CAP. I.

15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace,

16 To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, etc.

Before we were born, we could merit nothing. We always arrogate something to ourselves. There is a twofold grace: 1. That He bestows His Gospel upon the whole region, because it so pleases Him. 2. That He adds grace so that you might believe; this is a singular grace. Therefore, that we have arrived at the clarity of the Gospel, in which our happiness is placed, the cause was in Himself, as we have taught in Ephesians 1. Not only from the womb, but before there was heaven or earth.

Thus, in whatever calling you may be, God destined you for it from your mother's womb. Although men who possess gifts are chosen for the Republic and the Church, nevertheless, whatever dexterity one may have, let him know that God designed him for it while still in his mother's womb.