uses the second person, to signify that He is not on a par with others. See ver. 12, 13, 20; John vi. 49, x. 34, xiv. 9, xx. 17. — tinuGi, shall say} sc. in your absence.
12. Xaipers, rejoice) Joy is not only a feeling, but also a duty of the Christian (see Phil. iv. 4) ; and in adversity, the highest grade and very nerve of patience. — -ayaXX/a^s, be exceeding glad) so that others also may perceive your joy. — on, x.r.7., because, etc.) You may therefore rejoice on account of your reward. — 6 piffdbg, the reivard) sc. of grace. The word Reward implies something fur ther beyond the beatitudes, which spring from the very disposi tion of the righteous. Therefore it is said, Rejoice. — TOV$ irpoprjras, the prophets) who, by bearing witness to Christ, have encountered hatred (see Acts vii. 52), whose reward you know to be great. Persecution has not occurred only in the case of barbarous nations whilst they were being converted to the Gospel, but always in the times of both the Old and New Testament: see 1 John iii. 12, 13.
13, 14. *T//,e%, you) sc. the first disciples and hearers of the Messiah. Salt and light are, in nature, things essential, and of widest use. Frequently in Scripture the same thing is first de clared by metaphorical expressions, that our attention may be excited ; and then, when we have not understood it as we ought, and in the meanwhile have perceived our blindness, it is disclosed in plain words. — rv\c, yi}c, of the earth). — ro\j xoapov, of the world} The earth of itself is without salt, the world without light. — lav, K.r.7.., if, etc.) It is not affirmed in this passage, that salt does lose its savour ; but it is shown what, in such a case, would be the lot of the Salt of the earth. — pupavHy, should lose its savour) Galen,1 in his observations on Hippocrates, explains ^e^upu^fva (the perf. pass. part, of this verb) by TK avaifffiqTa,, i.e., which have no feeling; in Mark ix. 50, we find avaXov ysvrtrai, become saltless. It is the nature of salt to have and to give savour; and to this savour are opposed saltlessness, want of taste, value lost. —
i, shall it be salted) Impersonal. Neither can the salt
1 Hippocrates, the greatest physician of antiquity, was born at the island of Cos in the 80th Olympiad, and flourished during the time of the Pelo- ponnesian War. Galen, second only to Hippocrates, was born at Pergamus, in the Lesser Asia, about the year 131. — See ENCYCLOPAEDIA BKITANNICA. -(I. B.)