And what thereof, though our Lord when He ascended to heaven bodily took His way upwards into the clouds, seen of His mother and His disciples with their bodily eyes? Should we therefore in our ghostly work ever stare upwards with our bodily eyes, to look after Him if we may see Him sit bodily in heaven, or else stand, as Saint Stephen did? Nay, surely He shewed Him not unto Saint Stephen bodily in heaven, because that He would give us ensample that we should in our ghostly work look bodily up into heaven if we might see Him as Saint Stephen did, either standing, or sitting, or else lying. For howso His body is in heaven—standing, sitting, or lying—wots no man. And it needeth not more to be witted, but that His body is oned with the soul, without departing. The body and the soul, the which is the manhood, is oned with the Godhead without departing also. Of His sitting, His standing, His lying, needeth it not to wit; but that He is there as Him list, and hath Him in body as most seemly is unto Him for to be. For if He shew Him lying, or standing, or sitting, by revelation bodily to any creature in this life, it is done for some ghostly bemeaning: and not for no manner of bodily bearing that He hath in heaven. See by ensample. By standing is understood a readiness of helping. And therefore it is said commonly of one friend to another, when he is in bodily battle: “Bear thee well, fellow, and fight fast, and give not up the battle over lightly; for I shall stand by thee.” He meaneth not only bodily standing; for peradventure this battle is on horse and not on foot, and peradventure it is in going and not standing. But he meaneth when he saith that he shall stand by him, that he shall be ready to help him. For this reason it was that our Lord shewed Him bodily in heaven to Saint Stephen, when he was in his martyrdom: and not to give us ensample to look up to heaven. As He had said thus to Saint Stephen in person of all those that suffer persecution for His love: “Lo, Stephen! as verily as I open this bodily firmament, the which is called heaven, and let thee see My bodily standing, trust fast that as verily stand I beside thee ghostly by the might of My Godhead. And I am ready to help thee, and therefore stand thou stiffly in the faith and suffer boldly the fell buffets of those hard stones: for I shall crown thee in bliss for thy meed, and not only thee, but all those that suffer persecution for Me on any manner.” And thus mayest thou see that these bodily shewings were done by ghostly bemeanings.

Moreover, when Stephen saw the heaven opened, and the Lord JESUS at the right hand of God, there his spirit did not first swing itself up aloft into t...

Secondly, we intimate also how Christ conversed upon Earth forty Days after his Resurrection, understand, in the Kingdom of this World, whereas yet...

NOW says Reason, If Christ ascended thus with his Body, which he offered up on the Cross, when was he glorified in his Body? Or how is his Body now?...

Then you ask, as if an Ass should ask about his Sack he carries, how the Man made it; yet the Ass must have Provender given him, that he may carry the...

There be some who affirm, that a man, while in this present time, may and ought to be above being touched by outward things, and in all respects as...

Speaking then of the true Resurrection of Christ, we will also show [somewhat] concerning his Conversation (those forty Days) after his Resurrection,...

Thou sayest, Christ is ascended into Heaven, how then can he be in this World? And when thou reachest furthest, thou thinkest that he is present only...

Now then says Reason, whither is he gone? Is he gone out of this World, aloft above the Stars into another Heaven? Hearken, my beloved Reason,...

But thus all Generations shall see him and know him, and the Unbelieving shall weep and wail, that they went so out of their Flesh and Blood into anot...

When he was here upon Earth in the earthly Man, his outward Body was circumscribed and limited, as our Bodies are, but the inward Body is unlimited;...

For when he had conversed forty Days (after his Resurrection) in the Proba [or Trial] in this World, then he went up into a Mountain, whither he had a...