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

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elieves that God is really one in one respect, <strong>and</strong> no less really three in<br />

another respect, so does she believe that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ<br />

is really absent in one respect, <strong>and</strong> just as really present in another. Christ<br />

has left us, <strong>and</strong> He never leaves us--He has gone from us, <strong>and</strong> He is ever<br />

present with us; He has ascended far above all heavens, but it is that He<br />

may fill all things. As His divine nature, which in its totality is in heaven,<br />

<strong>and</strong> in its fulness is in Christ bodily, is on earth while it is in heaven, as that<br />

divine nature is present with us, without extension or locality, is on earth<br />

without leaving heaven, is present in a manner true, substantial <strong>and</strong> yet<br />

incomprehensible, so does it render the body of Christ, which is one<br />

person with it, also present. That body in its determinate limitations is in<br />

heaven, <strong>and</strong> in <strong>and</strong> of itself would be there alone, but through the divine, in<br />

consequence of the personal conjunction, <strong>and</strong> in virtue of that conjunction,<br />

using in the whole person the attributes of the whole person in both its<br />

parts, it is rendered present. It is present without extension, for the divine<br />

through which it is present is unextended--it is present without locality, for<br />

the divine through which it is present is illocal. It is on earth, for the divine<br />

is on earth--it is in heaven, for the divine remains in heaven, <strong>and</strong> like the<br />

divine it is present truly <strong>and</strong> substantially, yet incomprehensibly.<br />

In other words, as our Church believes that the one essence of God<br />

has two modes of presence, one general <strong>and</strong> ordinary, by which it is<br />

present to all creatures, <strong>and</strong> the other special <strong>and</strong> extraordinary, by which it<br />

is present, so as to constitute one person, after which mode it is present to<br />

none other than to the humanity of Jesus Christ, <strong>and</strong> that both modes of<br />

presence, although unlike in their results, are equally substantial; so does<br />

she believe that this one humanity taken into personal <strong>and</strong> inseparable<br />

union with this one essence, has two modes of presence: one determinate,<br />

in which it is related to space, through its own inherent properties; the<br />

other infinite, in which it is related to space in the communion of the divine<br />

attributes, <strong>and</strong> that both modes of presence, though unlike, are equally<br />

substantial.

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