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The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

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For such is the force of the words 'to go up,' ‘to be taken up,' to be parted<br />

from them,' 'to be received up,' which are employed in describing His<br />

ascension."<br />

2. <strong>The</strong> Ascension in a certain respect removing Christ from us.<br />

"That visible, manifest, bodily, or sensible intercourse or sojourning,<br />

therefore, which, in a circumscribed <strong>and</strong> visible form He had hitherto had<br />

with His disciples on earth, He has by His ascension withdrawn from us<br />

who are on earth, so that in that form, <strong>and</strong> in that mode of presence, He<br />

does not now have intercourse with us in the world." "But (in the form<br />

<strong>and</strong> mode of presence just described) thus He appears in heaven to the<br />

angels <strong>and</strong> saints" (Rev. xiv. 1). "In that form also in which the Apostles<br />

saw Him ascend, He shall descend from heaven, in glory, to the judgment<br />

(Acts i. 2; iv. 16), in a visible <strong>and</strong> circumscribed form."<br />

3. Points of Agreement <strong>and</strong> of Disagreement with the Reformed. State<br />

of the question as regards the relation of Christ’s Ascension to His<br />

personal presence.<br />

"So far, (that is, on all the points above specified,) as I conceive, WE<br />

(Beza <strong>and</strong> Chemnitz) AGREE, but the point to be decided is this:<br />

Whether from what is true in a certain respect (secundum quid), an<br />

inference may be drawn which involves EVERY respect--whether from the<br />

admission of a fact in one <strong>and</strong> a certain sense, an inference may be drawn<br />

as to the same fact in another <strong>and</strong> a different sense--whether because<br />

Christ, in a visible form, <strong>and</strong> a mode of presence perceptible by human<br />

senses, does not in His body, locally, have intercourse with His Church on<br />

earth, we are, therefore, to infer that in NO MODE is He present with His<br />

Church on earth according to the human nature He has assumed--whether<br />

Christ neither knows, nor can have any other than that local, visible, <strong>and</strong><br />

sensible mode by which He can perform what the words of His testament<br />

declare." <strong>The</strong>se words show clearly why the famous expression of Beza,<br />

"that the body of Christ is as remote from the Supper as the highest heaven<br />

is from earth,” gave such offence. It was not that our theologians denied it,<br />

in a certain respect (secundum quid), but that Beza denied it absolutely in<br />

every respect (simpliciter). Hence the Formula Concordiae (672),<br />

commenting on this language, expresses the offensive point of it thus:<br />

"That Christ is, in such manner (ita, als) received in heaven, as to be<br />

circumscribed <strong>and</strong>

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