Works of John Bunyan Volume III Part 91

There were also golden censers belonging to the temple, and they were either such as belonged to the sons of Levi in general, or that were for Aaron and his sons in special (Num 16:6,17,18).

The censers of the Levites were a type of ours; but the censer of Aaron was a type of Christ's. The censers, as was hinted before, were for this use in the temple, namely, to hold the holy fire in, on which incense was to be burned before the Lord (Lev 10:1,2).

These censers then were types of hearts. Aaron's golden one was a type of Christ's golden heart, and the censers of the Levites were types of other worshippers' hearts. The fire also which was put therein was a type of that Spirit by which we pray, and the incense that burnt thereon, a type of our desires. Of Christ's censer we read, Revelation the eighth, which is always filled with much incense; that is, with continual intercessions, which he offereth to G.o.d for us; and from whence also there always goes a cloud of sweet savour, covering the mercy-seat (Lev 16:13; Heb 7:25; Rev 8:3,4).

But to speak of the censers, and fire, and incense of the worshippers; for albeit they were all put under one rule, that is, to be according to law, yet oftentimes, as were the worshippers, such were the censers, fire, and incense. 1. Hence the two hundred and fifty censers with which Korah and his company offered, are called the censers of sinners; for they came with wicked hearts then to burn incense before the Lord (Num 16:17,37). 2. Again, as the censers of these men were called the censers of sinners, showing they came at that time to G.o.d with naughty hearts, so the fire that was in Nadab and Abihu's censers is called strange fire, which the Lord commanded them not (Lev 10:1). 3. This strange fire was a type of that strange spirit opposed to the Spirit of G.o.d, in and by which, notwithstanding, some adventure to perform worship to G.o.d. 4. Again, as these censers are called the censers of sinners, and this fire called strange fire, so the incense of such is also called strange, and is said to be an abomination unto G.o.d (Exo 30:9; Isa 1:13, 66:3).

Thus you see that both the censers, fire, and incense of some is rejected, even as the heart, spirit, and prayer of sinners are an abomination unto G.o.d (Hosea 7:14, 4:12, 5:4; Prov 28:9).

But there were besides these true censers, holy fire and sweet incense among the worshippers in the temple, and their service was accepted by Aaron their high-priest; for that was through the faith of Christ, and these were a type of our true gospel worshippers, who come with holy hearts, the holy spirit, and holy desires before their G.o.d, by their Redeemer. These are a perfume in his nose. 'The prayer of the upright is his delight' (Prov 15:8). Their prayers went up like 'incense, and the lifting up of their hands as the evening sacrifice' (Psa 141:2).

Let them then that pretend to worship before G.o.d in his holy temple look to it, that both their censers, fire, and incense, heart, spirit, and desires, be such as the word requires; lest, instead of receiving of gracious returns from the G.o.d of heaven, their censers be laid up against them; lest the fire of G.o.d devours them, and their incense become an abomination to him, as it happened to those made mention of before.

But it is said the censers of Korah and his company was hallowed.

Answ. So is G.o.d's worship, which is so his by his ordination, yet even that very worship may be spoiled by man's transgression.

Prayer is G.o.d's ordinance, but all prayer is not accepted of G.o.d.

We must then distinguish between the thing commanded, and our using of that thing. The temple was G.o.d's house, but was abused by the irreverence of those that worshipped there, even to the demolishing of it.

A golden censer is a gracious heart, heavenly fire is the Holy Ghost, and sweet incense the effectual fervent prayer of faith.

Have you these? These G.o.d expects, and these you must have if ever your persons or performances be of G.o.d accepted.

XLIX. Of the golden spoons of the Temple.

1. The golden spoons belonging to the temple were in number, according to Moses, twelve; answering to the twelve tribes (Num 7:86). But when the temple was built, I suppose they were more, because of the number of the basins.

2. The spoons, as I suppose, were for the worshippers in the temple to eat that broth withal, wherein the trespa.s.s-offerings were boiled: for which purpose there were several cauldrons hanged in the corners of that court called the priest's to boil them in (1 Sam 2:13,14; Eze 46:19,20).

3. Now, in that he saith here were spoons, what is it but that there are also babes in the temple of the Lord. There was broth for babes as well as meat for men, and spoons to eat the broth withal.

4. True, the gospel being more excellent than the law, doth change the term, and instead of broth, saith, There is milk for babes. But in that he saith milk, he insinuates there are spoons for children in the church.

5. 'I could not,' saith Paul to them at Corinth, 'speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

I have fed you with milk and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able' (1 Cor 3:1,2).

6. See, here were need of spoons, milk is spoon meat; for here were those which could not feed themselves with milk, let them then that are men eat the strong meat. 'For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil' (Heb 5:13,14).

7. Spoons, you know, are to feed us with weak and thin food, even with that which best suiteth with weak stomachs, or with a babyish temper. Hence, as the strong man is opposed to the weak, so the milk is opposed to the strong meat.

8. So then, though the babe in Christ is weaker than the man in Christ, yet is he not by Christ left unprovided for; for here is milk for babes, and spoons to eat it with. All this is taught us by the spoons; for what need is there of spoons where there is nothing to eat but strong meat?

9. Babes, you know, have not only babyish stomachs, but also babyish tricks, and must be dealt withal as babes; their childish talk and frompered carriages must be borne withal.

10. Sometimes they cry for nothing, yea, and count them for their foes which rebuke their childish toys and ways. All which the church must bear, because they are G.o.d's babes; yea, they must feed them too: for if he has found them milk and spoons, it is that they may be fed therewith, and live: yea, grown ministers are G.o.d's nurses, wherefore they must have a lap to lay them in, and knees to dandle them upon, and spoons to feed them with.[25]

11. Nor are the babes but of use in the church of G.o.d; for he commands that they may be brought to cry with the congregation before the Lord for mercy for the land (Joel 2:16).

12. Incense, I told you, was a type of prayers, and the spoons, in the time of Moses, were presented at the temple full of it. Perhaps to show that G.o.d will, with the milk which he has provided for them, give it to them as a return of their crying to him, even as the nurse gives the child the teat and milk.

13. You know the milk is called for when the child is crying, as we say, to stop its mouth with it. O babes! did you but cry soundly, G.o.d would give you yet more milk.

14. But what were these golden spoons a type of? I answer, if the milk is the juice and consolations of the Word, then the spoons must be those soft sentences and golden conclusions with which the ministers feed their souls by it. 'I have fed you,' saith Paul, 'with the milk of the Word'; saith Peter, 'even as you have been able to bear it.' Compare these two or three texts--1 Peter 2:1-3; 1 Corinthians 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:7.

15. And this is the way to strengthen the weak hands, and to confirm the feeble knees. This is the way to make them grow to be men who now are but as infants of days. 'Thus a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.' Yea, thus in time you may make a little child to jostle it with a leopard; yea, to take a lion by the beard; yea, thus you may embolden him to put his hand to the hole of the asp, and to play before the den of the c.o.c.katrice (Isa 11:6-8, 60:22).

Who is most stout was once a babe; he that can now eat meat was sometimes glad of milk, and to be fed with the spoon. Babes in Christ, therefore, must not be despised nor overlooked; G.o.d has provided them milk and spoons to eat it with, that they may grow up to be men before him.

L. Of the bowls and basins belonging to the Temple.

As there were spoons, so there were bowls and basins belonging to the temple. Some of these were of gold, and some of silver; and when they were put together, their number was four hundred and forty.

These you read of, Ezra 1:10. The bowls or basins were not to wash in, as was the sea and lavers of the temple; they were rather to hold the messes in, which the priests at their holy feasts did use to set before the people. This being so, they were types of that proportion of faith by which, or by the measure of which, every man received of the holy food for the nourishment of his soul.

For, as a man, had he a thousand messes set before him, he eating for his health, cannot go beyond what his stomach will bear; so neither can the child of G.o.d, when he comes to worship in the temple of G.o.d, receive of the good things that are there, beyond the 'proportion of his faith' (Rom 12:6). Or, as it is in another place, according to 'the ability which G.o.d giveth' (1 Peter 4:11).

And hence it is, at the self-same ordinance, some receive three times as much as others do; for that their bowl, I mean their faith, is able to receive it. Yea, Benjamin's mess was five times as big as was the mess of any of his brethren; and so it is with some saints while they eat with their brother Joseph in the house of the living G.o.d.

There are three go to the same ordinance, and are all of them believers; who, when they come home, and compare notes, do find their receivings are not of the same quant.i.ty. One says, I got but little; the other says, It was a pretty good ordinance to me; the third says, I was exceeding well there. Why, to be sure, he that had but little there, had there but little faith; for great faith in him would have received more. He had it then according to the largeness of his bowl, even according to his faith, 'as G.o.d hath dealt to every man the measure of faith' (Rom 12:3). Mark, faith is a certain measure, and that not only as to its degree, but for that it can receive, retain, or hold what is put into it.

So then, here it is no matter how much milk or holy broth there is; but how big is thy bowl, thy faith. Little bowls hold but little, nor canst thou receive but as thy faith will bear; I speak now of G.o.d's ordinary dealing with his people, for so he saith in his Word, 'According to your faith be it unto you' (Matt 9:29). If a man goeth to the ocean sea for water, let him carry but an egg-sh.e.l.l with him, and with that he shall not bring a gallon home. I know, indeed, that our little pots have a promise of being made like the bowls of the altar; but still our mess must be according to our measure, be that small, or be it great. The same prophet saith again, the saints shall be 'filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar'; which, though it supposes an enlargement, yet it must be confined to that measure of faith which is provided for its reception (Zech 9:15, 14:20). And suppose these bowls should signify the promises, though the saints, not the promises, are compared to them, because they, not promises, are the subjects of faith; yet it is the promise by our measure of faith in that, that is nourishing to our souls.

When Ahasuerus made a feast to his subjects, they drank their wine in bowls. They did not drink it by the largeness of the vessel whence they drew it, but according to their health, and as their stomachs would so receive it (Esth 1:7,8). Thy faith, then, is one of the bowls or basins of the temple, by, or according to which, thou receivest thy mess, when thou sittest feasting at the table of G.o.d. And observe, all the bowls were not made of gold, as all faith is not of a saving sort. It is the golden faith that is right; the silver bowls were of an inferior sort (Rev 3:18).

Some, I say, have golden faith; all faith is not so. Wherefore look to it, soul, that thy bowl, thy faith, be golden faith, or of the best kind. Look, I say, after a good faith, and great, for a great faith receives a great mess. Of old, beggars did use to carry their bowls in their laps, when they went to a door for an alms.[26]

Consequently, if their bowls were but little, they ofttimes came off by the loss, though the charity of the giver was large. Yea, the greater the charity, the larger the loss, because the beggar's bowl was too little. Mark it well, it is ofttimes thus in the matters of our G.o.d. Art thou a beggar, a beggar at G.o.d's door, be sure thou gettest a great bowl; for as thy bowl is, so will be thy mess. 'According to your faith,' saith he, 'be it unto you'

(Matt 9:29).

LI. Of the flagons and cups of the Temple.

The next thing to be considered is the flagons and cups of the temple; of these we read, 1 Chronicles 28:17; Jeremiah 52:19; Isaiah 22:24. These were of great use among the Jews, especially on their feasting days; as of their sabbaths, new-moons, and the like (Lev 23:13; Num 28:7; 1 Chron 16:3; Isa 25:6, 62:8,9).

For instance, the day that David danced before the ark, 'he dealt among all the people, even among the whole mult.i.tude of Israel, as well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine' (2 Sam 6:19; 1 Chron 16:3). 'In this mountain,' that is, in the temple typically, saith the prophet, 'shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the less well refined' (Isa 25:6).

These are feasting times; the times in which our Lord used to have his spouse into his wine-cellar, and in which he used to display with delight his banner over her head in love (Cant 2:4,5). The church of Christ, alas! is of herself a very sickly puely thing; a woman; a weaker vessel; but how much more must she needs be so weak, when the custom of women is upon her, or when she is sick of love? Then she indeed has need of a draught, for she now sinks, and will not else be supported. 'Stay me with flagons,' saith she, 'and comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love' (Can 2:5).

These flagons, therefore, were types of those feastings, and of those large draughts of Divine love, that the Lord Jesus draweth for and giveth to his spouse in those days that he feasteth with them.

For then he saith, 'Drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.' This he does to cheer her up under her hours of sadness and dejection; for now new 'corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids' (Prov 31:6,7; Psa 116:13; Jer 16:7; Cant 5; Zech 9:17).

As there were flagons, so there were cups; and they are called cups of consolation, and cups of salvation, because, as I said, they were they by which G.o.d at his feastings with his people, or when he suppeth with them, giveth out the more large draughts of his love unto his saints, to revive the spirits of the humble, and to revive the hearts of the contrite ones. At these times G.o.d made David's cup run over. For we are now admitted, if our faith will bear it, to drink freely into this grace, and to be merry with him (Psa 23:5; Luke 15:22-24; Cant 5:1, 7:11,12; John 14:23; Rev 3:20). This is that to which the apostle alludeth, when he saith, 'Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart unto the Lord' (Eph 5:18,19).

For the cups, as to their use in the general, understand them as of the bowls made mention of before. For a.s.surances are the blooms and flowers of faith, not always on it, though usually on feasting days it is so. So the degree of the one is still according to the measure of the other (James 5; Rom 15:13).

LII. Of the chargers of the Temple.

In the tabernacle they had but twelve of them, and they were made of silver; but in the temple they had in all a thousand and thirty.

The thirty were made of gold, the rest were made of silver (Ezra 1:9; Num 7:84). These chargers were not for uses common or profane, but, as I take it, they were those in which the pa.s.sover, and other meat-offerings, were drest up, when the people came to eat before G.o.d in his holy temple. The meat, you know, I told you, was opposite to milk; and so are these chargers to the bowls, and cups, and flagons of the temple.

The meat was of two sorts, roast or boiled. Of that which was roasted was the pa.s.sover, and of that which was boiled were the trespa.s.s-offerings. Wherefore, concerning the pa.s.sover, he saith, 'Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof'

(Exo 12:9). This roast meat was a type of the body of Christ as suffering for our sins, the which, when it was roast, was, and is as dressed up in chargers, and set before the congregations of the saints.

But what were the chargers a type of? I also ask, in what charger our gospel pa.s.sover is now dressed up and set before the people?