Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 5 · Verse 13
Verse 13. Ye are the salt of the earth.]
As salt keepeth flesh from putrifying: so doe the Saints the world; and are therefore sprinkled up and down (here one and there one) to keep the rest from rotting. Suillo pecori anima pro sale data, quae carnem…. servaret, ne putresceret, saith Varro. Swine and swinish persons have their souls for salt only, to keep their bodies from stinking… 15. above ground. Christ and his people are somewhere called the…. 89 …. soul of the world. The Sunts are called, all things; the Church, every creature. Tabor and Hermon are put for East and …: for God accounts of the world by the Church, and upholds the world for the Churches sake. Look how he gave Zoar to Lot andAct 27. all the souls in the ship to Paul; so he doth the rest of man kinde to the righteous. Were it not for such Jeho saphats, I would not 2 King. …. 14.look toward thee, nor see thee, said Elisha to Jehoram, saith God…. 6. 13. to the wicked. The holy seed is, statumen terrae, saith one Prophet,…. the earths substance or settlement: The righteous are fundamentum Prov. 10. 25.Quia propter … est ….mundi, the worlds foundation, saith another. I bear up the pillars of it, saith David. And it became a common proverb in the primitive times, Abs que … non staret …: Merc.But for the piety and praiers of Christians, the world could not…. 75. 3. …. It is a good conclusion of Philo, therefore, …, ut Lib 1. de migration. Abra.… in domo vir justus …, ad calamitatum remedium: Let us pray that the righteous may remain with us, for a preservative, as a pillar in the house, as the salt of the earth. But as all good people, so good Ministers especially are here said,… est: … a …. for their doctrine, to be the salt of the earth, and for their lives, The light of the world. Salt hath two things in it, … & ….saporem, sharpnesse and savourinesse. Ministers … … Tit. 1. 13.men sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, and a sweet savour to God, savoury meat, as that of Rebecca; a sweet meat-…, meet for the masters tooth, that he may eat and blesse them. Cast they must their cruses full of this holy salt into the un wholsome waters, and upon the barren grounds of mens … (as Elisha once of Iericho) so shall God say the word that all be whole, and it shall be done: No thought can passe between the receit and the remedy.
But if the salt have lost his savour, &c.]
A loose or lazy Minister is the worst creature upon earth, so fit … no place, as for hell: As unsavoury salt is not fit for the dung-hill, but makes the very ground barren, whereupon it is cast. Who are now devils, but they which once were Angels of light? Corruptio optimi pessima, as the sweetest wine makes the sowrest …, and the … flesh is resolved into the vilest earth. Woe to those … cleri, that, with Elies sonnes, cover foul sinnes under a … …. ….ephod: that neither spin nor labour, with the lilies, unlesse it be in their own vineyards, little in Gods: that want either art or heart, will or skill, to the worke: being not able or not apt to teach; and so give occasion to those black-mouthed Campians, toCampian. in …. cry out, Ministris eorum nihil vilius; Their Ministers are the vilest fellows upon earth; God commonly casteth off such, as incorrigible; for where with all shall it be salted? there is nothing in nature that can restore unsavoury salt to its former nature. He will not only lay such by, as broken vessels; boring out their right eyes, and drying up their right armes, i. e. bereaving them of their formerZech. …. 17. abilities: but also he will cast dung upon their faces, Mal. 2. 3. so that, as dung, men shall tread upon them (which is a thing not only calamitous, but extremely ignominious) as they did upon the Popish Clergy: and the … shall thanke them when he hath them in hell, for sending him so many souls, as Matthew Paris Literas ex inferno missas commenti sunt quidam, in … satanas omni … gratias … &c… us he did those in the daies of Hild brand, As for themselves, it grew into a proverb, Pavimentum infernirasis … verticibus, & magnatum galeis stratum esse, that hell was paved with the shaven crowns of Priests, and great mens head peeces. God threatens to feed such with gall and wormwood, Jer. 23. 15.…. Hist. Anno D. 1072.