Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.
Ver. 23. Ye are bought with a price] The redeemed among the Romans were to addict themselves to the service of their redeemers, and to observe them as their parents all days of their lives.
Be not ye the servants of men] When they command you things forbidden by Christ, or when they would tyrannize over your consciences, as the Jesuits, that require blind obedience. Cardinal Tolet saith, The people may merit at God's hand in believing a heresy, if their teacher propound it; for their obedience is meritorious. (Cases of Conscience.) If a priest teach it (saith Stapleton), be it true, be it false, take it as God's oracle. If the Church should approve and authorize Arianism or Pelagianism, saith Erasmus (Epist. ad Firkeimer), I would do so too. But so would no wise man.