The Works of John Bunyan, vol 3, John Bunyan [ebook reader color screen TXT] 📗

not reason that they who did this horrid villany, should have their doings laid before their faces upon the tables of their heart? That they may look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn (Zech 12:10; Rev 1:7).

4. But these instruments were laid but upon some of the tables, and not upon all the ten, to show that not all, but some of those, so horrid, should find mercy of the Lord.

5. But we must not confine these tables only to the hearts of the bloody Jews; they were our sins for the which he died. Wherefore these instruments should be laid upon our tables too, and the Lord lay them there for good, that we also may see our horrid doings, and come bending to him for forgiveness!

6. These instruments thus lying on the tables in the temple, became a continual motive to God’s people to repentance; for so oft as they saw these bloody and cruel instruments, they were put in mind how their sins should be the cause of the death of Christ.

7. It would be well also, if these instruments were at all times laid upon our tables, for our more humbling for our sins in every thing we do, especially upon the Lord’s table, when we come to eat and drink before him. I am sure the Lord Jesus doth more than intimate, that he expects that we should do so, where he saith, When ye eat that bread, and drink that cup, do this in remembrance of me. In remembrance that I died for your sins, and consequently that they were the meritorious cause of the shedding of my blood.

To conclude. Let all men remember, that these cruel instruments are laid upon the table of their hearts, whether they see them there or no. ‘The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond—upon the table of their heart’ (Jer 17:1).

A pen of iron will make letters upon a table made of stone, and the point of a diamond will make letters upon glass. Wherefore in this saying, God informs us that if we shall forbear to read these lines to our conversion, God will one day read them against us unto our condemnation.

XLI. Of the candlesticks of the Temple.

‘And he made ten candlesticks of gold, according to their form, and set them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left’ (2 Chron 4:7).

These candlesticks were made of gold, to show the worth and value of them. They were made after the form, or exact, according to rule, like those that were made in the tabernacle, or according to the pattern which David gave to Solomon to make them by. Observe, there was great exactness in these; and need there was of this hint, that men might see that every thing will not pass for a right ordered candlestick with God (Exo 25:31-40; 1 Chron 28:15).

These candlesticks are said sometimes to be ten, sometimes seven, and sometimes one; ten here; seven, Revelation 1:12, 13, and one in Zechariah 4.[20] Ten is a note of multitude, and seven a note of perfection, and one a note of unity. Now, as the precious stones with which the house was garnished were a type of ministerial gifts, so these candlesticks were a type of those that were to be the churches of the New Testament; wherefore he says, ‘The candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches’ (Rev 1:12-20).

1. The candlesticks were here in number ten, to show that Christ under the New Testament would have as many gospel-churches. ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,’ saith he, ‘will draw all men unto me’; that is, abundance. For the children of the desolate, that is, of the New Testament church, shall be many more than they of the Jews were (John 12:32; Gal 4:27).

2. In that the candlesticks were set by the lavers and stony tables, it might be to show us, that Christ’s churches should be much in considering, that Christ, though he was righteous, yet died for our sins; though his life was according to the holy law, yet our stony hearts caused him to die. Yea, and that the candlesticks are placed there, it is to show us also, that we should be much in looking on the sins by which we caused him to die; for the candlesticks were set by those tables whereon they laid the instruments with which they slew the sacrifice.

3. These candlesticks being made according to form, seem not only to be exact as to fashion, but also as to work. For that in Exodus, with its furniture, was made precisely of one talent of gold, perhaps to show, that Christ’s true spouse is not to be a grain more, nor a dram less, but just the number of God’s elect. This is Christ’s completeness, his fulness; one more, one less, would make his body a monster.

4. The candlestick was to hold the light, and to show it to all the house; and the church is to let her light so shine that they without may see the light (Matt 5:15,16; Luke 8:16, 11:33, 12:35).

5. To this end the candlesticks were supplied with oil-olive, a type of the supply that the church hath, that her light may shine, even of the spirit of grace.

XLII. Of the lamps belonging to the candlesticks of the Temple.

To these candlesticks belonged several lamps, with their flowers and their knops (Exo 25:33; 2 Chron 4:21).

1. These lamps were types of that profession that the members of the church do make of Christ, whether such members have saving grace or not (Matt 25:1-7).

2. These lamps were beautified with knops and flowers, to show how comely and beautiful that professor is, that adorns his profession with a suitable life and conversation.

3. We read that the candlestick in Zechariah had seven lamps belonging to it, and a bowl of golden oil21 on the top; and that by golden pipes this golden oil emptied itself into the lamps, and all, doubtless, that the lamps might shine (Zech 4:2,12).

4. Christ, therefore, who is the high-priest, and to whom it belongs to dress the lamps, doth dress them accordingly. But now there are a lamp-carriers of two sorts; such as have only oil in their lamps, and such as have oil in their lamps and vessels too, and both these belong to the church, and in both these Christ will be glorified: and they should have their proper places at last.

They that have the oil of grace in their hearts, as well as a profession of Christ in their hands, they shall go in with him to the wedding; but they who only make a profession, and have not oil in their vessels, will surely miscarry at last (Matt 25).

5. Wherefore, O thou professor! thou lamp-carrier! have a care and look to thyself; content not thyself with that only that will maintain thee in a profession, for that may be done without saving grace.

But I advise thee to go to Aaron, to Christ, the trimmer of our lamps, and beg thy vessel full of oil of him—that is, grace—for the seasoning of thy heart, that thou mayest have wherewith, not only to bear thee up now, but at the day of the bridegroom’s coming, when many a lamp will go out, and many a professor be left in the dark; for that will to such be a woeful day (Lev 24:2; Matt 25).

Some there are that are neither for lamps nor oil for themselves; neither are they pleased if they think they see it in others. But they that have lamps and they that have none, and they which would blow out other folk’s light, must shortly appear to give an account of all their doings to God. And then they shall see what it is to have oil in their vessels and lamps: and what it is to be without in their vessels, though it is in their lamps; and what a dismal thing it is to be a malignant22 to either; but at present let this suffice. XLIII. Of the shew-bread on the golden table in the Temple.

There was also shew-bread set upon a golden table in the temple (1 Kings 7:48). The shew-bread consisted of twelve cakes made of fine flour, two tenth deals23 were to go to one cake, and they were to be set in order in two rows upon the pure table (Lev 24:5-9).

1. These twelve loaves to me do seem to be a type of the twelve tribes under the law, and of the children of God under the gospel, as they present themselves before God, in and by his ordinances through Christ. Hence the apostle says, ‘For we being many are one bread,’ &c. (1 Cor 10:17). For so were the twelve cakes, though twelve; and so are the gospel-saints, though many; for ‘we, being many, are one body in Christ’ (Rom 12:5).

2. But they were a type of the true church, not of the false. For Ephraim, who was the head of the ten tribes in their apostacy, is rejected, as ‘a cake not turned.’ Indeed he is called a cake, as a false church may be called a church: but he is called ‘a cake not turned,’ as a false church is not prepared for God, nor fit to be set on the golden table before him (Hosea 7:8).

3. These cakes or shew-bread were to have frankincense strewed upon them, as they stood upon the golden table, which was a type of the sweet perfumes of the sanctifications of the Holy Ghost; to which I think Paul alludes, when he says, ‘The offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable’ to God, ‘being sanctified by the Holy Ghost’ (Rom 15:16).

4. They were to be set upon the pure table, new and hot; to show that God delighted in the company of new and warm believers. ‘I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth’: ‘when Israel was a child, then I loved him’ (Jer 2:2; Hosea 11:1). Men at first conversion are like to a cake well baked, and new taken from the oven; they are warm, and cast forth a very fragrant scent, especially when, as warm, sweet incense is strewed upon them.

5. When the shew-bread was old and stale, it was to be taken away, and new and warm put in its place, to show that God has but little delight in the service of his own people when their duties grow stale and mouldy. Therefore he removed his old, stale, mouldy church of the Jews from before him, and set in their rooms upon the golden table the warm church of the Gentiles.

6. The shew-bread, by an often remove and renewing, was continually to all them before the Lord in his house, to show us, that always, as long as ordinances shall be of use, God will have a new, warm, and sanctified people to worship him.

7. Aaron and his sons were to eat the old shew-bread, to show that when saints have lived in the world as long as living is good for them, and when they can do no more service for God in the world, they shall yet be accepted of Jesus Christ; and that it shall be as meat and drink to him to save them from all their unworthinesses.

8. The new shew-bread was to be set even on the Sabbath before the Lord, to show with what warmth of love and affections God’s servants should approach his presence upon his holy day.

XLIV. Of the snuffers belonging to the candlesticks and lamps of the Temple.

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