(1) В¶ But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. (2) For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. (3) For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
The Apostle in the close of the former Chapter, having so blessedly spoken to the Church, concerning the great day of God; begins this, with showing the dreadful effects, the Lord's coming would have on the minds of the ungodly. He makes use of two very striking similitudes, to represent the horrible distress, with which the graceless, and unawakened, will be overtaken in that day. First, that of a thief, coming at the dark hour of midnight into a man's house, when all are asleep, in apparent quiet, and safety; to surprise, and murder the unconscious inhabitants. And, secondly, that of a woman in travail, whose agonies, for the time, are supposed to be the sharpest our nature is capable of feeling; and are therefore called (dolores tergiversantes) thundering pains. And this latter is rendered still more striking in resemblance, because the pains of child-bearing, are the fruits of our first mother's transgression, and entailed upon all her daughters, passing through the hour of nature's extremity. Genesis 3:16. And the sinner's day of wrath, is the fruit also, of our own transgression. Oh! who shall conceive, or imagine, the horrors of that day, to every Christless son, and daughter of Adam? Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? What paleness, and convulsion of soul, will that sentence induce; depart ye cursed! Matthew 25:41.