Satan, should so limit himself to matter of law, as when he pleadeth
with his Father. The saint, by sinning, oweth Satan nothing; no law of
his is broken thereby; why, then, should he plead for the saving of his
people, justifying righteousness to him?
Christ, when he died, died not to satisfy Satan, but his Father; not to
appease the devil, but to answer the demands of the justice of God; nor
did he design, when he hanged on the tree, to triumph over his Father,
but over Satan; “He redeemed us,” therefore, “from the curse of the
law,” by his blood (Gal 3:13). And from the power of Satan, by his
resurrection (Heb 2:14). He delivered us from righteous judgment by
price and purchase; but from the rage of hell by fight and conquest.
And as he acted thus diversely in the work of our redemption, even so
he also doth in the execution of his Advocate’s office. When he
pleadeth with God, he pleadeth so; and when he pleadeth against Satan,
he pleadeth so; and how he pleadeth with God when he dealeth with law
and justice I have showed you. And now I will show you how he pleadeth
before him against the “accuser of the brethren.”
1. He pleads against him the well-pleasedness that his Father has in
his merits, saying, This shall please the Lord, or this doth or will
please the Lord, better than anything that can be propounded (Psa
69:31). Now this plea being true, as it is, being established upon the
liking of God Almighty; whatever Satan can say to obtain our
everlasting destruction is without ground, and so unreasonable. “I am
well pleased,” saith God (Matt 3:17); and again, “The Lord is well
pleased for his (Christ’s) righteousness’ sake” (Isa 42:21). All that
enter actions against others, pretend that wrong is done, either
against themselves or against the king. Now Satan will never enter an
action against us in the court above, for that wrong by us has been
done to himself; he must pretend, then, that he sues us, for that wrong
has, by us, been done to our king. But, behold, “We have an Advocate
with the Father,” and he has made compensation for our offences. He
gave himself for our offences. But still Satan maintains his suit; and
our God, saith Christ, is well pleased with us for this
compensation-sake, yet he will not leave off his clamour. Come, then,
says the Lord Jesus, the contention is not now against my people, but
myself, and about the sufficiency of the amends that I have made for
the transgressions of my people; but he is near that justifieth me,
that approveth and accepteth of my doings, therefore shall I not be
confounded. Who is mine adversary? Let him come near me! Behold, “the
Lord God will help me” (Isa 50:7-9). Who is he that condemneth me? Lo,
they all shall, were there ten thousand times as many more of them, wax
old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up. Wherefore, if the Father
saith Amen to all this, as I have showed already that he hath and doth,
the which also further appeareth, because the Lord God has called him
the Saviour, the Deliverer, and the Amen; what follows, but that a
rebuke should proceed from the throne against him? And this, indeed,
our Advocate calls for from the hand of his Father, saying, O enemy,
“the Lord rebuke thee”; yea, he doubles this request to the judge, to
intimate his earnestness for such a conclusion, or to show that the
enemy shall surely have it, both from our Advocate, and from him before
whom Satan has so grievously accused us (Zech 3).
For what can be expected to follow from such an issue in law as this
is, but sound and severe snibs from the judge upon him that hath thus
troubled his neighbour, and that hath, in the face of the country, cast
contempt upon the highest act of mercy, justice, and righteousness,
that ever the heavens beheld? 6 And all this is true with reference to
the case in hand, wherefore, “The Lord rebuke thee,” is that which, in
conclusion, Satan must have for the reward of his works of malice
against the children, and for his contemning of the works of the Son of
God. Now, our Advocate having thus established, by the law of heaven,
his plea with God for us against our accuser, there is way made for him
to proceed upon a foundation that cannot be shaken; wherefore, he
proceedeth in his plea, and further urges against this accuser of the
brethren.
2. God’s interest in this people; and prayeth that God would remember
that: “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem, rebuke thee.” True, the church, the saints, are despicable
in the world; wherefore men do think to tread them down; the saints
are, also, weak in grace, but have corruptions that are strong, and,
therefore, Satan, the god of this world, doth think to tread them down;
but the saints have a God, the living, the eternal God, and, therefore,
they shall not be trodden down; yea, they “shall be holden up, for God
is able to make them stand” (Rom 14:4).
It was Haman’s mishap to be engaged against the queen, and the kindred
of the queen; it was that that made him he could not prosper; that
brought him to contempt and the gallows. Had he sought to ruin another
people, probably he might have brought his design to a desired
conclusion; but his compassing the death of the queen spoiled all.
Satan, also, when he fighteth against the church, must be sure to come
to the worst, for God has a concern in that; therefore, it is said,
“The gates of hell shall not prevail against it”; but this hindereth
not but that he is permitted to make almost what spoils he will of
those that belong not to God. Oh, how many doth he accuse, and soon get
out from God, against them, a license to destroy them! as he served
Ahab, and many more. But this, I say, is a very great block in his way
when he meddles with the children; God has an interest in them-“Hath
God cast away his people? God forbid!” (Rom 11:1,2). The text intimates
that they for sin had deserved it, and that Satan would fain have had
it been so; but God’s interest in them preserved them-“God hath not
cast away his people, which he foreknew.” Wherefore, when Satan
accuseth them before God, Christ, as he pleadeth his own worth and
merit, pleadeth also against him, that interest that God has in them.
And though this, to some, may seem but an indifferent plea; for what
engagement lieth, may they say, upon God to be so much concerned with
them, for they sin against him, and often provoke him most bitterly?
Besides, in their best state, they are altogether vanity, and a very
thing of nought-“What is man (sorry man), that thou art mindful of
him,” or that thou shouldest be so?
I answer, Though there lieth no engagement upon God for any worthiness
that is in man, yet there lieth a great deal upon God for the
worthiness that is in himself. God has engaged himself with his having
chosen them to be a people to himself; and by this means they are so
secured from all that all can do against them, that the apostle is
bold, upon this very account, to challenge all despite to do its worst
against them, saying, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s
elect?” (Rom 8:33). Who? saith Satan; why, that will I. Ay, saith he,
but who can do it, and prevail? “It is God that justifieth, who is he
that condemneth?” (ver. 34). By which words the apostle clearly
declareth that charges against the elect, though they may be brought
against them, must needs prove ineffectual as to their condemnation;
because their Lord God still will justify, for that Christ has died for
them. Besides, a little to enlarge, the elect are bound to God by a
sevenfold cord, and a threefold one is not quickly broken.
(1.) Election is eternal as God himself, and so without variableness or
shadow of change, and hence it is called “an eternal purpose,” and a
“purpose of God” that must stand (Eph 3:11; Rom 9:11). (2.) Election is
absolute, not conditional; and, therefore, cannot be overthrown by the
sin of the man that is wrapped up therein. No works foreseen to be in
us was the cause of God’s choosing us; no sin in us shall frustrate or
make election void-“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s
elect? It is God that justifieth” (Rom 8:33; 9:11). (3.) By the act of
election the children are involved, wrapped up, and covered in Christ;
he hath chosen us in him; not in ourselves, not in our virtues, no, not
for or because of anything, but of his own will (Eph 1:4-11). (4.)
Election includeth in it a permanent resolution of God to glorify his
mercy on the vessels of mercy, thus foreordained unto glory (Rom
9:15,18,23). (5.) By the act of electing love, it is concluded that all
things whatsoever shall work together for the good of them whose call
to God is the fruit of this purpose, this eternal purpose of God (Rom
8:28-30). (6.) The eternal inheritance is by a covenant of free and
unchangeable grace made over to those thus chosen; and to secure them
from the fruits of sin, and from the malice of Satan, it is sealed by
this our Advocate’s blood, as he is Mediator of this covenant, who also
is become surety to God for them; to wit, to see them forthcoming at
the great day, and to set them then safe and sound before his Father’s
face after the judgment is over (Rom 9:23; Heb 7:22; 9:15,17-24; 13:20;
John 10:28,29). (7.) By this choice, purpose, and decree, the elect,
the concerned therein, have allotted them by God, and laid up for them,
in Christ, a sufficiency of grace to bring them through all
difficulties to glory; yea, and they, every one of them, after the
first act of faith-the which also they shall certainly attain, because
wrapped up in the promise for them-are to receive the earnest and first
fruits thereof into their souls (II Tim 1:9; Acts 14:22; Eph
1:4,5,13,14).
Now, put all these things together, and then feel if there be not
weight in this plea of Christ against the devil. He pleads God’s choice
and interest in his saints against him-an interest that is secured by
the wisdom of heaven, by the grace of heaven, by the power, will, and
mercy of God, in Christ-an interest in which all the three Persons in
the Godhead have engaged themselves, by mutual agreement and operation,
to make good when Satan has done his all. I know there are some that
object against this doctrine as false; but such, perhaps, are ignorant
of some things else as well as of this. However, they object against
the wisdom of God, whose truth it is, and against Christ our Advocate,
whose argument, as he is such, it is; yea, they labour, what in them
lieth, to wrest that weapon out of his hand, with which he so
cudgelleth the enemy when, as Advocate, he pleadeth so effectually
against him for the rescuing of us from the danger of judgment, saying,
“The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem, rebuke thee.”
Third. As Christ, as Advocate, pleads against Satan the interest that
his Father hath in his chosen, so also he pleads against him by no less
authority-his own interest in them. “Holy Father,” saith he, “keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me” (John 17:11).
Keep them while in the world from the evil, the soul-damning evil of
it. These words are directed to the Father, but they are leveled
against the accusations of the enemy, and were spoken here to show what
Christ will do for his, against our foe, when he is above. How, I say,
he will urge before his Father his own interest in us against Satan,
and against all his accusations, when he brings them to the bar of
God’s tribunal, with design to work our utter ruin. And is there not a
great deal in it? As if Christ should say, Father, my people have an
adversary who will accuse them for their faults before thee; but I will
be their Advocate, and as I have bought them of thee, I will plead my
right against him (John 10:28). Our English proverb is, Interest will
not lie; interest will make a man do that which otherwise he would not.
How many thousands are there for whom Christ doth not so much as once
open his mouth, but leaves them to the accusations of Satan, and to
Ahab’s judgment, nay, a worse, because there is none to plead their
cause? And why doth he not concern himself with them? but because he is
not interested in them-“I pray not for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me, for they are thine; and all mine are thine, and I
am glorified in them” (John 17:9,10).
Suppose so many cattle in such a pound, and one goes by whose they are
not, doth he concern himself? No; he beholds them, and goes his way.
But suppose that at his return he should find his own cattle in that
pound, would he now carry it toward them as he did unto the other? No,
no; he has interest here, they are his that are in the pound; now he is
concerned, now he must know who put them there, and for what cause too
they are served as they are; and if he finds them rightfully there, he
will fetch them by ransom; but if wrongfully, he will replevy7 them,
and stand a trial at law with him that has thus illegally pounded his
cattle. And thus it is betwixt Jesus Christ and his. He is interested
in them; the cattle are his own, “his own sheep,” (John 10:3,4), but
pounded by some other, by the law, or by the devil. If pounded by the
law, he delivereth them by ransom; if pounded by the devil, he will
replevy them, stand a trial at law for them, and will be, against their
accuser, their Advocate himself. Nor can Satan withstand his plea,
though he should against them join argument with the law; forasmuch, as
has been proved before, he can and will, by what he has to produce and
plead of his own, save his from all trespasses, charges, and
accusations. Besides, all men know that a man’s proper goods are not
therefore forfeited, because they commit many, and them too great
transgressions-“And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Now, the strength of this plea
thus grounded upon Christ’s interest in his people is great, and hath
many weighty reasons on its side; as-
1. They are mine; therefore in reason at my dispose, not at the dispose
of an adversary; for while a thing can properly be called mine, no man
has therewith to do but myself; nor doth (a man, nor) Christ close his
right to what he has by the weakness of that thing which is his proper
right. He, therefore, as an Advocate, pleadeth interest, his own
interest, in his people, and right must, with the Judge of all the
earth, take place-“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen
18:25).
2. They cost him dear; and that which is dear bought is not easily
parted with (I Cor. 6:20). They were bought with “his blood” (Eph 1:7;
I Peter 1:18,19). They were given him for his blood, and therefore are
“dear children” (Eph 5:1); for they are his by the highest price; and
this price he, as Advocate, pleadeth against the enemy of our
salvation; yea, I will add, they are his, because he gave his all for
them (II Cor 8:9). When a man shall give his all for this or that, then
that which he so hath purchased is become his all. Now Christ has given
his all for us; he made himself poor for us, wherefore we are become
his all, his fullness; and so the church is called (Eph 1:23). Nay,
further, Christ likes well enough of his purchase, though it hath cost
him his all-“The lines,” says he, “are fallen to me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage” (Psa 16:6). Now, put all these things
together, and there is a strong plea in them. Interest, such an
interest, will not be easily parted with. But this is not all; for,
3. As they cost him dear, so he hath made them near to himself, near by
way of relation. Now that which did not only cost dear, but that by way
of relation is made so, that a man will plead heartily for. Said David
to Abner, “Thou shalt not see my face, except thou first bring Michal,
Saul’s daughter, when thou comest to see my face” (II Sam 3:13,14).
Saul’s daughter cost me dear; I bought her with the jeopardy of my
life; Saul’s daughter is near to me; she is my beloved wife. He pleaded
hard for her, because she was dear and near to him. Now, I say, the
same is true in Christ; his people cost him dear, and he hath made them
near unto him; wherefore, to plead interest in them, is to hold by an
argument that is strong. (a.) They are his spouse, and he hath made
them so; they are his love, his dove, his darling, and he accounts them
so. Now, should a wretch attempt, in open court, to take a man’s wife
away from him, how would this cause the man to plead! Yea, and what
judge that is just, and knows that the man has this interest in the
woman pleaded for, would yield to, or give a verdict for the wretch,
against the man whose wife the woman is? Thus Christ, in pleading
interest-in pleading “thou gavest them me”-pleads by a strong argument,
an argument that the enemy cannot invalidate. True, were Christ to
plead this before a Saul (I Sam 25;44), or before Samson’s wife’s
father, the Philistine (Judg 14:20), perhaps such treacherous judges
would give it against all right. But, I have told you, the court in
which Christ pleads is the highest and the justest, and that from which
there can be no appeal; wherefore Christ’s cause, and so the cause of
the children of God, must be tried before their Father, from whose
face, to be sure, just judgment shall proceed. But,
(b.) As they are called his spouse, so they are called his flesh, and
members of his body. Now, said Paul to the church, “Ye are the body of
Christ, and members in particular” (I Cor 12:27; Eph 5:30). This
relation also makes a man plead hard. Were a man to plead for a limb,
or a member of his own, how would he plead? What arguments would he
use? And what sympathy and feeling would his arguments flow from? I
cannot lose a hand, I cannot lose a foot, cannot lose a finger; why,
saints are Christ’s members, his members are of himself. With what
strength of argument would a man plead the necessariness of his members
to him, and the unnaturalness of his adversary in seeking the
destruction of his members, and the deformity of his body! Yea, a man
would shuck and cringe, and weep, and entreat, and make demurs, and
halts, and delays, to a thousand years, if possible, before he would
lose his members, or any one of them.
But, I say, how would he plead and advocate it for his members, if
judge, and law, and reason, and equity, were all on his side, and if,
by the adversary, there could be nothing urged, but that against which
the Advocate had long before made provision for the effectual overthrow
thereof? And all this is true as to the case that lies before us. Thus
we see what strength there lieth in this second argument, that our
Advocate bringeth for us against the enemy. They are his flesh and
bones, his members; he cannot spare them; he cannot spare this,
because, nor that, because, nor any, because, they are his members. As
such, they are lovely to him; as such, they are useful to him; as such,
they are an ornament to him; yea, though in themselves they are feeble,
and through infirmity weak, much disabled from doing as they should.
Thus, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.” But,
4. As Christ, as Advocate, pleads for us, against Satan, his Father’s
interest in us and his own; so he pleadeth against him that right and
property that he hath in heaven, to give it to whom he will. He has a
right to heaven as Priest and King; it is his also by inheritance; and
since he will be so good a benefactor as to bestow this house on
somebody, but not for their deserts, but not for their goodness, and
since, again, he has to that end spilt his blood for, and taken a
generation into covenant relation to him, that it might be bestowed on
them; it shall be bestowed on them; and he will plead this, if there be
need, if his people sin, and if their accuser seeks, by their sin,
their ruin and destruction: “Father,” saith he, “I will that they also,
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my
glory, which thou hast given me” (John 17:24). Christ’s will is the
will of heaven, the will of God. Shall not Christ, then, prevail?
“I will,” saith Christ; “I will,” saith Satan; but whose will shall
stand? It is true, Christ in the text speaks more like an arbitrator
than an Advocate; more like a judge than one pleading at a bar. I will
have it so; I judge that so it ought to be, and must. But there is also
something of plea in the words both before his Father, and against our
enemy; and therefore he speaketh like one that can plead and determine
also; yea, like one that has power so to do. But shall the will of
heaven stoop to the will of hell? Or the will of Christ to the will of
Satan? Or the will of righteousness to the will of sin? Shall Satan,
who is God’s enemy, and whose charge wherewith he chargeth us for sin,
and which is grounded, not upon love to righteousness, but upon malice
against God’s designs of mercy, against the blood of Christ, and the
salvation of his people-I say, shall this enemy and this charge prevail
with God against the well-grounded plea of Christ, and against the
salvation of God’s elect, and so keep us out of heaven? No, no; Christ
will have it otherwise, he is the great donator, 8 and his eye is good.
True, Satan was turned out of heaven for that he sinned there, and we
must be taken into heaven, though we have sinned here; this is the will
of Christ, and, as Advocate, he pleads it against the face and
accusation of our adversary. Thus, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” But,
5. As Christ, as Advocate, pleadeth for us, against Satan, his Father’s
interest in us, and his own, and pleadeth also what right he has to
dispose of the kingdom of heaven; so he pleadeth against this enemy,
that malice and enmity that is in him, and upon which chiefly his
charge against us is grounded, to the confusion of his face. This is
evident from the title that our Advocate bestows upon him, while he
pleads for us against him: “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, O enemy,”
saith he; for Satan is an enemy, and this name given him signifies so
much. And lawyers, in their pleas, can make a great matter of such a
circumstance as this; saying, My lord, we can prove that what is now
pleaded against the prisoner at the bar is of mere malice and hatred,
that has also a long time lain burning and raging in his enemy’s breast
against him. This, I say, will greatly weaken the plea and accusation
of an enemy. But, says Jesus Christ, “Father, here is a plea brought in
against my Joshua, that clothes him with filthy garments, but it is
brought in against him by an enemy, by an enemy in the superlative or
highest degree. One that hates goodness worse than he, and that loveth
wickedness more than the man against whom at this time he has brought
such a heinous charge.” Then leaving with the Father the value of his
blood for the accused, he turneth him to the accuser, and pleads
against him as an enemy: “O Satan, thou that accusest my spouse, my
love, my members, art SATAN, an enemy.” But it will be objected that
the things charged are true. Grant it; yet what law takes notice of the
plea of one who doth professedly act as an enemy? because it is not
done of love to truth, and justice, and righteousness, nor intended for
the honour of the king, nor for the good of the prosecuted; but to
gratify malice and rage, and merely to kill and destroy. There is,
therefore, a great deal of force and strength in an Advocate’s pleading
of such a circumstance against an accuser; especially when the crimes
now charged are those, and only those for which the law, in the due
execution of it, has been satisfied before; wherefore now a lawyer has
double and treble ground or matter to plead for his client against his
enemy. And this advantage against him has Jesus Christ.