the region of the stars, which are called the hosts of lieaven. (3.) Sometimes it means a state, and answers to some of the senses of the phrase, " kingdom of heaven." The believer is said to be delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son. We are therefore said even in this world to be " in heaven," as in Ephesians ii. 6, where it is said, God " hath raised us up together (with Christ), and made us sit together (eV rots cTroupaviois ^ iv rio ovpavw, agreeably to the constant usage of that Epistle) in heavenly places," i. e., in heaven. In the same sense we are said to be, " the citizens of heaven ; " that is, the TToXt? in which we dwell, and to the rights and privileges of which we are entitled. (Phil. iii. 20.) ^ The Apostle's words are, rj[j.wv to TroAtVevjua iv ovpavol<i iirapx^eL, " Heaven is the city of which we are the citizens, or, in which is our citizenship," (4.) But, fourthly, it means the place where God dwells, where the angels and the spirits of the just are congregated ; whence Christ came, and to which He has returned. He told his disciples that He went to prepare a place for them. (John xiv. 2.) In this sense the word is used when the Bible speaks of God as our Father " in Heaven ; " or of heaven as his throne, his temple, his dwell- ing place. If Christ has a true body, it must occupy a definite portion of space. And where Christ is, there is the Christian's heaven.
In opposition to this Scriptural and generally accepted view of the ascension of Christ, as a transfer from one place to another, from the earth, as one sphere of the universe, to heaven, another, and equally definite locality, the Lutherans made it a mere change of state, of which change the human nature of Christ was the sub- ject. Prior to his resurrection, the human nature of our Lord, although really possessed of the attributes of omnipresence, omnis- cience, and omnipotence, voluntarily forbore the exercise and mani- festation of these divine perfections. His ascension was his enter-, ing on their full enjoyment and exercise. He passed from the condition of an ordinary man to being as a man (as to his soul and body) everywhere present, and everywhere the supreme ruler. The heaven He entered is immensity. Thus the " Form of Con- cord " 2 says, " Ex hac unione et naturarum communione humana natura habet illam exaltationem, post resurrectionem a raortuis, super omnes creaturas in coelo et in terra, quae revera nihil aliud est, quam quod Christus formam servi prorsus deposuit ; humanam
1 Sep Meyer on Philippians iii. 20, for a statement of his view on this nibject . 2 Art. VIII. 26 ; Hase, Libri Symbolici, pp. 767, 768.
632 PART m. ch. xin. - exaltation of christ.
vero naturam non deposuit, sed in omnem aeternitatem retinet, et ad plenam possessionem et divinae majestatis usurpationem secun- dam assumptam humanam naturam evectus est. Earn vero majes- tatem statim in sua conceptione, etiam in utero matris habuit : sed ut Apostolus Phil, ii, 8 [7], loquitur, seipsum exinanivit, eamque, ut D, Lutherus docet, in statu suae humiliationis secreto habuit, neque earn semper, sed quoties ipsi visum fuit, usurpavit. Jam vero, postquam non communi ratione, ut alius quispiam sanctus in coelos aseendit, sed ut Apostolus, Eph. iv. 10, testatur, super omnes ccelos aseendit, et revera omnia implet, et ubique non tantum ut Deus, verum etiam ut homo, praesens dominatur et regnat a mari ad mare et usque ad terminos ten-se." Luther argued that as God's right hand at which Christ in his glorified body sits, is every- where, so that body must be everywhere. In the " Form of Con- cord " ^ it i-s said, Dextera Dei " non est certus aliquis .... locus, sed nihil aliud est, nisi omnipotens Dei virtus, quae caelum et ter- ram implet." Gerhard ^ presents the same view, " Qualis est Dei dextra, taliter quoque sessio ad dextram Dei intelligenda. Jam vero dextra Dei non est locus aliquis corporeus, circumscriptus, limitatus, definitus, sed est infinita Dei potestas ac prassentissima ejus majestas in coelo et terra, est praesentissimum illud dominium, quo Deus omnia conservat et gubernat." Whence it is inferred that the soul and body of Christ must have a like ubiquity. The omnipresence of God, however, is not to be conceived of as infi- nite extension, for extension is a property of matter ; so the Lu- theran theologians do not hold the infinite extension of the body of Christ. They merely say that He is present as God is present everywhere in knowledge and power. But a thing cannot act where it is not; and therefore omnipresence of knowledge and power im- plies omnipresence as to substance. And consequently as Christ in both natures is everywhere active. He must in both natures be everywhere present. Augustine found occasion to write against this notion of the ubiquity of the humanity of Chi'ist, even in his age of the Church, " Noli itaque dubitare, ibi nunc esse hominem Christum Jesum, unde venturus est. . . . Et sic venturus est, ilia angelica voce testante, quemadmodum ire visus est in coelum, i. g., in eadem carnis forma atque substantia; cui profecto immortalita- tem dedit, naturam non abstulit. Secundum banc formam non est putandus ubique diffusus. Cavendum est enim ne ita divinitatem astruamus hominis ut veritatem corporis auferamus. Non est autem
1 Art. vra. 28; Ease, Libri Stpjibolici, p. 768.
2 Loci Theologici, iv. xii. 220, vol. iii. pp. 509, 510.