John Trapp on Amos 7:14

Verſe 14. Then anſwered Amos and ſaid to Amaziah] With no leſſe courage,So Ioh. 1.19.21. I ſuppoſe, then Paul and Barnabas uſed to the ſtubborne Jewes Act, 13.46. or Baſil to Valent the Emperour, or Johannes Sarisburienſis to the Pope Anno 154. or Biſhop Ridly, when offering to preach before the Lady Mary, and receiving a repulſe, he was brought by Sr. Thomas Wharton her ſervant to the dining place and deſired to drink. Which after he had done, he pauſed a whille looking very ſadly: and ſodainely brake out into theſe words. Surely I have done amiſſe: why ſo? quoth the knight: for I have drunk, ſaid He, in that place where Gods word offered hath been refuſed: whereas if I had remembred my duty, I had departed immediately and ſhaken off the duſt of my ſhooes;Act. & Mon. fol: 1270. for a teſtimony againſt this houſe. Theſe words were by the ſaid Biſhop ſpoken with ſuch a vehemency, that ſome of the hearers afterwards confeſſed the haires to ſtand upright on their heades.

I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophets ſon] Neither born, nor bred a Prophet: neither have I raſhly or ambitiouſly put my ſelf upon this tremend employment: my call thereto was extraordinary. The Prophets ſcholars were called their ſons 2 King. 2.3, 5, 7, 15. Eſa. 8.18. Mar. 10.24. 1 Cor. 4.14, 17.

but I was an heardman, and a gatherer of Sicomore fruit] Of meane condition, and hardly bred; ſo that I could live with a little, and needed not to turn Prophet ventris cauſâ, for food ſake. When one ſaid to the Philoſopher, If you will but pleaſe Dionyſius, you need not feed upon green herbs, he preſently replied, And if you can feed upon green herbes,Melch. Adam. you need not pleaſe Dionyſius. Nature is content with a little, grace with leſſe. It is not for a ſervant of God to be a ſlave to his palate: Luther made many a meale of a herring.