But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;
Ver. 12. Rather unto the furtherance] So were Luther's troubles. Quo magis illi furunt, saith he, eo amplius procedo. The more they rage, the more the gospel spreadeth. It was a pleasant sight (saith one) to have beheld Christ and Antichrist striving for masteries. (Scultet. Annal.) For whatsoever the pope and the emperor attempted against the gospel, Christ turned it all to the furtherance of the gospel. The pope's bull, the emperor's thunderbolt, amazed not men, but animated them to embrace the truth; weakened them not, but wakened them rather.