Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Ver. 13. I count not myself] Si dixisti satis est, periisti. Satiety is a dangerous disease, and the next step to a declension. The eagle's emblem is sublimius; a loftier position, the sun's celerius, swifter, Psalms 19:3; the wheat's perfectius, more ripened, Mark 4:28; Ezekiel's profundius, more depth, Ezekiel 47:4; Christ's superius, more exaltation,Luke 14:10; and Paul's ulterius more humiliation.
Reaching forth] επεκτεινομενος, straining and stretching out head and hands and whole body to lay hold on the mark or prize proposed. A manifest metaphor from runners in a race, qui caput, totumque corpus, et vires exerunt, ae praecipites ad scopum ruunt, who throw themselves forward like a dart, and stretch out their arms to take hold of the mark. Prone et quasi praecipiti corpore ferri ad scopum. (Beza a Lapide.)