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Updated: June 27, 2025
I fear thee near, I love thee far; thy flight allureth me, thy seeking secureth me: I suffer, but for thee, what would I not gladly bear! For thee, whose coldness inflameth, whose hatred misleadeth, whose flight enchaineth, whose mockery pleadeth: Who would not hate thee, thou great bindress, inwindress, temptress, seekress, findress!
And this Christ pleadeth against Satan as an Advocate with the Father for us; by which he vindicates his Father's justice, holdeth the child of God, notwithstanding his sins, in a state of justification, and utterly overthroweth and confoundeth the devil.
The same prelate pleadeth for the expediency of giving the communion to the sick in private houses, because he thinks they should not want this mean of comfort, as if the wanting of the sacramental signs, not procured by a man’s own negligence or contempt, could stop or stay the comforts of the Holy Spirit. Nay, it is not so.
As they differ in name and nature, so they also differ as to their extent. The priesthood of Christ extendeth itself to the whole of God's elect, whether called or in their sins; but Christ, as Advocate, pleadeth only for the children. As they differ in name, in nature, and extent, so they differ as to the persons with whom they have to do.
Upon any other boy such disrespect should be visited severely; but from thee, Jacob, I must add in the words of Caesar, `Et tu Brute, I expected, I had a right to expect, otherwise. In se animi ingrati crimen vitia omnia condit. Thou understandest me, Jacob guilty or not guilty?" "Not guilty, sir," replied I, firmly. "He pleadeth net guilty, Mr Knapps; proceed, then, to prove thy charge."
The believer hath another ground of comfort to grip to, in this case, and that is, Christ's eternal priesthood, whereby he makes intercession for the transgressions of his people, and as their advocate and attorney with the Father, pleadeth their cause, whereby he is able to save them to the last and uttermost step of their journey, and so to save them from the guilt of all casual and emergent sins, that might hinder their salvation.
Then the man pleadeth his special incapacity, whatsoever that may be, as, for instance, impecuniosity, or that he hath one or many wives in his household, or that he is of mean figure, or small capacity; of which reasons it may be noted, that the first is, according to late decisions, of chiefest authority. So far the old law-book.
But we will never appeal from heaven to earth for right, for here we have no Advocate; "our Advocate is with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." As he pleadeth by himself alone, and nowhere else but in the court of heaven with the Father, so as he pleadeth with the Father for us, he observeth this rule- And this he must do, or else he can do nothing.
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.
All that we forget is, that we have an Advocate, "an Advocate with the Father"-that is, one that is appointed to take in hand in open court, before all the angels of heaven, my cause, and to plead it by such law and arguments as will certainly fetch me off, though I am clothed with filthy garments; but this, I say, we are apt to forget, as Job when he said, "O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!"
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