17.

"Ye are the light ¹ of the world." In the same way as He said above, "the salt of the earth," so now He says, "the light of the world." For in the former case that earth is not to be understood which we tread with our bodily feet, but the men who dwell upon the earth, or even the sinners, for the preserving of whom and for the extinguishing of whose corruptions the Lord sent the apostolic salt. And here, by the world must be understood not the heavens and the earth, but the men who are in the world or love the world, for the enlightening of whom the apostles were sent. ² "A city that is set on ³ an hill cannot be hid," i.e. [a city] founded upon great and distinguished righteousness, which is also the meaning of the mountain itself on which our Lord is discoursing. "Neither do men light a candle ⁴ and put it under a bushel measure." ⁵ What view are we to take? That the expression "under a bushel measure" is so used that only the concealment of the candle is to be understood, as if He were saying, No one lights a candle and conceals it? Or does the bushel measure also mean something, so that to place a candle under a bushel is this, to place the comforts of the body higher than the preaching of the truth; so that one does not preach the truth so long as he is afraid of suffering any annoyance in corporeal and temporal things? And it is well said a bushel measure, whether on account of the recompense of measure, for each one receives the things done in his body,--"that every one," says the apostle, "may there receive ⁶ the things done in his body;" and it is said in another place, as if of this bushel measure of the body, "For with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again:" ⁷ --or because temporal good things, which are carried to completion in the body, are both begun and come to an end in a certain definite number of days, which is perhaps meant by the "bushel measure;" while eternal and spiritual things are confined within no such limit, "for God giveth not the Spirit by measure." ⁸ Every one, therefore, who obscures and covers up the light of good doctrine by means of temporal comforts, places his candle under a bushel measure. "But on a candlestick." ⁹ Now it is placed on a candlestick by him who subordinates his body to the service of God, so that the preaching of the truth is the higher, and the serving of the body the lower; yet by means even of the service of the body the doctrine shines more conspicuously, inasmuch as it is insinuated into those who learn by means of bodily functions, i.e. by means of the voice and tongue, and the other movements of the body in good works. The apostle therefore puts his candle on a candlestick, when he says, "So fight I, not as one that beateth ¹⁰ the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I preach to others, I myself should be found a castaway." ¹¹ When He says, however, "that it may give light to all who are in the house," I am of opinion that it is the abode of men which is called a house, i.e. the world itself, on account of what He says before, "Ye are the light of the world;" or if any one chooses to understand the house as being the Church, this, too, is not out of place.