Works of John Bunyan — Complete

by John Bunyan

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, God 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 cockatrice (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; God 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 God, when he comes to worship in the temple of God, 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 God 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 God.

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 quantity. 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 God 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 God'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-shell 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 God. 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]