4. Strength against temptation. We have an enemy industrious to
intended by him in this life, any more than when he prayed for Peter, he desired not that he should be kept wholly from falling, but that his faith should be kept from totally failing. Sin is likewise suffered to continue in the best here, that men should not think that the acceptation of their persons doth arise from their own works and holiness, but from the sweet savour of the Mediator's sacrifice continually presented in heaven. Yet perfection in grace will be the final issue of this advocacy. If grace should never be perfected. Christ would never be fully answered in his intercession, and so this office of his in heaven would want a manifestation of its true power and value.
4. Strength against temptation. We have an enemy industrious to entrap us, and we have an Advocate as industrious to protect us, who will either solicit for a reasonable strength to resist his invasion, or strength to improve it to our spiritual advantage, if he suffers the temptation to meet with some success in its attempt. Satan desires to sift us: Luke 22:31, ἐξῃτήσατο, he hath desired, or asked and begged with earnestness, for so ἐξ, being added to αἰτέω, signifies; and our
Advocate is ready to stop the full proceedings of so fierce a solicitor.
The seed of the woman, the mystical seed, shall overcome their enemies 'by the blood of the Lamb,' Rev. 12:11; by his blood shed upon the cross, by his blood presented in heaven, which cries for vengeance against the great seducer of mankind, and prevails to the casting him down. If strength against temptations were not procured by it, Christ's office of advocacy would lose a great part of its end. It was in kindness to us he was so advanced, not an advocate for himself personal, but for himself mystical, i.e. for believers; in the text, 'we have an advocate.' It were little kindness to us, if we should lie grovelling in the dust, upon every inroad our enemy makes against us, and sink under every shot that comes from the mount of his battery. It is this intercession that renders us either immoveable against his assaults, or after a foil victorious in the issue of the combat. Christ doth not solicit for such a strength whereby a temptation may be wholly successless, but whereby it may not be wholly victorious. He prayed for Peter against Satan, that his faith