A69028:2307
The rule of faith, or, An exposition of the Apostles Creed so handled as…
The rule of faith, or, An exposition of the Apostles Creed so handled as it affordeth both milk for babes, and strong meat for such as are at full age / by ... Nicholas Bifield ; ... now published ... by his son, Adoniram Bifield.The rule of faith, or, An exposition of the Apostles Creed so handled as it affordeth both milke for babes, and strong meat for such as are at full age / by ... Nicholas Bifield ; ... now published ... by his sonne, Adoniram Bifield.
London: printed by G.M. for Philemon Stephens and Christopher Meredith, 1626
THE CREED. › Article 6 › TenetTHE CREEDE. › Article 6 › Tenet
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
For the first; If we ask who ascended? The Creed answers, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, that was borne of a Virgin, &c. so that Ascension is attributed to the whole person, Christ, God and Man ascended: he that descended first, is he that now ascends, Eph. 4. 9. Christ God ascended, but it was in respect of his humane nature. The Word that was with God, and was God, was always in heaven; but yet the Word made flesh was not always in heaven: now the Word ascended, as it was made flesh, that is, as it presented his humane nature, taken up locally from earth to heaven, before his Father and the Angels. So then the answer is, That Christ, the Son of God, ascended in his flesh, not in his Divinity which fills all places, and so cannot ascend.
For the first; If wee aske who ascended? The Creed answers, Iesus Christ, the onely Sonne of God, that was borne of a Virgin, &c. so that Ascension is attributed to the whole person, Christ, God and Man ascended: he that descended first, is he that now ascends, Eph. 4. 9. Christ God ascended, but it was in respect of his humane nature. The Word that was with God, and was God, was alwaies in heauen; but yet the Word made flesh was not alwaies in heauen: now the Word ascended, as it was made flesh, that is, as it presented his humane nature, taken vp locally from earth to heauen, before his Father and the Angels. So then the answer is, That Christ, the Son of God, ascended in his flesh, not in his Diuinity which fills all places, and so cannot ascend.
For the second question, divers things are to be answered, viz. that he ascended, first by his own power, even by the power of his divine nature, carrying up his body into heaven, and opening heaven to bring in his Humanity, as also by a virtue in his glorified body, which was able to move upward, as well as downward. Secondly, that being about to leave his Disciples, in a solemn manner he lift up his hands and blessed them. To bless, is sometimes to wish a blessing, as when Parents bless their Children. Sometimes it is to pronounce a blessing, as when the Priests blessed the people,