But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.
Ver. 15. Better for me to die] To be hunger starved than to do anything to the prejudice of the gospel. Affliction is to be chosen rather than sin, Job 36:21. Quas non oportet mortes praeeligere, saith Zuinglius, Epist. 3. What death should not a man choose, nay, what hell, rather than to sin against his conscience? Daniel chose rather to be cast into the lions' den than to bear about that lion in his own bosom. The primitive Christians thought it far better to be thrown to lions without, than to be left to lusts within. Ad leonem magis quam lenonem. (Tertul.) Potius in ardentem rogum insiluero, quam ullum peccatum in Deum commisero, said a good man once. I will rather leap into a bonfire than wilfully commit any wickedness. The mouse of Armenia will rather die than be defiled with any filth. If her hole be besmeared with dirt, she will rather choose to perish with hunger than be polluted. Such was Paul here, and such we ought all to be.