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(96) 1 let it pass, and it is true, that she may be in Heaven with Body and Soul; but with such a Body as Moses and Elias had upon Mount Tabor, in the Apparition before Christ [at his Transfiguration,] viz. that new Body out of the Element; the transitory [corruptible Body] belongs to the Earth, for if we could have subsisted in God, with this [transitory and corruptible] Body, God would not have become Man, and have died for us. Even as all the Apostles of Christ are dead, and yet live; and so may it also be, that the Body of the Virgin was changed into a heavenly, and laid off the earthly. What does that avail us? She is no Goddess.

(99) 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 appointed his Disciples to come, and went up aloft [or ascended visibly] with his own Body which he had offered up on the Cross (till a Cloud came and hid him from their Sight) for a sure Sign that he was their Brother, and that he (in his earthly Form and Body) would not forsake them; as he also said to them, Behold, I am with you to the End of the World.

(5) When he had spoken, while they beheld, he was taken up.

(1) AND if thou say aught touching the ascension of our Lord, for that was done bodily, and for a bodily bemeaning as well as for a ghostly, for both He ascended very God and very man: to this will I answer thee, that He had been dead, and was clad with undeadliness, and so shall we be at the Day of Doom. And then we shall be made so subtle in body and in soul together, that we shall be then as swiftly where us list bodily as we be now in our thought ghostly; whether it be up or down, on one side or on other, behind or before, all I hope shall then be alike good, as clerks say. But now thou mayest not come to heaven bodily, but ghostly. And yet it shall be so ghostly, that it shall not be on bodily manner; neither upwards nor downwards, nor on one side nor on other, behind nor before.

(14) And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

(2) Ensample hereof may be seen by the ascension of our Lord: for when the time appointed was come, that Him liked to wend to His Father bodily in His manhood, the which was never nor never may be absent in His Godhead, then mightily by the virtue of the Spirit God, the manhood with the body followed in onehead of person. The visibility of this was most seemly, and most according, to be upward.

(90) Secondly, we intimate also how Christ conversed upon Earth forty Days after his Resurrection, understand, in the Kingdom of this World, whereas yet he was in Heaven, yet he bore that Image without any outward Glory or Clarity before the Eyes of Men, and he had the Body wholly with every Essence, as it hung on the Cross, except the Source of the Principle, which he had not; but else he had all Essences in Flesh and Blood, and yet the outward Flesh stood in the Might [and Power] of the heavenly. This we see, by his going in to his Disciples, the Door being shut, and he passed with his Body through the Wood of the Door. Thus you may understand, that the World is as nothing to him, and that he has Power over all Things.

(80) 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 we also (in the Resurrection in the Body of Jesus Christ) are unlimited, yet visible and palpable or comprehensible, in the heavenly Flesh and Blood, as the Prince of Life himself is; we can in the heavenly Figure [or Shape] be great or little, and yet nothing be hurt or wanting in us; there is no Need of compressing the Parts of that Body. 81.0 dear Christians, leave off your Contentions about the Body of Jesus Christ; he is every where in all Places, a yet in the Heaven; and the Heaven (wherein God dwells) is also every where. God dwells in the Body of Jesus Christ, and in all holy Souls of Men, even when they depart from this outward Body; and if they be regenerated, then they are in the Body of Jesus Christ even while they are in this earthly Body. A Soul here in our Body upon Earth has not the Body of Christ in a palpable Substance, but in the Word of Power [or Virtue,] which comprehends all Things. In Christ indeed Body and Power is one [Thing,] but we must not understand [this of the four Elementary] Creature, [which is] in this World.

(95) But that they feign [or-babble] that she was taken up into Heaven alive with Soul and Body, and that she can carry our Miseries, and present them before her Son, I would fain know what Understanding and Knowledge the Author of such an invented Fable has had of the Kingdom of Heaven. Surely he took the Kingdom of this World to be Heaven.

(46) And then also the holy Bodies went out of the Graves; consider this well; those that had put their Trust in the Messiah, had (in the Promise) got the pure Element for a new Body; and now when the promised Saviour went through Death into Life, and put on that pure Element for a Body, then their Souls in the Saviour (in whom they stood) in Hope got the Upperhand, and put on their new Body (in the Body of Christ) and lived in him, in his [Power and] Virtue; there were the holy Patriarchs and Prophets, who in this World had put on the Treader upon the Serpent in the Word of God, wherein they had prophesied of him, and wrought Miracles, they were now quickened in the Virtue of Christ; for the Virtue of Christ sprung up through Death, and reconciled the Father, who held the Soul captive in the Anger, and they now entered with Christ into Life.

(9) Thus his earthly Body is swallowed up in God, though indeed he never had such an earthly Body as we have, for he was not of the Seed of a Man; but we speak only of the Comprehensibility and Visibility of it to our Eyes, according to which he is our Brother; and he shall appear at the last Judgment-Day in our fleshly Form, in the Power of God, as Lord over all, for all Power in Heaven and in this World is subjected under him, and he is Judge over all; a Prince of Life, and Lord over Death.

(71) And it came to pass after this that my spirit was translated And it ascended into the heavens: And I saw the holy sons of God. They were stepping on flames of fire: Their garments were white [and their raiment], And their faces shone like snow.

(1) 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? Is it now as his Disciples saw him ascend into Heaven? My beloved Reason, my earthly Eyes see it not, but the spiritual [Eyes] in Christ see it very well. The Scripture says; He is « glorified, and Lord over all; but we will open to you the Gate of the great Wonders, that you may see what we see.

(3) 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.

(47) Here, ye beloved Sheep, observe: When Christ died, he did not cast away his Body (which he had here) and yield it up to the four Elements to be swallowed up, so that he must have wholly a strong Body; no, but zthe Source [or Property] of this World, which is in the Stars and Elements; and the a Incorruptible swallowed up the Corruptible, so that it is a Body which lives (in the Virtue of God) in God, and not in the Spirit of this [sour elementary] World; and Paul says concerning the last Judgment, That the Incorruptible (viz. the new Man) shall overpower the Corruptible, and shall swallow up the Corruptible, so that Death shall be made a Scorn, according to that Saying, [O Death!] where is thy Sting? O Hell! where is thy Victory?

(88) Speaking then of the true Resurrection of Christ, we will also show [somewhat] concerning his Conversation (those forty Days) after his Resurrection, before his Ascension. Because we know that he is become a real Lord over Heaven, Earth, and Hell, therefore we show you how the Kingdom of this World, with all the Essences and Qualities thereof, has been subjected to him. And though he did not always converse visibly with his Disciples, yet many Times he showed himself to them visibly, palpably, and staying with them, according to the Kingdom of this World, according to his Body which he had here, which was swallowed up by the new Body, which he must present again, as God would have it to be presented; for God is Lord of every Thing, and every Thing must be changed (as he pleases) that he might thus show his Disciples his real Body, and the Print of his Nails, which stand in the Holy Christ, in his holy Body in Eternity, as

(32) And He finished speaking with him, and He went up from him, and Jacob looked till He had ascended into heaven.

(2) And to this will I answer thee so feebly as I can, and say: since it so was, that Christ should ascend bodily and thereafter send the Holy Ghost bodily, then it was more seemly that it was upwards and from above than either downwards and from beneath, behind, or before, on one side or on other. But else than for this seemliness, Him needed never the more to have went upwards than downwards; I mean for nearness of the way. For heaven ghostly is as nigh down as up, and up as down: behind as before, before as behind, on one side as other. Insomuch, that whoso had a true desire for to be at heaven, then that same time he were in heaven ghostly. For the high and the next way thither is run by desires, and not by paces of feet. And therefore saith Saint Paul of himself and many other thus; although our bodies be presently here in earth, nevertheless yet our living is in heaven. He meant their love and their desire, the which is ghostly their life. And surely as verily is a soul there where it loveth, as in the body that Doeth by it and to the which it giveth life. And therefore if we will go to heaven ghostly, it needeth not to strain our spirit neither up nor down, nor on one side nor on other.

(70) And he was raised aloft on the chariots of the spirit and his name vanished among them.

(47) Adam stood forty Days in an angelical Image before his Sleep, and there was neither Day nor Night in him, also no Time; though indeed he was not (as an Angel) a mere Spirit; for his Body was out of the Element, which is no understanding Spirit, but [is] the Attraction [Concretion or Congelation] in the Will of God, or the Limbus, which stands before God, wherein the (Chaste Virgin, the divine Wisdom dwells, which discovered and created the Image out of the Element by the Fiat.