This is a Blog for those interested in following hard after His heart. Those willing to strive to live a moment-by-moment life as we go through the transformation process with Him. It is not an easy life, but the Father expects each of us to become an offering for His pleasure. So, if this is you, then let’s journey together hand in hand. I am humbled that you have chosen to walk with me. Thanks!
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 summoned ten times in a day 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 delivered 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 cheekbone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly." And as he delivered them from their troubles, so also he pleaded 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 readiest that the church hath an Advocate that pleaded 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; therefore, he has 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 talks 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.
Third Objection. But since you follow the metaphor so closely, I will suppose that if an advocate is entertained, some recompense must be given to him. His fee—who shall pay him his fee? I have nothing. Could I do anything to make this advocate part of the amends? I could think I might have benefited from him, but I have nothing. What say you to this?
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 suing in forma pauperis, 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 by 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; yes, 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 about giving to Christ, except that they mean they would give him blessings and praise. He bids us come freely, take freely, and tell us that he will give and do freely (Rev 22:17; 21:6). Let him have that which is his own 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 who pleaded 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!
Second Objection. But notwithstanding what you have said, this sin is a deadly stick in my way; it will not be out of my mind; my cause is bad, but Christ will desert me.
Answer. It is true that 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 acted 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 laboring, (Heb 4:11); and it is the sorest labor, at times that any man can take in hand because assaulted with the greatest oppositions; but believe thou must, be the labor 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 insinuates 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 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 slipped, if it slipped greatly, then know thou it will not be long before a bill is 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 and 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 honored by us as he ought? This dastardly heart of ours, when shall it be more subdued and trodden under the 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 that comes behind but the faith of his people.
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 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 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 perfecting the work for which it is designed, but they are not all designed for the same particular thing. Christ as sacrifice offereth not himself; it is Christ as Priest does that. Christ as Priest does not do for our sins; it is Christ as sacrifice who 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 need him as a 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 need, 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 to this day sadly baffled by the sophistication of the devil? For instance, no more than this one thing, they have committed some heinous sin after receiving light. 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 often sink under the fear 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.
Sixth. The necessity of the advocateship of Jesus Christ for us further appears in this wit, for that our evidence, which declares that we have a right to the eternal inheritance, is 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 evidence is taken from us, because of a present forfeiture of this inheritance to God by this or that most foul offense. Evidence, when they are thus taken away, as in David's case they were (Psa 51:12), why then they 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)? 30
Now when writings and evidence are out of the hands of the owners and laid up in the court, where in justice they ought to be kept, they are not ordinarily obtained 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 that the forfeit falls into the hand of God, not of the law nor of Satan, wherefore he taketh away also our evidence if not all, yet some of them, as he saith, I have taken away my peace from these 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 evidence again, or to signify to us that they are yet good and authentic and cannot be gainsaid. "Gabriel," saith he, "make this man 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 favor and love because 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 our Advocate, we are either made to receive our old evidence 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 with the inheritance of the saints in light. Christians know what it is to lose their evidence 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 manifest advantages 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."
By him, the justice of God is vindicated, the law is answered, the threats taken off, the measure of affliction that we undergo for sin determined, our titles to eternal life preserved, and our comfort in them restored, notwithstanding the wit, rage, and envy of hell. So, then, Christ gave himself for us as a priest, died for us as a sacrifice, but pleaded 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.
Fifth. The necessity of the advocateship of Jesus Christ is also manifest in this, for there is a need for one to plead the efficacy of old titles to our eternal inheritance when our interest thereunto seems questionable because 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 forever?" (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 forever," 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 who, by waxing poor, did sell his land in Canaan, was surely a type of 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 forever, 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 forever, but that it shall return to them in the world to come (I Cor 11:32)
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 that can sell the land forever.
The reason why the children of Israel could not sell the land forever was, that the Lord, their head, reserved to himself a right therein-"The land shall not be sold forever, 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 forever 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 is unjust should go about utterly and forever to deprive his brethren, he may stand up and plead for them; that in law the land cannot be sold forever, 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 forever, 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 forever; 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 is 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 forever; 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 branglings 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."
Fourth. The necessity of the Advocate's office in Jesus Christ appears plainly in this plead about the judgments, distresses, afflictions, and troubles that we meet withal in this life for our sins. For though, under 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 offense; 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 children's sin 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. Had 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 offense 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 among 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 says 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 into 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 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,
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 labored to bring us down, to the confusion of his face.
3. There are also the threats 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 who 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 betakes 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 wit, that God's soul should have no pleasure in them. "If any man draws 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 between drawing back, and drawing back "unto perdition"; every one that draws back does not draw back unto perdition (Heb 10:38, 39). Some of them draw back from, and some are 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. Nor doth Jesus Christ, when he sees it is to no boot, at any time step in to endeavor to save the soul. Therefore, as for Judas, for his backsliding from the faith, Christ turns him up to Satan, and leaves 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 has been in 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,
Third. There are many things relating to the promise, to our lives, and to the threats, 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, limits, and extensions of words, with all conditions of the promises, are expounded and applied! And hence it is that it sometimes so falls 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 forever for them. Besides, some of these things are done after the light is 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 the 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 labor, 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 fastens 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 pleaded against us at the bar of God. But there he meets with Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Advocate, who enters 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.
Second. There is a a matter of law to be objected to, and that is 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 stands still upon the vindication of his justice, he also saves 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 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 honorable" (Isa 42:21). The margin saith, "and make him honorable"—that is, he shall save the sinner, and preserve the holiness of the law, and the honor 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 honor, and preserve the law in its sanction. And this Christ pleaded against Satan as an Advocate with the Father for us, by which he vindicates his Father's justice, holds the child of God, notwithstanding his sins, in a state of justification, and utterly overthrows and confounds 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 yours have I not fully answered? Where is that jot or title of the law that can object against my doings for want of satisfaction?" Here the law is mute; it speaker speaks 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 God, who gave the law his being and his sanction, dispose as he pleases of the righteousness which it commends? 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 can 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 stands 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 also shows that he is resolved to dispute and plead for the same, though the devil himself will oppose it. And since our adversary pretends a plea in law against it, there should indeed 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 for 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,
