For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called :
Ver. 26. Not many mighty] The eagle and lion were not offered in sacrifice, as the lamb and the dove were. It is hard for great ones to deny themselves. Hence it grew to a proverb in times of Popery, that hell was paved with priests' shaven crowns and great men's headpieces. Rasis sacrificulorum verticibus et magnatum galeis. (Jerome.) Indeed if men might pass de deliciis ad delicias, e coeno ad coelum, as Jerome hath it; if they could dance with the devil all day, and sup with Christ at night; if they might live all their lives long in Delilah's lap, and then go to Abraham's bosom when they die, they would have a fine time of it. But that cannot be, and hence so many mighties miscarry.
Not many noble] Blessed be God that any; as Galeacius Caracciolus, an Italian marquis, and nephew to Pope Paul V, was converted by Peter Martyr reading upon this First Epistle to the Corinthians; George Prince of Anhalt, a pious preaching prince, converted by Melancthon; Ulysses Martinengus, earl of Baccha, another Italian convert, and some few more that might be instanced. But good nobles are black swans (saith one) and thinly scattered in the firmament of a state, even like stars of the first magnitude. We may say of such, as Luther (in Epist. ad John Agricol.) doth of Elizabeth Queen of Denmark, a pious princess, Scilicet Christus etiam aliquando voluit reginam in caelum vehere. Certainly even Christ ever wished to bear a queen into heaven.