8-10).—“He remembered us in our low estate;
for his mercy endureth for ever” (Psa 136:23). Yea, he will say to the
prisoners, Show yourselves; and to them that are in the prison-house,
Go forth. Satan sometimes gets the saints into the prison when he has
taken them captive by their lusts (Rom 7:23). But they shall not be
always there; and this should encourage us to go on in godly ways; for
“we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

Objection. But I cannot pray, says one, therefore how should I
persevere? When I go to prayer, instead of praying, my mouth is
stopped. What would you have me do?

Answer. Well, soul, though Satan may baffle thee, he cannot so serve
thine Advocate; if thou must not speak for thyself, Christ thine
Advocate can speak for thee. Lemuel was to open his mouth for the
dumb—to wit, for the sons of destruction, and to plead the cause of
the poor and needy (Prov 31:8, 9). If we knew the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, so as the Word reveals it, we would believe, we would
hope, and would, notwithstanding all discouragements, wait for the
salvation of the Lord. But there are many things that hinder,
wherefore faith, prayer, and perseverance, are made difficult things
unto us—“But if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous”: and, God “shall fight for you, and you
shall hold your peace,” was once a good word to me when I could not
pray.

5. As we should improve this doctrine for the improvement and
encouragement of these graces, so we should improve it to the driving
of difficulties down before us, to the getting of ground upon the
enemy—“Resist the devil,” drive him back; this is it for which thy
Lord Jesus is an Advocate with God in heaven; and this is it for the
sake of which thou art made a believer on earth (I Peter 5:9; Heb
12:4). Wherefore has God put this sword, WE HAVE AN
ADVOCATE, into thy hand, but to fight thy way through the world?
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life,” and say, “I will
go in the strength of the Lord God.” And since I have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, I will not despair, though
“the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about” (Psa 49:5).

Use Fifth. Doth Jesus Christ stand up to plead for us with God, to
plead with him for us against the devil? Let this teach us to stand up to
plead for him before men, to plead for him against the enemies of his
person and gospel. This is but reasonable; for if Christ stands up to
plead for us, why should not we stand up to plead for him? He also
expects this at our hands, saying, “Who will rise up for me against the
evil doers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?”
(Psa 94:16). The apostle did it, and counted himself engaged to do it,
where he saith, he preached “the gospel of God with much
contention” (I Thess 2:2). Nor is this the duty of apostles or preachers
only, but every child of God should “earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).