Word, and because it is no oftener made mention of, therefore perhaps
it is that some Christians do so lightly pass it over; when, on the
contrary, the rarity of the thing should make it the more admirable;
and perhaps it is therefore so little made mention of in the Bible,
because it should not by the common sort be abused, but is as it were
privately dropped in a corner, to be found by them that are for finding
relief for their soul by a diligent search of the Scriptures; for
Christ in this office of advocateship is only designed for the child of
God, the world hath nothing therewith to do.34 Methinks that which
alone is proper to saints, and that which by God is peculiarly designed
for them, they should be mightily taken withal; the peculiar treasure
of kings, the peculiar privilege of saints, oh, this should be
affecting to us!-why, Christ, as an Advocate, is such. “Remember me, O
Lord,” said the Psalmist, “with the favour that thou bearest unto thy
people: O visit me with thy salvation; that I may see the good of thy
chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may
glory with thine inheritance” (Psa 106:4, 5). The Psalmist, you see
here, is crying out for a share in, and the knowledge of, the peculiar
treasure of saints; and this of Christ as Advocate is such; wherefore
study it, and prize it so much the more, this Advocate is ours.
(1.) Study it with reference to its peculiarity. It is for the
children, and nobody else; for the children, little and great. This is
children’s 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
specialty, is by their relations bestowed on them-“And Naboth said to
Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my
fathers to thee” (I Kings 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.
(2.) Study this office in the nature of it; for therein lies the
excellency of anything, 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 choose to us judgment, let
us know among ourselves 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
advocateship for, for so you ought to consider it. There is an Advocate
for, not against, the children of God-“Jesus Christ the righteous.”
(3.) 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, though
“clothed 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, “They were amazed; they answered no more; they 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.”
(4.) 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 thoroughly plead their cause” (Jer 50:34).
Faithful and true, is one of his titles; and you shall be faithfully
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 (John 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 him at the bar against him. And all this
is in very faithfulness.
(5.) 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
clothed 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 scrolls 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 he has thereby done for them.
But perhaps this is to be kept from many till they come to behold his
face, and till 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 it for thee will
yield thee present relief. Study, therefore, thine own weakness, the
holiness of the judge, the badness of thy cause, the subtlety, malice,
and rage, of thine enemy; and be assured that whenever 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, instill 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 justify thee, so to
Christ as an Advocate to plead thy cause, as did holy Job in his
distresses (Job 16:21).
Use Third. 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 condescension. 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 condescension; 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 anything for us there, of a more condescending nature, than to
become our Advocate. True, he glories in it; but that doth not show
that the work is excellent in itself. It is also one of his titles of
honour; but that is to show how highly God esteems of, and dignifies
all his acts; and though this shall tend at last to the greatening of
his honour and glory in his kingdom, yet the work itself 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, especially to his
enemy, when he undertakes to plead a bad cause, if it happeneth to be
the cause of the base and unworthy! And I am sure we are, every one, so
in ourselves, for whom he is become an Advocate with the Father. True,
we are made worthy in him, but that is no thanks to us; as to ourselves
and our cause, both are bad enough. And let us now leave off disputing,
and stand amazed at his condescension; “Who humbleth himself to behold
the things that are in heaven” (Psa 113:6). 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 7:17; 14:1-3; Psa
8:4; 144:3, 4). And if these be acts that speak 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? O, the
condescension 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 condescension of
Christ, now in heaven, to take upon him to be an Advocate for such a
people, especially 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.
1. With a 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 for 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 wondered 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 Abishag for Adonijah? Ask for him
the kingdom also” (I Kings 2:16-23). I told you before, that to be an
advocate did run one upon hazards of reproach; and it may easily be
thought that the queen did blush, when, from the king, her son, she
received such a repulse; nor do we hear any more of her being an
advocate; I believe she had enough of this. But oh! This Christ of God,
who himself is greater that Solomon, he is become an Advocate, “an
Advocate with the Father,” who is the eternally just, and holy, and
righteous God; and that for a people, with respect to him, far worse
than could be Adonijah in the eyes of his brother Solomon. Majesty and
justice are dreadful in themselves, and much more so when approached by
any, especially when the cause, as to matter of fact, is bad, that the
man is guilty of who is concerned in the advocateship of his friend;
and yet Jesus Christ is still an Advocate for us, “an Advocate with the
Father.”
2. Consider, also, before whom Jesus Christ doth plead as an Advocate,
and that is before, or in the presence and observation of, all the
heavenly host; for whilst Christ pleadeth with God for his people, all
the host of heaven stand by on the right hand and on the left (Matt
10:32). And though as yet there may seem to be but little in this
consideration, yet Christ would have us know, and account it an
infinite kindness of his to us that he will confess, and not be ashamed
of us before the angels of his Father (Mark 8:38). Angels are holy and
glorious creatures, and, in some respect, may have a greater knowledge
of the nature and baseness of sin than we while here are capable of;
and so may be made to stand and wonder while the Advocate pleads with
God for a people, from head to foot, clothed therewith. But Christ will
not be ashamed to stand up for us before them, though they know how bad
we are, and what vile things we have done. Let this, therefore, make us
wonder.
3. Add to these, how unconcerned ofttimes those are with themselves,
and their own desolate condition, for whom Christ, as an Advocate,
laboureth in heaven with God. Alas! The soul is as far off of knowing
what the devil is doing against it at God’s bar as David was when Saul
was threatening to have his blood, while he was hid in the field (I Sam
20:26-34). But, O true Jonathan! How didst thou plead for David! Only
here thou hadst the advantage of our Advocate, thou hadst a good cause
to plead; for when Saul, thy father, said, “David shall surely die,”
thy reply was, “Wherefore shall he be slain? What [evil] hath he done?”
But Christ cannot say thus when he pleadeth for us at God’s bar; nor is
our present senselessness and unconcernedness about his pleading but an
aggravation to our sin. Perhaps David was praying while Jonathan was
playing the advocate for him before the king his father; but perhaps
the saint is sleeping, yea, sinning more, whilst Christ is pleading for
him in heaven. Oh! This should greatly affect us; this should make us
wonder; this should be so considered by us, as to heighten our souls to
admiration of the grace and kindness of Christ.
4. Join to these the greatness and gravity, the highness and glorious
majesty of the Man that is become our Advocate. Says the text, it is
Jesus Christ-“We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.” Now,
that he should become an Advocate, that he should embrace such an
employ as this of his advocateship, let this be a wonderment, and so be
accounted. But let us come to the fourth use.
Use Fourth. Is it so? Is Jesus Christ the Saviour also become our
Advocate? Then let us labour to make that improvement of this doctrine
as tendeth to strengthen our graces, and us, in the management of them.
Indeed, this should be the use that we should make of all the offices
of Christ; but let us, at this time, concern ourselves about this; let,
I say, the poor Christian thus expostulate with himself-
1. Is Christ Jesus the Lord mine Advocate with the Father? Then awake,
my faith, and shake thyself like a giant; stir up thyself, and be not
faint; Christ is the Advocate of his people, and pleadeth the cause of
the poor and needy. And as for sin, which is one great stumble to thy
actings, O my faith, Christ has not only died for that as a sacrifice,
nor only carried his sacrifice unto the Father, in the holiest of all,
but is there to manage that offering as an Advocate, pleading the
efficacy and worth thereof before God, against the devil, for us. Thus,
I say, we should strengthen our faith; for faith has to do not only
with the Word, but also with the offices of Christ. Besides,
considering how many the assaults are that are made upon our faith, we
find all little enough to support it against all the wiles of the
devil.
Christians too little concern themselves, as I have said, with the
offices of Jesus Christ; and therefore their knowledge of him is so
little, and their faith in him so weak. We are bid to have our
conversation in heaven, and then a man so hath, when he is there, in
his spirit, by faith, observing how the Lord Jesus doth exercise his
offices there for him. Let us often, by faith, go to the bar of God,
there to hear our Advocate plead our cause; we should often have our
faith to God’s judgment-seat, because we are concerned there; there we
are accused of the devil, there we have our crimes laid open, and there
we have our Advocate to plead; and this is suggested in the text, for
it saith, “We have an Advocate with the Father”; therefore, thither our
faith should go for help and relief in the day of our straits. I say,
we should have our faith to God’s judgment-seat, and show it there, by
the glass of our text,35 what Satan is doing against, and the Lord
Jesus for, our souls. We should also show it how the Lord Jesus carries
away every cause from the devil, and from before the judgment-seat, to
the comfort of the children, the joy of angels, and the shame of the
enemy. This would strengthen and support our faith indeed, and would
make us more able than, for the most part, we are to apply the grace of
God to ourselves, and hereafter to give more strong repulses to Satan.
It is easy with a man, when he knows that his advocate has overthrown
his enemy at the King’s Bench bar or Court of Common Pleas, less to
fear him the next time he sees him, and more boldly to answer him when
he reneweth his threats on him. Let faith, then, be strengthened, from
its being exercised about the advocateship of Jesus Christ.
2. As we should make use of Christ’s advocateship for the strengthening
of our faith, so we should also make use thereof to the encouraging us
to prayer. As our faith is, so is our prayer; to wit, cold, weak, and
doubtful, if our faith be so. When faith cannot apprehend that we have
access to the Father by Christ, or that we have an Advocate, when
charged before God for our sins by the devil, then we flag and faint in
our prayer; but when we begin to take courage to believe-and then we do
so when most clearly we apprehend Christ-then we get up in prayer. And
according as a man apprehends Christ in his undertakings and offices,
so he will wrestle with and supplicate God. As, suppose a man believes
that Christ died for his sins; why, then, he will plead that in prayer
with God. Suppose, also, that a man understands that Christ rose again
for his justification; why, then, he will also plead that in prayer;
but if he knows no more, no further will he go. But when he shall know
that there is also for him an Advocate with the Father, and that that
Advocate is Jesus Christ; and when the glory of this office of Christ
shall shine in the face of this man’s soul; oh, then, he takes courage
to pray with that courage he had not before; yea, then is his faith so
supported and made strong, that his prayer is more fervent, and
importuning abundance. So that, I say, the knowledge of the
advocateship of Christ is very useful to strengthen our graces; and, as
of graces in general, so of faith and prayer in particular. Wherefore,
our wisdom is, so to improve this doctrine that prayer may be
strengthened thereby.
3. As we should make use of this doctrine to strengthen faith and
prayer, so we should make use of it to keep us humble; for the more
offices Christ executeth for us with the Father, the greater sign that
we are bad; and the more we see our badness, the more humble should we
be. Christ gave for us the price of blood; but that is not all; Christ
as a Captain has conquered death and the grave for us, but that is not
all: Christ as a Priest intercedes for us in heaven; but that is not
all. Sin is still in us, and with us, and mixes itself with whatever we
do, whether what we do be religious or civil; for not only our prayers
and our sermons, our hearings and preaching, and so; but our houses,
our shops, our trades, and our beds, are all polluted with sin. Nor
doth the devil, our night and day adversary, forbear to tell our bad
deeds to our Father, urging that we might for ever be disinherited for
this. But what should we now do, if we had not an Advocate; yea, if we
had not one who would plead in forma pauperis; yea, if we had not one
that could prevail, and that would faithfully execute that office for
us? Why, we must die. But since we are rescued by him, let us, as to
ourselves, lay our hand upon our mouth, and be silent, and say, “Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.” And, I say
again, since the Lord Jesus is fain to run through so many offices for
us before he can bring us to glory, oh! how low, how little, how vile
and base in our own eyes should we be.
It is a shame for a Christian to think highly of himself, since Christ
is fain to do so much for him, and he again not at all able to make him
amends; but some, whose riches consist in nothing but scabs and lice,
will yet have lofty looks. But are not they much to blame who sit
lifting up of lofty eyes in the house, and yet know not how to turn
their hand to do anything so, but that another, their betters, must
come and mend their work? I say, is it not more meet that those that
are such, should look and speak, and act as such that declare their
sense of their unhandiness, and their shame, and the like, for their
unprofitableness? Yea, is it not meet that to every one they should
confess what sorry ones they are? I am sure it should be thus with
Christians, and God is angry when it is otherwise. Nor doth it become
these helpless ones to lift up themselves on high. Let Christ’s
advocateship therefore teach us to be humble.
4. As we should improve this doctrine to strengthen faith, to encourage
prayer, and keep us humble, so we should make use of it to encourage
perseverance-that is, to hold on, to hold out to the end; for, for all
those causes the apostle setteth Christ before us as an Advocate. There
is nothing more discourages the truly godly than the sense of their own
infirmities, as has been hinted all along; consequently, nothing can
more encourage them to go on than to think that Christ is an Advocate
for them. The services, also, that Christ has for us to do in this
world are full of difficulty, and so apt to discourage: but when a
Christian shall come to understand that-if we do what we can-it is not
a failing either in matter or manner that shall render it wholly
unserviceable, or give the devil that advantage as to plead thereby to
prevail for our condemnation and rejection; but that Christ, by being
our Advocate, saves us from falling short, as also from the rage of
hell. This will encourage us to hold on, though we do but hobble in all
our goings, and fumble in all our doings; for we have Christ for an
Advocate in case we sin in the management of any duty-“If any man sin,
we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Let
us, therefore, go on in all God’s ways as well as we can for our
hearts; and when our foot slips, let us tell God of it, and his mercy
in Christ shall hold us up (Psa 84:9-12).
Darkness, and to be shut up in prison, is also a great discouragement
to us; but our Advocate is for giving us light, and for fetching us out
of our prison. True, he that Joseph chose to be his Advocate with
Pharaoh remembered not Joseph, but forgat him (Gen 40:14, 23); but he
that has Jesus Christ to be his Advocate shall be remembered before
God, (Micah 7:8-10).-“He remembered us in our low estate; for his mercy
endureth for ever” (Psa 136:23). Yea, he will say to the prisoners,
Show yourselves; and to them that are in the prison-house, Go forth.
Satan sometimes gets the saints into the prison when he has taken them
captive by their lusts (Rom 7:23). But they shall not be always there;
and this should encourage us to go on in godly ways; for “we must
through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”
Objection. But I cannot pray, says one, therefore how should I
persevere? When I go to prayer, instead of praying, my mouth is
stopped. What would you have me do?
Answer. Well, soul, though Satan may baffle thee, he cannot so serve
thine Advocate; if thou must not speak for thyself, Christ thine
Advocate can speak for thee. Lemuel was to open his mouth for the
dumb-to wit, for the sons of destruction, and to plead the cause of the
poor and needy (Prov 31:8, 9). If we knew the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, so as the Word reveals it, we would believe, we would hope, and
would, notwithstanding all discouragements, wait for the salvation of
the Lord. But there are many things that hinder, wherefore faith,
prayer, and perseverance, are made difficult things unto us-“But if any
man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous”: and, God “shall fight for you, and you shall hold your
peace,” was once a good word to me when I could not pray.