The sermons of M. John Calvin, upon the Epistle of S. Paul too the…The sermons of M. Iohn Caluin, vpon the Epistle of S. Paule too the…

But here it might be demanded, how Saint Paul acknowledgeth himself a little one, seeing he hath done more than all the rest, as he himself sayeth in the forealledged place of the first too the Corinthians.¹ Saint Paul was not ignorant of the gracious gifts that he had received at Gods hand, neither meant he too embase them in his mouth as Hypocrites do, which say, I am nothing at all: for he wist ⟨p. 119⟩well that God had endued him with great […], and it is not a point of humility too say, I have neither skill nor wit, nor any thing worthy of praise: for if we speaks […], we be unthankful too God, as they that bury his benefits wherein his glory ought •oo shine forth. Saint Paul then meant not here too show, that he was a man without knowledge, and without the gifts of the holy Ghost, or that he had received less portion of them than other men had: but his calling of himself the least, was in respect of that which he had bin before he was a member of the Church.² For our Lord Jesus Christ had in his life time chosen and shoaled out the twelve, too whom he gave Commission too publish the Gospel through the whole world. And now in the mean while what was Saint Paul? He was not only a pri•ate person, but also banished, and cut of as a rotten member •r•m the company of the faithful. And besides that, Satan drave him forward too all cruelty, so long as Gods spirit was not in him. He had in deed a kind of zeal, but that was stark madness, for he ceased not for all that too fight against God in his own misbeel•efe: he did it ignorantly, but yet could not that excuse him. So then we see that his terming of himself the least, was not without cause, according whereunto he sayeth in another place,³ that he was as an untimely birth, and that it i• was not too be thought that ever he should have come too the spiritual life, whereof he was a minister. For he was as a rotten carcass, and there was no lykelyh that ever he should have come too the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing he was run so far […], and had bin as a tempest in thundering upon the Church, and as a allening Woolf, that ought nothing else but too […] his pray. And so we see how his confessing of himself to be the least of the Saints, was unfeigned, namely as in respect of his former state.