And while he acknowledged the obligations, of fidelity, he declared himself no way greatly affected by the judgment which might be passed upon him by his fellow mortals. But with me it is a small thing to be judged of you, or of man’s judgment.  An intimation that he was judged and censured by some of them.  This was, doubtless, matter of notoriety at Corinth; but he little regarded it.  It made no change in him, or in the manner in which he discharged the duties of his office.  He was chiefly concerned to obtain the approbation of an higher tribunal that of his divine matter, the------dge of all.  The judgment of fellow mortals did not move him—­He that judgeth me is the Lord.

Not that he was wholly indifferent to the opinion entertained of him by his fellow men.  Had be been so, he would not have undertaken his own defence as in these epistles, A measure of esteem was necessary to his usefulness in the ministry.  Had all who heard him thought him the enemy of God, he could have done no good in it.  Therefore his endeavor to rectify their mistakes.  And the rather because he held the truth as it is in Jesus; so that in rejecting him, and the doctrines which he taught, they turned aside into errors which might fatally mislead them.  But he did not wrong his conscience to please them, or depart from truth to gain their approbation—­“Do I seek to please men?  For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”  Had Paul been chiefly concerned to please men, he would have continued a Pharisee.

The person who would please Christ, while paying such deference to the opinions of men as fairly to weigh every objection against his faith or practice, and try them by the divine rule, must be careful to conform to that rule, whatever opinions may be entertained of him.  Of the meaning of the rule he must judge for himself before God—­“calling no man master.”  The reasons of his faith and practice, and his construction of the divine rule, he may lay before his fellow men, to remove the grounds of prejudice; but he must rise so far above their frowns a------atteries, as not to be influenced by them to disguise his sentiments, or counteract his own judgment of the law of God, of the gospel of Christ, or of the duties incumbent on him.

It is not by human judgments that we are to stand or fall.  It is happy that this is the case; that the good man hath a judge more just and candid than his fellow servants; one who knows and pities his weakness, though he hath none of his own:  “Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man.”

But the apostle did not stop with a declaration that the judgment of others did not move him; he brought it home to himself:  Yea, I judge not mine own self.  For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the Lord.  St. Paul had a witness in himself that he was sincere and upright before God—­“Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity, and Godly sincerity, not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly toward you.”