Second, I come next to show you how far this office of an Advocate has been extended. I hinted at this before, so now shall be more brief. 1. By this office he offers no sacrifice; he only, as to matters of justice, pleads for the sacrifice offered. 2. By this office he obtains the conversion of none; he only thereby secured the converted from the damnation which their adversary, for sins after light and profession, endeavored to bring them to. 3. By this office, he not only prevents temporal punishment but also chiefly preserves the soul from hell. 4. By this office he brings in no justifying righteousness for us, he only thereby prevailed to have the disposal of that brought in by himself, as Priest, for the justifying of those who, by a new and fresh act, 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 maintained our right thereto against the devil and his angels.
Third, I come now to show you who they are who have Jesus Christ as their Advocate. And this I shall do first, more generally, and then 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 test affirmed, My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” They are, then, the children, by adoption, who are the persons concerned in the advocacy of Jesus Christ. The priesthood of Christ extended itself to the whole body of the elect, but the advocateship of Christ was not so. This is further clarified 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 straighter limit put to the Advocateship of Christ than he would have us put to his priestly office, what needed he, when he speaks of the propitiation that relates to Christ as Priest, have added, And not for ours only”? As an Advocate, then, he engaged for us that our 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 alone. Therefore, the sense of the apostle should, I think, be that this Christ, as a Priest, has offered a propitiatory sacrifice for all, but as an Advocate he pleaded 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 said, “If any man sins, we have an Advocate”; any man that sins 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 sins, we have an Advocate.” We, any man of us, And this is yet further made apparent since he says that it is to them that 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 intended 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 added, with enlargement, “If any man sins, 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 with faith in 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 catalog of names: My little children, I write unto you, that ye sin not. If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” So, then, the children of God are those who have the Lord Jesus as an Advocate for them with the Father. The last and biggest, the oldest and youngest, the feeblest and the strongest—all the children have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
