I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Ver. 7. I have fought a good fight] The nearer anything is to the centre, the more strongly and swiftly it moveth. The wine of the Spirit is strongest in the saints, when they are drawing to an end. His motions are quickest when natural motions are slowest, most sensible when the body begins to be senseless, most lively when the saints are dying. See this in Moses' swanlike song; David's last discourse to his son Solomon and his nobles; our Saviour's farewell to the world in that last sweet sermon and prayer of his, John 13:1,38; John 14:1,31; John 15:1,27; John 16:1,33; John 17:1,26, wherein there is more worth, saith Mr Baxter, than in all the books in the world besides. When excellent Bucholcer was near his end, he wrote his book de Consolatione Decumbentium, Of the Comfort of Sick People. Then it was that Tossanus wrote his Vade mecum; Dr Preston, his Attributes of God; Mr Bolton, his Joys of Heaven; and before them all Savonarola, the Italian martyr, his Meditations upon the 51st Psalm, Verbis vivis, animatis sententiis, et spiritus fervore flagrantissimis, in most lively expressions, and with most heavenly affections. (Sixtus Senens.) Indeed, the saints are most heavenly when nearest to heaven; like as rivers, the nearer they grow to the sea, the sooner they are met by the tide.