8. But let us return to the
order of our discourse, and the whole of the passage itself of the
Epistle let us diligently consider. “Have we not,” saith he,
“leave2495
to eat and
to drink? have we not leave to lead about a
woman, a sister?”
What leave meant he, but what the
Lord gave unto them whom He sent
to
preach the
kingdom of
heaven, saying, “Those things which are
(given) of them, eat ye;
2496
for the workman is worthy of his
hire;” and proposing Himself as an example of the same
power, to
Whom most
faithful women did of their means
minister such
necessaries? But the
Apostle Paul hath done more, from his
fellow-
Apostles alleging a
proof of this license permitted of the
Lord. For not as finding fault hath he subjoined, “As do also the
other
Apostles, and the
brethren of the
Lord, and
Cephas;” but
that hence he might show that this which he would not accept was a
thing which, that it was
lawful for him to accept was
proved by the
wont of the
rest also his fellow-
soldiers. “Or I only and
Barnabas, have we not
power to forbear working?” Lo, he hath
taken away all doubt even from the slowest
hearts, that they may
understand of what working he speaks. For to what end saith he,
“Or I only and
Barnabas, have we not
power to forbear working?”
but for that all
evangelists and
ministers of
God’s word had
power received of the
Lord, not to
work with their
hands, but to
live by the
Gospel, working only
spiritual works in
preaching of
the
kingdom of
heaven and edifying of the
peace of the
Church? For
no man can say that it is of that very
spiritual working that the
Apostle said, “Or I only and
Barnabas, have we not
power to
forbear working?” For this
power to forbear working all those
had: let him say then, who essays to deprave and pervert
precepts
Apostolical; let him say, if he
dares that all
evangelists received
of the
Lord power to forbear
preaching the
Gospel. But if this is
most absurd and
mad to say, why will they not understand what is
plain to all, that they did indeed receive
power not to
work, but
works bodily, whereby to get a living, because “the workman is
worthy of his
hire,” as the
Gospel speaks. It is not therefore
that
Paul and
Barnabas only had not
power to forbear working; but
that all alike had this
power of which these availed not themselves
in “laying out more” upon the
Church; so as in those places
where they
preached the
Gospel they judged to be meet for the
weak.
And for this reason, that he might not seem to have found fault
with his fellow-
Apostles, he goes on to say: “Who goeth a
warfare
at any time at his own charges? Who feedeth a
flock, and of the
milk of the
flock partaketh not? Speak I these things as a man?
Saith not the
Law the same? For in the
law of
Moses it is written,
Thou shall not
muzzle the
ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth
God
care for
oxen? Or saith he it for our sake altogether? For our
sakes truly is it written, because he that plougheth ought to
plough in
hope, and he that thresheth in
hope of partaking of the
fruits.”
2497
By these
words the
Apostle Paul sufficiently indicates, that it was no
usurping unto themselves of aught beyond their due on the part of
his fellow-
Apostles, that they
wrought not bodily, whence they
might have the things which to this
life are necessary, but as the
Lord ordained, should, living by the
Gospel, eat
bread gratuitously
given of them unto whom they were
preaching a gratuitous
grace.
Their charges, namely, they did like
soldiers receive, and of the
fruit of the
vineyard by them
planted, they did, as need was,
freely gather; and of the milk of the flock which they fed, they
drank; and of the threshing-floor on which they threshed, they took
their meat.
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