A. H. Leahy - "Heroic Romances of Ireland Volumes 1 and 2 Combined"

Th. Bentzon (Mme. Blanc) - "Jacqueline, v3"

Dewitt H. Parker - "The Principles Of Aesthetics"

Constant - "Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, V12"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The Works of John Bunyan Volume 1

J >> John Bunyan >> The Works of John Bunyan Volume 1




Fourth. The necessity of the Advocate's office in Jesus Christ
appears plainly in this-to plead about the judgments, distresses,
afflictions, and troubles that we meet withal in this life for our
sins. For though, by virtue of this office, Christ fully takes us
off from the condemnation that the unbelievers go down to for their
sins, yet he doth not thereby exempt us from temporal punishments,
for we see and feel that they daily overtake us; but for the
proportioning of the punishment, or affliction for transgression,
seeing that comes under the sentence of the law, it is fit that we
should have an Advocate that understands both law and judgment, to
plead for equal distribution of chastisement, according, I say, to
the law of grace; and this the Lord Jesus doth.

Suppose a man for transgression be indicted at the assizes; his
adversary is full of malice, and would have him punished sorely
beyond what by the law is provided for such offence; and he pleads
that the judge will so afflict and punish as he in his malicious
mind desireth. But the man has an advocate there, and he enters
his plea against the cruelty of his client's accuser, saying, My
lord, it cannot be as our enemy would have it; the punishment for
these transgressions is prescribed by that law that we here ground
our plea upon; nor may it be declined to satisfy his envy; we stand
here upon matters of law, and appeal to the law. And this is the
work of our Advocate in heaven. Punishments for the sin of the
children come not headlong, not without measure, as our accuser
would have them, nor yet as they fall upon those who have none to
plead their cause.27 Hath he smote the children according to the
stroke wherewith he hath smitten others? No; "in measure when it
shooteth forth," or seeks to exceed due bounds, "thou wilt debate
with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind"
(Isa 27:8). "Thou wilt debate with it," inquiring and reasoning by
the law, whether the shootings forth of the affliction (now going
out for the offence committed) be not too strong, too heavy, too
hot, and of too long a time admitted to distress and break the
spirit of this Christian; and if it be, he applies himself to the
rule to measure it by, he fetches forth his plumb line, and sets
it in the midst of his people, (Amos 7:8; Isa 28:17), and lays
righteousness to that, and will not suffer it to go further; but
according to the quality of the transgression, and according to the
terms, bounds, limits, and measures which the law of grace admits,
so shall the punishment be. Satan often saith of us when we have
sinned, as Abishai said of Shimei after he had cursed David, Shall
not this man die for this? (II Sam 19:21). But Jesus, our Advocate,
answers as David, What have I to do with thee, O Satan? Thou this
day art an enemy to me; thou seekest for a punishment for the
transgressions of my people above what is allotted to them by the
law of grace, under which they are, and beyond what their relation
that they stand in to my Father and myself will admit. Wherefore,
as Advocate, he pleadeth against Satan when he brings in against
us a charge for sins committed, for the regulating of punishments,
both as to the nature, degree, and continuation of punishment; and
this is the reason why, when we are judged, we are not condemned,
but chastened, "that we should not be condemned with the world"
(I Cor 11:32). Hence king David says, the Lord hath not given him
over to the will of his enemy (Psa 27:12). And again, "The Lord
hath chastened me sore; but he hath not given me over unto death"
(Psa 118:18). Satan's plea was, that the Lord would give David over
to his will, and to the tyranny of death. No, says our Advocate,
that must not be; to do so would be an affront to the covenant
under which grace has put them; that would be to deal with them by
a covenant of works, under which they are not. There is a rod for
children; and stripes for those of them that transgress. This rod
is in the hand of a Father, and must be used according to the law
of that relation, not for the destruction, but correction of the
children; not to satisfy the rage of Satan, but to vindicate the
holiness of my Father; not to drive them further from, but to bring
them nearer to their God. But,

Fifth. The necessity of the advocateship of Jesus Christ is
also manifest in this, for that there is need of one to plead the
efficacy of old titles to our eternal inheritance, when our interest
thereunto seems questionable by reason of new transgressions. That
God's people may, by their new and repeated sins, as to reason
at least, endanger their interest in the eternal inheritance, is
manifest by such groanings of theirs as these-"Why dost thou cast
me off?" (Psa 43:2). "Cast me not away from thy presence" (Psa 51:11).
And, "O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever?" (Psa 74:1). Yet
I find in the book of Leviticus, that though any of the children
of Israel should have sold, mortgaged, or made away with their
inheritance, they did not thereby utterly make void their title
to an interest therein, but it should again return to them, and
they again enjoy the possession of it, in the year of jubilee. In
the year of jubilee, saith God, you shall return every man to his
possession; "the land shall not be sold for ever," nor be quite
cut off, "for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners
with me. And in all the land of your possession, ye shall grant a
redemption for the land" (Lev 25:23,24).

The man in Israel that, by waxing poor, did sell his land in
Canaan, was surely a type of the Christian who, by sin and decays
in grace, has forfeited his place and inheritance in heaven; but
as the ceremonial law provided that the poor man in Canaan should
not, by his poverty, lose his portion in Canaan for ever, but that
it should return to him in the year of jubilee; so the law of grace
has provided that the children shall not, for their sin, lose their
inheritance in heaven for ever, but that it shall return to them
in the world to come (I Cor 11:32)28

All therefore that happeneth in this case is, they may live without
the comfort of it here, as he that had sold his house in Canaan
might live without the enjoyment of it till the jubilee. They may
also seem to come short of it when they die, as he in Canaan did
that deceased before the year of jubilee; but as certainly as he
that died in Canaan before the jubilee did yet receive again his
inheritance by the hand of his relative survivor when the jubilee
came, so certainly shall he that dieth, and that seemeth in his dying
to come short of the celestial inheritance now, be yet admitted,
at his rising again, to the repossession of his old inheritance at
the day of judgment. But now here is room for a caviler to object,
and to plead against the children, saying, They have forfeited
their part of paradise by their sin; what right, then, shall they
have to the kingdom of heaven? Now let the Lord stand up to plead,
for he is Advocate for the children; yea, let them plead the
sufficiency of their first title to the kingdom, and that it is
not their doings can sell the land for ever. The reason why the
children of Israel could not sell the land for ever was, because
the Lord, their head, reserved to himself a right therein-"The land
shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine." Suppose two or
three children have a lawful title to such an estate, but they are
all profuse and prodigal, and there is a brother also that has by
law a chief right to the same estate: this brother may hinder the
estate from being sold for ever, because it is his inheritance,
and he may, when the limited time that his brethren had sold their
share therein is out, if he will, restore it to them again. And in
the meantime, if any that are unjust should go about utterly and
for ever to deprive his brethren, he may stand up and plead for
them; that in law the land cannot be sold for ever, for that it
is his as well as theirs, he being resolved not to part with his
right. O my brethren! Christ will not part with his right of the
inheritance unto which you are also born; your profuseness and
prodigality shall not make him let go his hold that he hath for you
of heaven; nor can you, according to law, sell the land for ever,
since it is his, and he hath the principal and chief title thereto.
This also gives him ground to stand up to plead for you against
all those that would hold the kingdom from you for ever; for let
Satan say what he can against you, yet Christ can say, "The land is
mine," and consequently that his brethren could not sell it. Yes,
says Satan, if the inheritance be divided.

O but, says Christ, the land is undivided; no man has his part set
out and turned over to himself; besides, my brethren yet are under
age, and I am made their guardian; they have not power to sell the
land for ever; the land is mine; also my Father has made me feoffee
in trust for my brethren, that they may have what is allotted them
when they are all come to a perfect man, "unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph 4:13). And not before, and I
will reserve it for them till then; and thus to do is the will of
my Father, the law of the Judge, and also my unchangeable resolution.
And what can Satan say against this plea? Can he prove that Christ
has no interest in the saints' inheritance? Can he prove that we
are at age, or that our several parts of the heavenly house are
already delivered into our own power? And if he goes about to do
this, is not the law of the land against him? Doth it not say that
our Advocate is "Lord of all," (Acts 10:36), that the kingdom is
Christ's, that it is laid up in heaven for us, (Eph 5:5, Col 1:5);
yea, that the "inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and
that fadeth not away, is reserved in heaven for us, who are kept
by the power of God, through faith unto salvation" (I Peter 1:4,
5). Thus therefore is our heavenly inheritance made good by our
Advocate against the thwartings and branglings29 of the devil; nor
can our new sins make it invalid, but it abideth safe to us at last,
notwithstanding our weaknesses; though, if we sin, we may have but
little comfort of it, or but little of its present profits, while
we live in this present world. A spendthrift, though he loses not
his title, may yet lose the present benefit, but the principal
will come again at last; for "we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous."

Sixth. The necessity of the advocateship of Jesus Christ for
us further appears in this-to wit, for that our evidences, which
declare that we have a right to the eternal inheritance, are often
out of our own hand, yea, and also sometimes kept long from us,
the which we come not at the sight or comfort of again but by our
Advocate, especially when our evidences are taken from us, because
of a present forfeiture of this inheritance to God by this or that
most foul offence. Evidences, when they are thus taken away, as in
David's case they were, (Psa 51:12), why then they are in our God's
hand, laid up, I say, from the sight of them to whom they belong,
till they even forget the contents thereof (II Peter 1:5-9).30

Now when writings and evidences are out of the hand of the owners, and
laid up in the court, where in justice they ought to be kept, they
are not ordinarily got thence again but by the help of a lawyer-an
Advocate. Thus it is with the children of God. We do often forfeit
our interest in eternal life, but the mercy is, the forfeit falls
into the hand of God, not of the law nor of Satan, wherefore
he taketh away also our evidences, if not all, yet some of them,
as he saith-"I have taken away my peace from this people, even
loving-kindness and mercies" (Jer 16:5). This he took from David,
and he entreats for the restoration of it, saying, "Restore unto
me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit"
(I Chron 17:13; Psa 51:12). And, "Lord, turn us again, cause thy
face to shine, and we shall be saved" (Psa 80:3, 7, 19.)

Satan now also hath an opportunity to plead against us, and to
help forward the affliction, as his servants did of old, when God
was but a little angry (Zech 1:15); but Jesus Christ our Advocate
is ready to appear against him, and to send us from heaven our old
evidences again, or to signify to us that they are yet good and
authentic, and cannot be gainsaid. "Gabriel," saith he, "make this
man to understand the vision" (Dan 8:16). And again, saith he to
another, "Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be
inhabited as towns without walls" (Zech 2:4). Jerusalem had been
in captivity, had lost many evidences of God's favour and love
by reason of her sin, and her enemy stepped in to augment her sin
and sorrow; but there was a man [the angel of the Lord] "among the
myrtle trees" that were in the bottom that did prevail with God to
say, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; and then commands it
to be proclaimed that his "cities through prosperity shall yet be
spread abroad" (Zech 1:11-17). Thus, by virtue of our Advocate, we
are either made to receive our old evidences for heaven again, or
else are made to understand that they yet are good, and stand valid
in the court of heaven; nor can they be made ineffectual, but shall
abide the test at last, because our Advocate is also concerned in
the inheritance of the saints in light. Christians know what it is
to lose their evidences for heaven, and to receive them again, or
to hear that they hold their title by them; but perhaps they know
not how they come at this privilege; therefore the apostle tells
them "they have an Advocate"; and that by him, as Advocate, they
enjoy all these advantages is manifest, because his Advocate's
office is appointed for our help when we sin-that is, commit sins
that are great and heinous-"If any man sin, we have an Advocate."31

By him the justice of God is vindicated, the law answered, the
threatenings taken off, the measure of affliction that for sin we
undergo determined, our titles to eternal life preserved, and our
comfort of them restored, notwithstanding the wit, and rage, and
envy of hell. So, then, Christ gave himself for us as a priest,
died for us as a sacrifice, but pleadeth justice and righteousness
in a way of justice and righteousness; for such is his sacrifice,
for our salvation from the death that is due to our foul or high
transgressions-as an Advocate. Thus have I given you thus far, an
account of the nature, end, and necessity of the Advocateship of
Jesus Christ, and should now come to the use and application, only
I must first remove an objection or two.

[OBJECTIONS REMOVED.]

SIXTHLY, [I now come to answer some objections.]

First Objection. But what need all these offices of Jesus Christ?
or, what need you trouble us with these nice distinctions? It is
enough for us to believe in Christ in the general, without considering
him under this and that office.

Answer. The wisdom of God is not to be charged with needless doing
when it giveth to Jesus Christ such variety of offices, and calleth
him to so many sundry employments for us; they are all thought
necessary by heaven, and therefore should not be counted superfluous
by earth. And to put a question upon thy objection-What is a sacrifice
without a priest, and what is a priest without a sacrifice? And
the same I say of his Advocate's office-What is an advocate without
the exercise of his office? And what need of an Advocate's office
to be exercised, if Christ, as sacrifice and Priest, was thought
sufficient by God? Each of these offices is sufficient for the
perfecting the work for which it is designed; but they are not all
designed for the self-same particular thing. Christ as sacrifice
offereth not himself; it is Christ as Priest does that. Christ as
Priest dieth not for our sins; it is Christ as sacrifice does so.
Again, Christ as a sacrifice and a Priest limits himself to those
two employs, but as an Advocate he launches out into a third. And
since these are not confounded in heaven, nor by the Scriptures,
they should not be confounded in our apprehension, nor accounted
useless.

It is not, therefore, enough for us that we exercise our thoughts
upon Christ in an indistinct and general way, but we must learn to
know him in all his offices, and to know the nature of his offices
also; our condition requires this, it requireth it, I say, as we
are guilty of sin, as we have to do with God, and with our enemy
the devil. As we are guilty of sin, so we need a sacrifice; and as
we are also sinners, we need one perfect to present our sacrifice
to God for us. We have need also of him as priest to present our
persons and services to God. And since God is just, and upon the
judgment-seat, and since also we are subject to sin grievously,
and again, since we have an accuser who will by law plead at this
bar of God our sins against us, to the end we might be condemned,
we have need of, and also "have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous."

Alas! How many of God's precious people, for want of a distinct
knowledge of Christ in all his offices, are at this day sadly baffled
with the sophistications of the devil? To instance no more than
this one thing-when they have committed some heinous sin after light
received, how are they, I say, tossed and tumbled and distressed
with many perplexities! They cannot come to any anchor in this their
troubled sea; they go from promise to promise, from providence to
providence, from this to that office of Jesus Christ, but forget
that he is, or else understand not what it is for this Lord Jesus
to be an Advocate for them. Hence they so oft sink under the fears
that their sin is unpardonable, and that therefore their condition
is desperate; whereas, if they could but consider that Christ is
their Advocate, and that he is therefore made an Advocate to save
them from those high transgressions that are committed by them, and
that he waits upon this office continually before the judgment-seat
of God, they would conceive relief, and be made to hold up their
head, and would more strongly twist themselves from under that
guilt and burden, those ropes and cords wherewith by their folly
they have so strongly bound themselves, than commonly they have
done, or do.

Second Objection. But notwithstanding what you have said, this sin
is a deadly stick in my way; it will not out of my mind, my cause
being bad, but Christ will desert me.

Answer. It is true, sin is, and will be, a deadly stick and stop to
faith, attempt to exercise it on Christ as considered under which
of his offices or relations you will; and, above all, the sin of
unbelief is "the sin that doth so," or most "easily beset us" (Heb
12:1, 2). And no marvel; for it never acteth alone, but is backed,
not only with guilt and ignorance, but also with carnal sense and
reason. He that is ignorant of this knows but little of himself,
or what believing is. He that undertakes to believe sets upon the
hardest task that ever was proposed to man; not because the things
imposed upon us are unreasonable or unaccountable, but because the
heart of man, the more true anything is, the more it sticks and
stumbles thereat; and, says Christ, "Because I tell you the truth,
ye believe me not" (John 8:45). Hence believing is called labouring,
(Heb 4:11); and it is the sorest labour, at times that any man can
take in hand, because assaulted with the greatest oppositions; but
believe thou must, be the labour never so hard, and that not only
in Christ in a general way, but in him as to his several offices,
and to this of his being an Advocate in particular, else some sins
and some temptations will not, in their guilt or vexatious trouble,
easily depart from thy conscience; no, not by promise, nor by thy
attempts to apply the same by faith. And this the text insinuateth
by its setting forth of Christ as Advocate, as the only or best
and most speedy way of relief to the soul in certain cases.

There is, then, an order that thou must observe in exercising of
thy soul in a way of believing.

1. Thou must believe unto justification in general; and for this
thou must direct thy soul to the Lord Christ as he is a sacrifice
for sin; and as a Priest offering that sacrifice, so as a sacrifice
thou shalt see him appeasing Divine displeasure for thy sin, and
as a Priest spreading the skirt of his garment over thee, for the
covering of thy nakedness; thus being clothed, thou shalt not be
found naked.

2. This, when thou hast done as well as thou canst, thou must, in
the next place, keep thine eye upon the Lord Christ as improving,
as Priest in heaven, the sacrifice which he offered on earth for
the continuing thee in a state of justification in thy lifetime,
notwithstanding those common infirmities that attend thee, and to
which thou art incident in all thy holy services or best performances
(Rom 5:10; Exo 28:31-38). For therefore is he a Priest in heaven,
and by his sacrifices interceding for thee.

3. But if thy foot slippeth, if it slippeth greatly, then know thou
it will not be long before a bill be in heaven preferred against
thee by the accuser of the brethren; wherefore then thou must
have recourse to Christ as Advocate, to plead before God thy judge
against the devil thine adversary for thee.

4. And as to the badness of thy cause, let nothing move thee, save
to humility and self-abasement, for Christ is glorified by being
concerned for thee; yea, the angels will shout aloud to see him
bring thee off. For what greater glory can we conceive Christ to
obtain ad Advocate, than to bring off his people when they have
sinned, notwithstanding Satan so charging of them for it as he
doth?

He gloried when he was going to the cross to die; he went up with
a shout and the sound of a trumpet, to make intercession for us;
and shall we think that by his being an Advocate he receives no
additional glory? It is glory to him, doubtless, to bear the title
of an Advocate, and much more to plead and prosper for us against
our adversary, as he doth.

5. And, I say again, for thee to think that Christ will reject thee
for that thy cause is bad, is a kind of thinking blasphemy against
this his office and his Word; for what doth such a man but side
with Satan, while Christ is pleading against him? I say, it is as
the devil would have it, for it puts strength into his plea against
us, by increasing our sin and wickedness. But shall Christ take
our cause in hand, and shall we doubt of good success?

This is to count Satan stronger than Christ; and that he can longer
abide to oppose, than Christ can to plead for us. Wherefore, away
with, it, not only as to the notion, but also as to the heart and
root thereof. Oh! When shall Jesus Christ our Lord be honoured by
us as he ought? This dastardly heart of ours, when shall it be more
subdued and trodden under foot of faith? When shall Christ ride
Lord, and King, and Advocate, upon the faith of his people, as he
should? He is exalted before God, before angels, and above all the
power of the enemy; there is nothing comes behind but the faith of
his people.

Third Objection. But since you follow the metaphor so close, I
will suppose, if an advocate be entertained, some recompense must
be given him. His fee-who shall pay him his fee? I have nothing.
Could I do anything to make this advocate part of amends, I could
think I might have benefit from him; but I have nothing. What say
you to this?32

Answer. Similitudes must not be strained too far; but yet I have
an answer for this objection. There is, in some cases, law for them
that have no money; ay, law and lawyers too; and this is called
a suing in forma pauperis;33 and such lawyers are appointed by
authority for that purpose. Indeed, I know not that it is thus in
every nation, but it is sometimes so with us in England; and this
is the way altogether in the kingdom of heaven before the bar of
God. All is done there for us in forma pauperis, on free cost; for
our Advocate or lawyer is thereto designed and appointed of his
Father.

Hence Christ is said to plead the cause, not of the rich and wealthy,
but of the poor and needy; not of those that have many friends, but
of the fatherless and widow; not of them that are fat and strong,
but of those under sore afflictions (Prov 22:22, 23; 23:10, 11;
31:9). "He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him
from those that condemn his soul," or, as it is in the margin, "from
the judges of his soul" (Psa 109:31). This, then, is the manner of
Jesus Christ with men; he doth freely what he doth, not for price
nor reward. "I have raised him up," says God, "and I will direct all
his ways; he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives,
not for a price nor reward" (Isa 45:13). [This scripture speaks of
Cyrus, a type of Christ.]

This, I say, is the manner of Jesus Christ with men; he pleads, he
sues in forma pauperis, gratis, and of mere compassion; and hence
it is that you have his clients give him thanks; for that is all
the poor can give. "I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;
yea, I will praise him among the multitude. For he shall stand at
the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn
his soul" (Psa 109:30,31).