Chapter 6.—Of Christ’s Ascension into
Heaven.
13. We believe that
He Ascended into Heaven
, which place of
blessedness He has likewise promised unto us, saying, “They shall
be as the angels in the heavens,”
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in that city which is the mother
of us all,
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the
Jerusalem eternal in the heavens. But it is wont to give offense to
certain parties, either impious Gentiles or heretics, that we
should believe in the assumption of an earthly body into heaven.
The Gentiles, however, for the most part, set themselves diligently
to ply us with the arguments of the philosophers, to the effect of
affirming that there cannot possibly be anything earthly in heaven.
For they know not our Scriptures, neither do they understand how it
has been said, “It is sown an animal body, it is raised a
spiritual body.”
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For thus it has not been
expressed, as if body were turned into spirit and became spirit;
inasmuch as at present, too, our body, which is called animal
(
animale
), has not been turned into soul and become soul
(
anima
). But by a spiritual body is meant one which has been
made subject to spirit in such wise
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that it is adapted to a heavenly
habitation, all frailty and every earthly blemish having been
changed and converted into heavenly purity and stability. This is
the change concerning which the apostle likewise speaks thus: “We
shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed.”
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And that
this change is made not unto the worse, but unto the better, the
same [apostle] teaches, when he says, “And we shall be
changed.”
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But the
question as to where and in what manner the Lord’s body is in
heaven, is one which it would be altogether over-curious and
superfluous to prosecute. Only we must believe that it is in
heaven. For it pertains not to our frailty to investigate the
secret things of heaven, but it does pertain to our faith to hold
elevated and honorable sentiments on the subject of the dignity of
the Lord’s body.
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Matt. xxii. 30
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Gal. iv. 26
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1 Cor. xv. 44
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Adopting the Benedictine reading,
quod ita spiritui subditum est
. But several
mss
. give
quia ita coaptandum est
= it is
understood to be a spiritual body, in that it is to be so adapted
as to suit a heavenly habitation.
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1 Cor. xv. 51
, according to
the Vulgate’s transposition of the negative.
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1 Cor. xv. 52