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

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 ⟨p. 60⟩as such. Thus, as Mephibosheth pleaded for his Excuse, His Lameness, 2 Sam. 17.24, 25, 26. So Christ pleads the Infirm, and indigent Condition of his People, against Satan, for their Advantage.

Wherefore Christ, by such Pleas as these for his People, doth yet further show the Malice of Satan, (for all this Burning comes through him) yea, and by it he moveth the Heart of God to pity us, and yet to be gentle, and long suffering, and merciful to us. For Pity and Compassion are the Fruits of the yearning of God's Bowels towards us, while he considereth us as infirm and weak and subject to Slips and Stumbles, and Falls, because of Weakness.

Wherefore Christ, by such Pleas as these for his People, doth yet further shew the Malice of Satan, (for all this Burning comes through him) yea, and by it he moveth the Heart of God to pity us, and yet to be gentle, and long suffering, and merciful to us. For Pity and Compassion are the Fruits of the yearning of God's Bowels towards us, while he considereth us as infirm and weak and subject to Slips and Stumbles, and Falls, because of Weakness.