And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Ver. 11. To awake out of sleep] While the crocodile sleepeth with open mouth, the Indian rat gets into his stomach, and eateth through his entrails. While Ishbosheth slept upon his bed at noon, Baanah and Rechab took away his head. Security ushereth in destruction. Go forth and shake yourselves, as Samson did when the Philistines were upon him; lest Satan serve you, at least for your souls, as Captain Drake did the Spaniard at Taurapasa in the West Indies, for his treasure; he found him sleeping securely on the shore, and by him 13 bars of silver to the value of 40,000 ducats, which he commanded to be carried away, not so much as once waking the man. (Camden's Elisa.) Or lest Christ himself deal by us, as Epaminondas did by the watchman, whom he found asleep; he thrust him through with his sword, and being blamed for so severe a fact, he replied, Talem eum reliqui, qualem inveni, I left him as I found him.
For now is our salvation nearer] Stir up yourselves, therefore, and strain toward the mark. There is a Greek word (νυσσα) signifying the end of a race, which is derived of a word that signifieth to spur or prick forward (νυσσω). Surely, as they that run their horses for a wager, spur hardest at the race's end; so, sith our salvation is nearer now than ever it was, therefore we should run faster now than ever we did. When a cart is in a quagmire, if the horses feel it coming, they'll pull the harder; so must we, now that full deliverance is hard at hand. Rivers run more speedily and forcibly when they come near the sea, than they did at the spring; the sun shineth most amiably towards the going down. Tempus iam est (said old Zanchius to his friend Sturmius, who was elder than he) ut ad Christum et caelum stelliferum a terra properemus, &c. It is even high time for you and me to hasten to heaven; as knowing that we shall shortly be with Christ, which is "far far the better," Philippians 1:23 .