The advocateship of Jesus Christ clearly explained, and largely improved, for the benefit of…

Also when Abraham said, I am but Dust and ⟨p. 59⟩Ashes, Gen. 18.27. he means, he was but what Sin had left: Yea he had something of the Smutch and besmearings of Sin yet upon him. Wherefore it was a Custom with Israel, in Days of old, when they set Days apart for Confession of Sin, and Humiliation for the same, to sprinkle themselves with, or to wallow in Dust and Ashes, Est. 4.1, 3. Jer. 6.26. Job 30.9. chap. 42.6. as a token that they did confess, that they were but what Sin had left, and that they also were defiled, weakened and polluted by it.

Also when Abraham said, I am but Dust and ⟨p. 59⟩Ashes, Gen. 18.27. he means, he was but what Sin had left: Yea he had something of the Smutch and besmearings of Sin yet upon him. Wherefore it was a Custom with Israel, in Days of old, when they set Days apart for Co•fession of Sin, and Humiliation for the same, to sprinkle themselves with, or to wallow in Dust and Ashes, Est. 4.1, 3. Jer. 6.26. Job 30.9. chap. 42.6. as a token that they did confess, that they were but what Sin had left, and that they also were defiled, weakned and polluted by it.

This then is the next Plea of our goodly Advocate for us. O Satan, This is a Brand plucked out of the Fire. As who should say, thou objectest against my Servant Joshua, That he is black like a Coal, or that the Fire of Sin, at times, is still burning in him. And what then, the Reason why he is not totally extinct as tow, is not thy Pity, but my Father's Mercy to him: I have plucked him out of the Fire, yet not so out, but that the smell thereof is yet upon him; and my Father and I, we consider his Weakness, and pity him. For since he is as a Brand pulled out; can it be expected by my Father or me, that he should appear before us as clear, and do our biddings as well as if he had never been there? This is a Brand plucked out of the Fire, and must be considered as such, and must be born with