John 3:13

OLBGrk;

No man hath so ascended up to heaven, as to know the secret will and counsels of God, for of such an ascending it must be meant; otherwise, Elijah ascended up to heaven before our Saviour ascended. Thus the phrase is supposed to be used, Proverbs 30:4. None but Christ (who as to his Divine nature came down from heaven) hath ever so ascended thither; even the Son of man, who was in heaven; we translate it is, but the participle wn is of the preter imperfect tense, as well as the present tense: or, who is in heaven, by virtue of the personal union of the two natures in the Redeemer; as we read. Acts 20:28, the church, which he hath purchased with his own blood. By reason of the personal union of the two natures in Christ, though the properties of each nature remain distinct, yet the properties of each nature are sometimes attributed to the whole person. The Lutherans have another notion, ascribing an omnipresence even to the human nature of Christ, because of its personal union with the Divine nature; and so affirm that Christ's human nature, while it was on earth, was also substantially in heaven; as, on the other side, they are as stiff in maintaining that, although Christ's human nature be now in heaven, yet it is also on earth, really and essentially present wherever the sacrament of the Lord's supper is administered; but this is to ascribe a body unto Christ which is indeed no body, according to any notion we have of a body.