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

shut up in it, so that IN NO MODE WHATEVER (nullo prorsus modo-keinerlei
Weise) He can or will be present with us on earth in His human
nature."
4. The sophism involved in the Denial of Christ’s Personal Presence,
because of His ascension.
"I cannot see the connection between the premises and the
conclusion, when, though Christ says He will be present in the use of His
Supper, it is argued, that because this cannot be in any way of this world,
(for in this mode Christ has left the world, AND IS NO LONGER IN
THE WORLD) therefore He is present there IN NO OTHER MODE,
though the words declare He is." "A comparison of the parts in John xvi.
will show in what sense Christ has left the world, for He says (18): 'I came
forth from the Father, and am come into the world,' not that He had left the
Father, for He says (ch. viii. 29): 'He that sent me is with me: the Father
hath not left me alone,' or as if the Father, who fills heaven and earth, were
not in this world, but because He had humbled Himself, though He was in
the form of God. From the antithesis, therefore, we may rightfully gather
what Christ means when he says: 'Again I leave the world and go to the
Father,' to wit, that after His work was finished, His humiliation removed,
all infirmity and sorrow laid aside, He would be exalted to the highest
glory and power of the Father, and would be transferred from the mode of
this world's life to a heavenly mode of existence with the Father. This
explanation John himself gives (ch. xiii. 1-3), for when he tells us: 'Jesus
knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto
the Father,' he subjoins this explanation: 'Knowing that the Father had
given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went
to God.' Nay, Christ Himself gives us the explanation of these declarations
of His. For when by His Resurrection He had passed into another mode of
existence, though He offered Himself then present to be seen and touched
by the Apostles, yet He says (Luke xxiv. 44), 'These are the words which I
spake unto you, WHILE I WAS YET WITH YOU.' He shows, therefore,
that the sayings were already fulfilled, ('Yet a little while I am with you,' ‘I
am no more in the world,' 'I leave the world,') and that they are to be
understood, NOT OF AN ABSENCE IN EVERY