For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
Ver. 23. For I am in a strait] Plato in the eighth of his laws hath a like speech, The communion of the soul with the body, κοινωνια ψυχη και σωματι διαλυσεως ουκ εστι κρειττων, is not better than the dissolution, as I would say if I were to speak in earnest. But whether Plato believed himself so saying, I have reason to make question, when I consider that his master Socrates, when he came to die, doubted whether it were better with the dead or with the living, as both Plato and Cicero testify.
Having a desire to depart] αναλυσαι, to loose from the shore of life, and launch out into the main of immortality. Or it may be rendered, to return home, or to change rooms. A believer when he dieth, doth but repatriasse (as Bernard phraseth it), return home; he doth but change his place, and not his company, as dying Dr Preston said. He is ready to chide out his soul with Quid hic facto? as Monica, Austin's mother, did, What make I here so far from mine own country? or with an Egredere, o anima mea, as Hilarion did, Go forth, O my soul, to Jesus thy bridegroom; haste, haste, haste to thine happy home. Euge, Deo sit laus et gloria, quod iam mea instet liberatio, et horula gratissima, said Graserus, when death was upon him: Oh, blessed be God for this blessed hour. Oh, what a happy change shall I now make from night to day, from darkness to light, from death to life, from sorrow to solace, from a factious world to a happy being! as Mr John Holland, a Lancashire minister, said, when he was even ready to depart. Oh, wish heartily to die the death of these righteous; and let that be the unfeigned sense of thy soul, which Camerarius left in his will, should be written on his tombstone (Melch. Ad.):
" Vita mihi mors est, mors mihi vita nova est.
Life is to me a death, death's a new life."
Or that emortual of George Fabritius (Bucholcer Index Chronol.),
" Σοι χαριν οιδα θεω ευσπλαγχνω ος μ εδιδαξας
Εν βιοτη τε θανειν, εν θανατω δε Βιουν ."
"Thanks to my gracious God, who doth me give,
In life to die, and in death's hand to live."
And to be with Christ] This was all his song ever since he had been in the third heaven. So Mr Bolton, lying on his death bed, said, I am by the wonderful mercies of God as full of comfort as my heart can hold, and feel nothing fit my soul but Christ, with whom I heartily desire to be. (His Life by Mr Bagshaw.)
Which is far better] πολλω μαλλον κρεισσον, Far, far the better. A transcendent expression, such as is that 2 Corinthians 4:17. See Trapp on " 2Co 4:17 "