that he supposeth a Man has sinned as any Man among the Godly ever did for so 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 tho I have done as David as Solomon as Peter or the like It must be answered yes the openness of the terms anyman 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 crush'd 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 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 I now speak to the fallen Saint that Jesus Christ will make a good end with thee 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 terrifie me with the Justice of God the Greatness of my 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 glorifie 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 before-hand to sing that Song of the Church saying O Lord thou hast pleaded the Causes of my Soul thou hast redeemed my Life Lam. 3.55 56 57 58 59. Yea believe and hear thy pleading Lord say to thee Thus saith the Lord the Lord and thy God that pleadeth the Cause of his People Behold I have taken out of thy Hand the Cup of trembling even the dregs of the Cup of my Fury thou shalt no more drink it again Isa. 51.20 21 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 thy self above what by plain Texts and fair Inferences drawn from Christ's Offices thou art 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 thy best in thy self 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 Tho their daily experience calls for it and the Priest-hood 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 shews this concerning us so it shews 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 that 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 chuse to observe this Method in my discourse First I shall shew you more particularly of this Advocate 's Office or what and wherein Christ's Office as Advocate doth lie Secondly After that I shall also shew you how Jesus Christ doth manage this Office of an Advocate Thirdly I shall also then shew you who they are that have Jesus Christ for their Advocate Fourthly I shall also shew you what excellent Privileges they have who have Jesus Christ for their Advocate Fifthly And to silence Cavillers I shall also shew the necessity of this Office of Jesus Christ. Sixthly I shall come to answer some Objections And Lastly to the Use and Application To begin with the First of these namely to shew you more particularly of Christ's Office as an Advocate and wherein it lieth The which I shall do these three ways 1. Touch again upon the Nature of this Office. And then 2. Treat of the Order and Place that it hath among the rest of his Offices And 3. Treat of the Occasion of the Execution of this Office. First To touch upon the Nature of this Office. It is that which impowereth 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
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 I write unto you that you 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 Father 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 decerning 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 First 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 the Earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccles. 7.20 1 Kin. 8.46 Secondly 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 enquired into as 1 What the Apostle should here mean by sin 2. And also what he here doth mean by an Advocate If any man sin we have an Advocate There is ground to enquire after the first of these because tho 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 enquire 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 1. 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 shewed before one is called a Child of God the other is said to be of the wicked One. Their Sin differ also in their Degree at least for no Child of God sins to that Degree as to make himself uncapable of Forgiveness For he that is born of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not Chap. 5.17 18. Hence the Apostle says there is a sin unto Death Mat. 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 First the Sins of God's People are said to be Sins which Men commit and for which they have an Advocate tho they who sin after the example of the wicked one have none When a Man or a Woman saith Moses shall commit a Sin which Men commit they shall confess their Sin and an atonment shall be made for them Numb 5.5 6 7. Mark It is when they commit a Sin which Men commit Or as Hosea has it when they transgress the Commandment like Adam Hos. 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 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 Secondly 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 enquire 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 shew 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 for as much 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 upon a Throne and all the Host of Heaven standing by him on the Right hand and on the Left 1 Kin. 22.19 20. 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 Ramah gilead And he did go and did fall there as the award or fruit of that Judgment That 's 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 1 Chr. 21.3 4 5 6. 1 Sam. 12.13 14. 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 cognisance 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 specially if the Judge be Just and knows me altogether as the God of Heaven does But here 's a Judge that 's just and here 's 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 's the Second thing 3. As the Text
an Advocate for his People If any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous Fourthly 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 thorowly plead their Cause Jer. 50.34 Faithful and true is one of his Titles and you shall faithfully be 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 Joh. 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 us at the Bar against him And all this is in very Faithfulness Fifthly 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 cloathed 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 Scrowls 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 thereby he has done for them But perhaps this is to be kept from many till they come to behold his Face and until 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 of it for thee will yield thee present Relief Study therefore thine own Weakness the Holiness of the Judge the badness of thy Cause the Subtilty Malice and Rage of thine Enemy and be assured that when-ever 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 instil 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 justifie thee so to Christ as an Advocate to plead thy Cause as did holy Job in his Distresses Job 16.21 Vse 3. Thirdly 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 Condescention 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 Condescention 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 any thing for us there of a more condescending Nature than to become our Advocate True he glories in it but that doth not shew that the work is excellent in it self It is also one of his Titles of Honour But that is to â—â—ew how highly God esteems of and dignifies all his Acts and tho this shall tend at last to the greatning of his Honour and Glory in his Kingdom yet the Work it self 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 specially to his Enemy when he undertaketh to plead a bad Cause if it also happeneth to be the Cause of the base and unworthy And I am sure we are every one so in our selves for whom he is become an Advocate with the Father True we are made worthy in him but that 's no thanks to us as to our selves and our Cause both are yet bad enough And let us now leave off disputing and stand amazed at his Condescention He humbleth himself to behold things that are in Heaven Psal. 113.4 5 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 14.1 2 3. Psal. 144.3 4. Job 7.17 Psal. 8.4 And if these be Acts that bespeak 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 Oh the Condescention 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 Condescention of Christ now in Heaven to take upon him to be an Advocate for such a People Specially 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. First with an 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 fâ—â— 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 wondred 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 Abishai for