Calvin: Commentary on Corinthians, Vol. 1

Would that this my Commentary, in which I have attempted to expound an Epistle not less obscure than useful, published, as it now is, in accordance with the earnest solicitations of many for a long time past, and even reiterated demands, may be correspondingly answerable to the hopes and wishes of all! I say this, not with the view of earning from this work any need of praise -- an ambition that ought to be quite away from the minds of Christ's servants -- but from a desire that it may do good at all, which it cannot do, if it does meet with acceptance. I have, for my part, labored with the utmost faithfulness, and with no less diligence, that it may, without any show, be of the greatest service to the Church of God. How far I have succeeded, my readers will judge for themselves.

This much at least I am confident that I have secured -- that it will furnish no ordinary assistance for thoroughly understanding Paul's mind. That it will to you, most illustrious Sir, prove exceedingly acceptable, is so far from appearing to me doubtful, that I find it necessary even to warn you against allowing yourself to be carried beyond due bounds by an undue attachment to me, though, if it should so happen, I shall nevertheless regard your judgment as of so much importance, that I shall reckon myself to have succeeded admirably in my labors, if they have secured your unqualified approbation.

In dedicating my Work to you, however, I have not been influenced solely by the hope of its being acceptable to you, but by various other considerations; and more especially this, that your personal character corresponded admirably with the argument of Paul's Epistle. For while too many in the present day convert the Gospel into a cold and shadowy philosophy, imagining that they have sufficiently discharged their duty, if they simply give a nod of assent to what they hear, you, on the other hand, are an illustrious pattern of that living efficacy, which Paul testifies, ought to breathe in the Gospel. This, assuredly, I do not mention on your account, but because I consider it to be of great importance by way of example.

It would have been an important point gained, though there had been nothing more than this, that, in the first order of nobility, in the elevated station of honor which you had obtained, and amidst a large abundance of fortune and wealth, (situations in life that are all of…