[17] A bath was a Hebrew measure containing about seven gallons and a half.—Ed.
[18] The moral law of ten commandments.—Ed.
[19] This is from the Genevan or puritan versions. Our translation has 'on the right side.'—Ed.
[20] The candlesticks mentioned in 2 Chronicles 4:7, Zechariah 4, and Revelation 1, appear to have been of one pattern. A stem, with a bowl bearing a centre and six branches—three on each side. Of these there were ten in the temple. The prophets Zechariah and John, in their holy visions, saw but one, with its seven lamps secretly supplied by living olive trees. These lights 'are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth'; the seven lamps 'are the seven churches.' What a source for reflection is here opened.—Ed.
[21] Oil called golden, from its representing that which is better than thousands of gold and silver. So pure that, in the golden bowl, it would look like liquid gold.—Ed.
[22] A malignant was a term of reproach given to those who, in the civil wars, opposed Divine truth, and promoted popery and arbitrary domination. Clarendon calls it 'a term imposed upon those that the puritans wished to render odious to the people.'—Ed.
[23] A tenth deal is the tenth part of a Hebrew measure, called the ephah, containing about a bushel.—Ed.
[24] Daniel Burgess published a curious sermon, in 1697, on the golden snuffers, showing that they are a type or emblem of spiritual snuffing or reproving; and of pure gold, to show that reprovers should be holy and unblameable. His directions and cautions are valuable, but Bunyan says much more in his few lines than Burgess does in his eighty pages.—Ed.
[25] Great was the fatherly care felt by Bunyan for his own children, especially for his blind Mary; and judging by the lessons he draws from the temple spoons, those feelings extended to his church. It must be a severe trial to a minister's temper, when teased with babes in religion at three score and ten years of age, especially if they are old professors. Thus Bunyan, in addressing the readers of his emblems, says—
'We now have boys with beards, and girls that be
'Huge as old women wanting gravity.'—Ed.