1 Corinthians 4:3

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.

Ver. 3. But with me it is, &c.] A good minister reviled, may reply, as once a steward did to his passionate lord, when he called him knave, &c. Your honour may speak as you please, but I believe not a word that you say; for I know myself an honest man. Non curo illos censores, qui vel non intelligendo reprehendunt, vel reprehendendo non intelligunt, saith Augustine. Angustus did but laugh at the satires and buffoonaries which they had published against him. Severus the emperor was careful of what was to be done by him, but careless what was said of him. εμμελης των πρακτεων, αμελης δε των περι αυτου λογοποιουμενων. (Dio.) Do well and bear ill is written upon heaven's gates, said Mr Bradford the martyr. Thou art a heretic, said Woodroof the sheriff, to Mr Rogers the protomartyr, in Queen Mary's days. That shall be known, quoth he, at the day of judgment. Some men flatter me, saith Politian, some others slander me, I think neither the better nor the worse of myself for that; no more than I think myself taller or lower for that my shadow is longer in the morning, and shorter at noon. A Spanish Jesuit, saith Beza (Epist. ad Calvin), disputing with us about the Eucharist, called us foxes, apes, serpents, &c. My answer was, that we believed it no more than we believed transubstantiation.