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 for as much as he did never yet take Cause in Hand that was good perfectly good of it self 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 And for thy further Encouragement in this Matter I will here bring in the fourth chief Head to wit to shew what excellent Privileges I mean over and above what has already been spoke 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 Priv. 1. 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 â—o be done by his Elect For by one Offering he hath perfected for-ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 ver 10. chap. 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 forceth 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 'twixt Christ and us and the rich Brother goeth to his Father and saith thou art related to my Brethren with me and out of thy 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 good 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 eldâ—r 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 â—ust give them for their Conveniency yea and as â—or their Extravagancies 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 Childrens Bread that which they have need of and without which they cannot live and they must have it tho Satan should put Pins into it therewith to choak the Dogs 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 Rom. 7.24 and so also it will be while they continue in this World. 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 Chap. 6.12 yea it has broke out in 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 dies 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 tho thou art a Man of Infirmity and so incident to nothing as to stumble and fall if Grace doth not prevent and it always preventeth not 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 Priv. 2. Secondly 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 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 tho 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 's 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 Inheritance
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 â—ighteous Alas How many of God's precious People for the 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 often 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 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 Obj. 2. 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 Answ. 'T is true Sin is and will be a deadly stick and stop to Faith attempt to exercise it upon Christ as considered under which of his Offices or Relations you will And above all the Sin of Vnbelief 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 of what believing is He that undertaketh to believe sets upon the hardest Task that ever was proposed to Man not â—ecause the things imposed upon us are unreasonable or unaccountable but because the Heart of Man the more true any thing is the more it sticketh and stumbleth thereat And says Christ because I tell you the truth ye â—â—lieve me not Joh. 8.45 Hence believing is called labouring Heb. 4.11 and 't 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 as to this of his being an Advocate in particular else some Sins and some Temptations will not in their Guilt nor vexatious Trouble easily depart from thy Conscience no not by Promise nor by thy Attempts to apply the same by Faiâ—h And this the Text insinuateth by it's 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 the Exercise 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 cloathed 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 of thee in a state of Justification thy Life time notwithstanding those common Infirmities that attend thee and to which thou art incident in all thy holy Services or best of thy Performances Rom. 5.10 Exod. 28.31 38. For therefore is he a Priest in Heaven and by his Sacrifice interceding for thee 3. But if thy Foot slippeth if it slippeth gâ—eatly then know thou 't will not be long â—efore 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 that 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 as Advocate than to bring off his People when they have sinned noâ—withstanding Satans so charging of them for them as he doth He gloried when he was going to the Cross to die he went up with a Shout and the Sound of Trumpet to make Intercession for us And shall we think that by his being an Advocate he receives no additional Glory 'T 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 't is as the Devil would have it for it puts Strength unto 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 oughâ— this dastardly Heart of ours when shall it be more subdued and trodden underfoot 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 Obj. 3. But since you follow the Metaphor so close I will suppose if an Advocate be entertained some Recompence must be given him His Fee who shall pay him his Fee I have nothing
This Advocate is ours 1. Study it with reference to its Peculiarity It is for the Children and no body else For the Children little and great This is Childrens 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 speciality is by their Relations bestowed on them And Naboth said to Ahab the Lord forbid it me that I should give tâ—e Inheritance of my Father to thee 1 Kin. 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 Secondly Study this Office in the Nature of it For therein lies the Excellency of any thing 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 chuse to us Judgment let us know among our selves 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 Avocateship for for so you ought to consider it there is an Advocate for not against the Children of God Jesus Christ the righteous Thirdly 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 tho cloathed 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 He was amazed he answered no more he 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 Fourthly Study The Faithfulness of Châ—ist 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 hasâ— 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 shoulâ— make Intercession for them and that by hiâ— of Necessity they must approach God anâ— present their Prayers and Services to him But they do not so well see that they neeâ— that Christ should also be their Advocatâ— And the Reason thereof is this They forgeâ— that their Adversary makes it his Business tâ— accuse them before the Throne of God the 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 1 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
Wherefore Secondly 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 kept clean and counted upright notwithstanding those Infirmities And therefore you shall find that notwithstanding those common Faults the 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 1 Kin. 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 Hypocrisie in David â—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 to Christ 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 's 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 Psal. 51. he was afraid that God would cast him away and the Devil hoped that 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. 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 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 it Self 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 'T 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 tho 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 it self yea and for its Master too specially 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 movest me against him this said God to Satan to destroy him without a Cause Job 2.3 Thus far Job's Cause was good wherefore he did not need an Advocate his Cause pleaded for its self 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 that by the Text the Apostle supposeth an other 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 Psal. 71.3 4 5. 2 Cor. 1.23 Gal. 1.20 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 the Christian from it It is not only sinful but Sin it self 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