My brethren, is it not reasonable that we should stand up for him in this world? Yea, is it not reason that in all things we should study his exaltation here, since he in all things contrives our honour and glory in heaven? A child of G.o.d should study in every of his relations to serve the Lord Christ in this world, because Christ, by the execution of every one of his offices, seeks our promotion hereafter. If these be not sufficient arguments to bow us to yield up our members, ourselves, our whole selves to G.o.d, that we may be servants of righteousness unto him; yea, if by these and such like we are not made willing to stand up for him before men, it is a sign that there is but little, if any, of the grace of G.o.d in our hearts.
Yea, further, that we should have now at last in reserve Christ as authorized to be our Advocate to plead for us; for this is the last of his offices for us while we are here, and is to be put in practice for us when there are more than ordinary occasions. This is to help, as we say, at a dead lift, even then when a Christian is taken for a captive, or when he sinks in the mire where is no standing, or when he is clothed with filthy garments, or when the devil doth desperately plead against us our evil deeds, or when by our lives we have made our salvation questionable, and have forfeited our evidences for heaven. And why then should not we have also in reserve for Christ? And when profession and confession will not do, when loss of goods and a prison will not do, when loss of country and of friends will not do, then to bring it in, then to bring it in as the reserve, and as that which will do-to wit, willingly to lay down our lives for his name; and since he doth his part without grudging for us, let us do ours with rejoicing for him (Isa 24:15; John 21:19).
Use Sixth. Doth Jesus Christ stand up to plead for us, and that of his mere grace and love? Then this should teach Christians to be watchful and wary how they sin against G.o.d. This inference seems to run retrograde; but whoso duly considers it, will find it fairly fetched from the premises. Christianity teaches ingenuity, 36 and aptness to be sensible of kindnesses, and doth instruct us to a loathness to be overhard upon him from whom we have all at free cost. "Shall we-sin that grace may abound? G.o.d forbid. Shall we do evil that good may come? G.o.d forbid. Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? G.o.d forbid" (Rom 6:1, 2, 15).
It is the most disingenuous thing in the world not to care how chargeable we are to that friend that bestows all upon us gratis.
When Mephibosheth had an opportunity to be yet more chargeable to David, he would not, because he had his life and his all from the mere grace of the king (II Sam 19:24-28). Also David thought it too much for all his household to go to Absalom"s feast, because it was made of free cost. Why, Christ is our Advocate of free cost, we pay him neither fee nor income for what he doth; nor doth he desire aught of us, but to accept of his free doing for us thankfully; wherefore let us put him upon this work as little as may be, and by so doing we shall show ourselves Christians of the right make and stamp. We count him but a fellow of a very gross spirit that will therefore be lavishing of what is his friend"s, because it is prepared of mere kindness for him; Esau himself was loath to do this; and shall Christians be disingenuous?
I dare say, if Christians were sober, watchful, and of a more self-denying temper, they need not put the Lord Jesus to that to which for the want of these things they do so often put him. I know he is not unwilling to serve us, but I know also that the love of Christ should constrain us to live not to ourselves, but to him that loved us, that died for us, and rose again (II Cor 5:14, 15).
We shall do that which is naught too much, even then when we watch and take care what we can to prevent it. Our flesh, when we do our utmost diligence to resist, it will defile both us and our best performances. We need not lay the reins on its neck and say, What care we? the more sin the more grace, and the more we shall see the kindness of Christ, and what virtue there is in his Advocate"s office to save us. And should there be any such here, I would present them with a scripture or two; the first is this, "Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise?" (Deut 32:6).
And if this gentle check will not do, then read the other, Shall we say, Let us do evil that good may come? their d.a.m.nation is just (Rom 3:8). Besides, as nothing so swayeth with us as love, so there is nothing so well pleasing to G.o.d as it. Let a man love, though he has opportunity to do nothing, it is accepted of the G.o.d of heaven.
But where there is no love, let a man do what he will, it is not at all regarded (I Cor 13:1-3). Now to be careless and negligent, and that from a supposed understanding of the grace of Christ in the exercise of his advocateship for us in heaven, is as clear sign as can be, that in thy heart there is no love to Christ, and that consequently thou art just a nothing, instead of being a Christian.
Talk, then, what thou wilt, and profess never so largely, Christ is no Advocate of thine, nor shalt thou, thou so continuing, be ever the better for any of those pleas that Christ, at G.o.d"s bar, puts in against the devil, for his people.
Christians, Christ Jesus is not unwilling to lay out himself for you in heaven, nor to be an Advocate for you in the presence of his Father; but yet he is unwilling that you should render him evil for good; I say, that you should do so by your remissness and carelessness for want of such a thinking of things as may affect your hearts therewith. It would be more comely in you, would please him better, would agree with your profession, and also better would prove you gracious, to be found in the power and nature of these conclusions. "How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (Rom 6:2)." If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of G.o.d; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in G.o.d. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for which things"
sake the wrath of G.o.d cometh on the children of disobedience" (Col 3:1-6).
I say, it would be more comely for Christians to say, We will not sin because G.o.d will pardon; we will not commit iniquity because Christ will advocate for us. "I write unto you that ye sin not; though if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father." Why, the brute would conclude, I will not do so, because my master will beat me; I will do thus, for then my master will love me. And Christians should be above [such] men, brutish men.
And for a conclusion as to this, let me present you with three considerations-(1.) Know that it is the nature of grace to draw holy arguments to move to goodness of life from the love and goodness of G.o.d, but not thence to be remiss (II Cor 5:14). (2.) Know therefore that they have no grace that find not these effects of the discoveries of the love and goodness of G.o.d. (3.) Know also that among all the swarms of professors that from age to age make mention of the name of Christ, they only must dwell with him in heaven that do part from iniquity, and are zealous of good works (II Tim 2:19). He gave himself for these (t.i.tus 2:11-14). Not that they were so antecedent to this gift. But those that he hath redeemed to himself are thus sanctified by the faith of him (Acts 26:18).
Use Seventh. Is it so? Is Jesus Christ an Advocate with the Father for us? Then this should encourage strong Christians to tell the weak ones where, when they are in their temptations and fears through sin, they may have one to plead their cause. Thus the apostle doth by the text; and thus we should do one to another. Mark, he telleth the weak of an Advocate: "My little children, I write unto you that ye sin not; though if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father."
Christians, when they would comfort their dejected brethren, talk too much at rovers37 or in generals; they should be more at the mark: "A word spoken in season, how good is it?" I say, Christians should observe and inquire, that they may observe the cause or ground of their brother"s trouble; and having first taken notice of that, in the next place consider under which of the offices of Jesus Christ this sin or trouble has cast this man; and so labour to apply Christ in the word of the gospel to him. Sometimes we are bid to consider him as an Apostle and High Priest, and sometimes as a forerunner and an Advocate. And he has, as was said afore, these divers offices, with others, that we by the consideration of him might be relieved under our manifold temptations. This, as I said, as I perceive John teaches us here, as he doth a little before of his being a sacrifice for us; for he presenteth them that after conversion shall sin with Christ as an Advocate with the Father. As who should say, My brethren, are you tempted, are you accused, have you sinned, has Satan prevailed against you? "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
Thus we should do, and deliver our brother from death. There is nothing that Satan more desires than to get good men in his sieve to sift them as wheat, that if possible he may leave them nothing but bran; no grace, but the very husk and sh.e.l.l of religion. And when a Christian comes to know this, should Christ as Advocate be hid, what could bear him up? But let him now remember and believe that "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," and he forthwith conceiveth comfort; for an advocate is to plead for me according as has been showed afore, that I may be delivered from the wrath and accusation of my adversary, and still be kept safe under grace.
Further, by telling of my brother that he hath an Advocate, I put things into his mind that he has not known, or do bring them into remembrance which he has forgotten-to wit, that though he hath sinned, he shall be saved in a way of justice; for an advocate is to plead justice and law, and Christ is to plead these for a saint that has sinned; yea, so to plead them that he may be saved. This being so, he is made to perceive that by law he must have his sins forgiven him; that by justice he must be justified. For Christ as an Advocate pleadeth for justice, justice to himself; and this saint is of himself-a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Nor has Satan so good a right to plead justice against us, though we have sinned, that we might be d.a.m.ned, as Christ has to plead it, though we have sinned, that we might be saved; for sin cannot cry so loud to justice as can the blood of Christ; and he pleads his blood as Advocate, by which he has answered the law; wherefore the law having nothing to object, must needs acquit the man for whom the Lord Jesus pleads. I conclude this with that of the Psalmist, "Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps" (Psa 85:9-13).
Use Eighth. But what is all this to you that are not concerned in this privilege? The children, indeed, have the advantage of an advocate; but what is this to them that have none to plead their cause? (Jer 30:12, 13); they are, as we say, left to the wide world, or to be ground to powder between the justice of G.o.d and the sins which they have committed. This is the man that none but the devil seeks after; that is pursued by the law, and sin, and death, and has none to plead his cause. It is sad to consider the plight that such an one is in. His accuser is appointed, yea, ordered to bring in a charge against him-"Let Satan stand at his right hand,"
in the place where accusers stand. "And when he shall be judged, let him be condemned," let there be none to plead for his deliverance.
If he cries, or offereth to cry out for mercy or forgiveness, "let his prayer become sin" (Psa 109:6-7). This is the portion of a wicked man: "terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night, the east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth, and as a storm hurleth him out of his place; for G.o.d shall cast upon him, and not spare; he would fain flee out of his hand. Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place" (Job 27:20-23). And what shall this man do? Can he overstand the charge, the accusation, the sentence, and condemnation?
No, he has none to plead his cause. I remember that somewhere I have read, as I think, concerning one who, when he was being carried upon men"s shoulders to the grave, cried out as he lay upon the bier, I am accused before the just judgment of G.o.d; and a while after, I am condemned before the just judgment of G.o.d. Nor was this man but strict as the religion that was then on foot in the world; but all the religion of the world amounts to no more than nothing.
I mean as to eternal salvation, if men be denied an Advocate to plead their cause with G.o.d. Nor can any advocate save Jesus Christ the righteous avail anything at all, because there is none appointed but him to that work, and therefore not to be admitted to enter a plea for their client at the bar of G.o.d.
Objection. But some may say, There is G.o.d"s grace, the promise, Christ"s blood, and his second part of priesthood now in heaven.
Can none of these severally, nor all of them jointly, save a man from h.e.l.l, unless Christ also become our Advocate?
Answer. All these, his Advocate"s office not excluded, are few enough, and little enough, to save the saints from h.e.l.l; for the righteous shall scarcely be saved (I Peter 4:18). There must, then, be the promise, G.o.d"s grace, Christ"s blood, and him to advocate too, or we cannot be saved. What is the promise without G.o.d"s grace, and what is that grace without a promise to bestow it on us? I say, what benefit have we thereby? Besides, if the promise and G.o.d"s grace, without Christ"s blood, would have saved us, wherefore then did Christ die? Yea, and again I say, if all these, without his being an Advocate, would have delivered us from all those disadvantages that our sins and infirmities would bring us to and into; surely in vain and to no purpose was Jesus made an Advocate.
But, soul, there is need of all; and therefore be not thou offended that the Lord Jesus is of the Father made so much to his, but rather admire and wonder that the Father and the Son should be so concerned with so sorry a lump of dust and ashes as thou art. And I say again, be confounded to think that sin should be a thing so horrible, of power to pollute, to captivate, and detain us from G.o.d, that without all this ado (I would speak with reverence of G.o.d and his wisdom) we cannot be delivered from the everlasting destruction that it hath brought upon the children of men.
But, I say, what is this to them that are not admitted to a privilege in the advocate-office of Christ? Whether he is an Advocate or no, the case to them is the same. True, Christ as a Saviour is not divided; he that hath him not in all, shall have him in none at all of his offices in a saving manner. Therefore, he for whom he is not an Advocate, he is nothing as to eternal life.
Indeed, Christ by some of his offices is concerned for the elect, before by some others of them he is; but such shall have the blessing of them all before they come to glory. Nor hath man ground to say Christ is here or there mine, before he hath ground to say, he also is mine Advocate; though that office of his, as has been already showed, stands in the last place, and comes in as a reserve. But can any imagine that Christ will pray for them as Priest for whom he will not plead as Advocate? or that he will speak for them to G.o.d for whom he will not plead against the devil? No, no; they are his own, that he loveth to the end, (John 13:1), to the end of their lives, to the end of their sins, to the end of their temptations, to the end of their fears, and of the exercise of the rage and malice of Satan against them. To the end may also be understood, even until he hath given them the profit and benefit of all his offices in their due exercise and administration. But, I say, what is all this to them that have him not for their Advocate?
You may remember that I have already told you that there are several who have not the Lord Jesus for their Advocate-to wit, those that are still in their sins, pursuing of their l.u.s.ts; those that are ashamed of him before men; and those that are never otherwise but lukewarm in their profession. And let us now, for a conclusion, make further inquiry into this matter.
Is it likely that those should have the Lord Jesus for their Advocate to plead their cause; who despise and reject his person, his Word, and ways? or those either who are so far off from sense of, and shame for, sin, that it is the only thing they hug and embrace? True, he pleadeth the cause of his people both with the Father and against the devil, and all the world besides; but open profaneness, shame of good, and without heart or warmth in religion, are no characters of his people. It is irrational to think that Christ is an Advocate for, or that he pleadeth the cause of such, who, in the self-same hour, and before his enemies, are throwing dirt in his face by their profane mouths and unsanctified lives and conversations.
If he pleads as an Advocate for any, he must plead against Satan for them, and so consequently must have some special bottom to ground his plea upon; I say, a bottom better than that upon which the carnal man stands; which bottom is either some special relation that this man stands in to G.o.d, or some special law he hath privilege by, that he may have some ground for an appeal, if need be, to the justice and righteousness of G.o.d; but none of these things belong to them that are dead in trespa.s.ses and sins; they stand in no special relation to G.o.d: they are not privileged by the law of grace.
Objection.-But doth not Christ as Advocate plead for his elect, though not called as yet?
Answer.-He died for all his elect, he prayeth for all his elect as a Priest, but as an Advocate he pleadeth only for the children, the called only. Satan objecteth not against G.o.d"s election, for he knows it not; but he objecteth against the called-to wit, whether they be truly G.o.dly or no, or whether they ought not to die for their transgressions (Job 1:9, 10; Zech 3). And for these things he has some colour to frame an accusation against us, and now it is time enough for Christ to stand up to plead. I say, for these things he has some colour to frame a plea against us; for there is sin and a law of works, and a judge too, that has not respect of persons. Now to overthrow this plea of Satan, is Jesus Christ our Advocate; yea, to overthrow it by pleading law and justice; and this must be done with respect to the children only-"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
FOOTNOTES:
1 "Nulled"; repealed or annulled.-ED.
2 "Ingenuity"; ingenuousness, frankness, sincerity.-ED.
3 How deeply important is this essential doctrine of Christianity-a personal investigation. We must hear and see for ourselves, handle the word of life, and not trust to others, however holy and capable they may appear to be; we must search the Scriptures, and pray for ourselves, or we have not the slightest claim to the name of Christian.--ED.
4 The sin here referred to was numbering the people of Israel; see I Chronicles 21:1-ED..
5 This is the great mystery of G.o.dliness-G.o.d manifest in the flesh, making sinful creatures the members of his own body, and becoming a sin-offering for them. It is a holy, a heavenly, a soul-comforting mystery, which should influence the Christian to an intense hatred to sin, as the cause of his Saviour"s sufferings; and a still more intense love to him, who redeemed us at such a sacrifice.-ED.
6 Altered, by a typographical error, in editions after the author"s death, to "the heathens beheld."-ED.
7 "Replevy": a form of law by which goods that are proved to have been wrongfully seized are re-delivered to the owner.-ED.
8 "Donator"; giver, donor; now obsolete.-ED.
9 "Prevented"; gone before, so as to be seen. "Let thy grace, O Lord, always prevent and follow us."-Common Prayer.-ED.
10This may refer to Bunyan"s own feelings, which are so pa.s.sionately expressed in his Grace Abounding, No. 327, when he was dragged from his home, his wife, and his children, to be shut up in Bedford jail, for obedience to G.o.d. He exclaims, "My poor blind child, who lay nearer my heart than all I had besides, thou must be beaten, must beg, suffer hunger, cold, nakedness, and a thousand calamities, though I cannot now endure that the wind should blow upon thee. I thought this would break my heart to pieces."-ED.
11 "A hank"; a check, an influence over; obsolete.-ED.
12 "Entertains his lawyer"; hires or retains. So Shakespeare-"Sweet lady, entertain him, To be my fellow-servant to your ladyship."
Gentleman of Verona, Scene IV.-ED.
13 "Shuff"; from the old Saxon word schufan, to reject, cast away.-ED.
14 "Supply of thy defects"; a sufficiency in himself to supply all thy defects and deficiencies.-ED.
15 "Supersedeas"; a writ to stay proceedings, for reasons expressed in it. "Cavils and motions"; quibbles or quirks of special pleading, and moving a court of law to occasion delay and weary out an honest suitor; much of this nuisance has been abated, but enough remains to render a lawsuit uncertain, vexatious, tedious, and expensive.-ED.
16 "Glaver;" to wheedle, flatter, or fawn upon; now obsolete.-ED.
17 This sentence at first sight seems obscure. The children"s bread is the superabounding riches of Divine grace. Satan putting pins into it, may refer to those who profanely pervert the grace of G.o.d to evil, by saying, "Let us do evil, that good may come. Whose d.a.m.nation is just." These are the dogs who are without, but never were within the fold of Christ. (Phil 3:2, Rev 22:15)-ED.
18 Dr. Watts beautifully ill.u.s.trates this soul-supporting truth in his hymn (116, verse 2):-"How can I sink with such a prop, As my eternal G.o.d, Who bears the earth"s huge pillars up, And spreads the heavens abroad?"-ED.
19 "The whole tale"; the whole number as reckoned and ascertained; nothing being lost.-ED.