8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.



Ver. 8. And willing rather] Death is not to be desired as a punishment of sin, but as a period of sin; not as a postern gate to let out our temporal, but as a street door to let in eternal life.



To be present with the Lord] This Bernard calleth Repatriasse. Plotinus the philosopher could say when he died, that which is divine in me I carry back, åðé ôï ðñùôïãïíïí èåéïí , to the original divine, that is, to God. (Synes. Eph 139.) But whether this man believed himself or not, I greatly doubt.