Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
Ver. 7. I have preached to you freely] Because he get his living with his hands, that he might preach gratis, they despised him as a mean mechanic. This is merces mundi, the world's wages. Nil habet infaelix paupertas, &c. Ministers must have an honourable maintenance (and not be forced to weave for a living, as Musculus was, or to serve the mason, as another great scholar), or else they will be shamefully slighted.