For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
Ver. 10. For do I now persuade men] That is, men's doctrines and devices.
Or do I seek to please men] Ut κοινοφιλης, qui ab omnibus gratiam inire cupit, quem quidam per iocum Placentam vocat. Men pleasers, that curry favour with all, and covet to be counted no meddlers. These lose a friend of God. Neither do they long hold in with those whom for present they do so much please. Constantine checked a preacher, qui ausus est imperatorem in os beatum dicere, that was so bold as to call him a blessed man to his face, thinking thereby to ingratiate. (Euseb. de Vit. Const.) Theodoric, an Arian king, did exceedingly affect a certain deacon, although an orthodox. The deacon thinking to please him better and get preferment, became an Arian; which when the king understood, he changed his love into hatred, and caused his head to be struck from his shoulders. Erasmus, by seeking to please both sides, was neither owned by the Papists nor honoured by the Protestants, Pusillanimitas et ανθρωπαρεσκεια in praeclaro hoc Dei organo praepotuere. Dastardliness and man pleasance prevailed too much with him, who otherwise did the Church of God singular good service. (Amama.) How much better had he done if passing by Placenza he had held a straight course to Verona! but he dared not (as Luther) meddle either with the pope's triple crown, or with the monks' fat paunches, lest for his Vae vobis Woe to you, he should have been brought coram nobis, publicly to us, as father Latimer said. He held it best policy to keep his finger out of the sore: and either to say no more than Eli did to his sons, "Why do ye such things," &c., or than Jehoshaphat did to Ahab, "Let not the king say so." As pruriginosa istorum hominum scabies aspetiori certe strigili fricanda fuerat, saith Amama. But those men's mangy hides deserved a sharper currycomb.
For if I yet pleased men] As once I did while I was a Pharisee.
I should not be, &c.] That rule holds good in rhetoric, but not in divinity, Non ad veritatem solum, sed etiam ad opinionem eorum qui audiunt, accommodanda est oratio. (Cic. in Partib.)