holy arguments to move to goodness of life from the love and goodness of God, but not thence to be remiss, 1 Cor. v. 14. 2. Know therefore that they have no grace that find not these effects of the discoveries of the love and goodness of God. 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 depart from iniquity, (2 Tim. ii. 19,) and such only are sanctified as he hath redeemed to himself by faith in him, Acts, xxvi. 18. USE 7. 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," &c. Christians, when they would comfort their dejected brethren, talk too much at rovers [random] 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 highpriest, and sometimes as 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 shell 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 shewed 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 his bones." 66 Nor has Satan so good a right to plead justice against us, though we have sinned, that we might be damned, 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 lead us the way of his steps." USE 8. 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. xxx. 12, 13;) they are, as we say, left to the wide world, or to be ground to powder between the justice of God 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," (Psa. cix. 6, 7,) 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." "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 hurled him out of his place; for God shall cast upon him, and not spare; he would fain flee out of his hand. shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place," Job, xxvii. 20-23. And what shall this man do? Can he withstand 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 God; and awhile after, I am condemned before the just judgment of God. Nor was this man but strict as to 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 God. Nor can any advocate save Jesus Christ the righteous avail anything at all, Men 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 God. OBJECT.-But some may say, There is God'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 hell, unless Christ becomes his advocate.. ANSW. All these, his advocate's office not excluded, are few enough, and little enough, to save the saints from hell; for "the righteous shall scarcely be saved," 1 Pet. iv. 18. There must, then, be the promise, God's grace, Christ's blood, and him to advocate too, or we cannot be saved. What is the promise without God'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 God'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 for us, 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 God, that without all this ado (I would speak with reverence of God 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 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 of them he is; but such shall have the blessing of them all before they come to glory. Nor hath a man ground to say Christ is here or there mine before he has ground to say he also is mine advocate; though that office of his, as has been already shewed, 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 God for whom he will not plead against the devil? No, no; they are his own, that he loveth to the end, (John, xiii.,) 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 had 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 lusts; 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 God, 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 God; but none of these things belong to them that are dead in trespasses and sins; they stand in no special relation to God; they are not privileged by the law of grace. OBJECT. But doth not Christ as advocate plead for his elect, though not called as yet? ANSW. 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 God's election, for he knows it not; but he objecteth against the called to wit, whether they be truly godly or no, (Job, i. 9, 10; Zech. iii.,) or whether they ought not to die for their transgressions. 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 are 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, I write unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." MR. BUNYAN'S LAST SERMON: PREACHED JULY, 1688. JOHN, L 13" Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 66 THE words have a dependence on what goes before, and therefore I must direct you to them for the right understanding of it. You have it thus, He came to his own, but his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God." In the words before, you have two things First, Some of his own rejecting him when he offered himself to them. Secondly, Others of his own receiving him, and making him welcome. Those that reject him he also passes by; but those that receive him, he gives them power to become the sons of God. Now, lest any one should look upon it as good luck or fortune, says he, "They were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." They that did not receive him, they were only born of flesh and blood; but those that receive him, they have God to their Father, they receive the doctrine of Christ with a vehement desire. First, I will shew you what he means by "blood." They that believe are born to it, as an heir is to an inheritance; they are born of God; not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; not of blood-that is, not by generation, not born to the kingdom of heaven by the flesh; not because I am the son of a godly man or woman, that is meant by blood-Acts, xvii. 26, "He has made of one blood all nations." But when he says here, "not of blood," he rejects all carnal privileges they did boast of. They boasted they were Abraham's seed. No, no, says he; it is not of blood; think not to say you have Abraham to your Father; you must be born of God if you go to the kingdom of heaven. 66 Secondly, Nor of the will of the flesh." What must we understand by that? It is taken for those vehement inclinations that are in man to all manner of looseness, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, that must not be understood here; men are not made the children of God by fulfilling their lustful desires; it must be understood here in the best sense; there is not only in carnal men a will to be vile, but there is in them a will to be saved also, a will to go to heaven also. But this it will not do, it will not privilege a man in the things of the kingdom of God; natural desires after the things of another world, they are not an argument to prove a man shall go to heaven whenever he dies. I am not a free-willer, I do abhor it; yet there is not the wickedest man but he desires some time or other to be saved; he will read some time or other, or, it may be, pray; but this will not do-" It is not in him that wills, nor in him that runs, but in God that shews mercy;" there is willing and running, and yet to no purpose-Rom. ix. 16, "Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, have not obtained it." Here I do not understand as if the apostle had denied a virtuous course of life to be the way to heaven, but that a man without grace, though he have natural gifts, yet he shall not obtain privilege to go to heaven, and be the son of God. Though a man without grace may have a will to be saved, yet he cannot have that will God's way. Nature, it cannot know anything but the things of nature; the things of God knows no man but by the Spirit of God; unless the Spirit of God be in you, it will leave you on this side the gates of heaven-" Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." It may be some may have a will, a desire that Ishmael may be saved; know this, it will not save thy child. If it were our will, I would have you all go to heaven. How many are there in the world that pray for their children, and cry for them, and ready to die; and this will not do? God's will is the rule of all; it is only through Jesus Christ, "which were born, not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Now I come to the doctrine. Men that believe in Jesus Christ to the effectual receiving of Jesus Christ, they are born to it; he does not say they shall be born to it, but they are born to it; born of God, unto God, and the things of God, before they receive God to eternal salvation. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Now unless he be born of God, he cannot see it. Suppose the kingdom of God be what it will, he cannot see it before he be begotten of God; KK |