Heinrich Schmid · 44 of 78

§ 38. · Part 1

§ 38.

As the works of redemption, for whose accomplishment the λογος became man, could be brought about only through suffering and death, it is altogether natural that we should see Christ, through all His earthly life, even until the completion of His work of redemption, going about in the form of a servant, subject to all the weaknesses and infirmities of human nature. Not until after His resurrection did He lay aside the form of a servant and appear in divine glory. Accordingly, from the time of the incarnation of Christ, we have to predicate of Him a two-fold condition, that of the form of a servant and that of glory. Inasmuch, however, as in consequence of the communicatio idiomatum, resulting from the unio personalis, the human nature participated in all the attributes and glory of the divine nature; and, inasmuch as, in accordance with this, a condition of divine glory would naturally have been looked for from the moment of the incarnation; we cannot comprehend the antecedent condition in the form of a servant without assuming that Christ voluntarily refrained from a glory that belonged to Him. And this indeed is the teaching of the Scriptures in Phil. 2:5-9. Accordingly we designate the former condition the State of Humiliation, a condition of self-renunciation; the other, the State of Exaltation. This self-renunciation, however, that is followed by His being in the condition of a servant, does not lie in the act of incarnation; for, although it is a gracious condescension of the λογος, that He assumed human nature, yet that cannot be the fact here referred to, as the condition of self-renunciation is designated as temporary, while the incarnation is permanent. [1] Neither the self-renunciation nor the exaltation, indeed, can be predicated of the λογος, or of the divine nature; for this, remaining ever the same, is not susceptible of self-renunciation or of exaltation. It is only, therefore, of the human nature that the one or the other can be predicated, [2] and it is only to this that the self-renunciation and the exaltation here described refer. But, when self-renunciation is predicated of it, this is not to be so understood, as if in this condition of self-renunciation the human nature were entirely stripped of the divine glory and confined entirely to itself, and as if the divine glory, as such, were not associated with the human nature until in the condition of exaltation; for this is disproved already by the fact that Christ, even in the State of Humiliation, performed deeds that imply the possession of divine glory. [3] Finally, the self-renunciation is not to be so understood as if the human nature, in consequence of its inalienable possession of divine glory, really exercised the dominion thence accruing to it, but concealed this exercise from the eyes of men, which would have been no real self-renunciation at all: [4] but it must be assumed that the human nature, although, in itself considered, having full right to the divine glory, and being in possession of all the dominion resulting therefrom, here upon earth voluntarily renounced the use and exercise of the same out of regard for the work of redemption that was to be accomplished, [5] and instead thereof led a life of lowliness; that, therefore, the human nature of Christ, which in virtue of the Communicatio Idiomatum was entitled to all the majesty belonging to God, renounced the same, and instead thereof assumed poverty, lowliness, and all the natural (though sinless) weaknesses, infirmities, limitations, and wants of human nature. [6] The self-renunciation consists, therefore, in the real, though at times interrupted abnegation, by the human nature of Christ, of the glory due unto it, and the exaltation, in the assumption by this human nature, of the full use of this divine glory after the completion of the work of redemption. [7] The first state commences with the incarnation and continues until the last moment of His remaining in the tomb. The other begins with the re-animation and continues in eternity, but develops itself in several states. [8]

(BR. (482): “The State of Humiliation consists in this, that Christ for a time renounced (truly and really, yet freely) the plenary exercise of the divine majesty, which His human nature had acquired in the personal union, and, as a lowly man, endured what was far beneath the divine majesty (that He might suffer and die for the life of the world)”).

“The State of Exaltation is the state of Christ, the God-man, in which He, according to His human nature, having laid aside the infirmities of the flesh, received and assumed the plenary exercise of the divine majesty.”[9]

I. THE STATE OF HUMILIATION. — The following are the principal aspects in which the humiliation of Christ reveals itself: HOLL. (759, sq.) [10] “1. Conception, Luke 1:31. A supernatural act, by which the flesh of Christ, produced from the mass of the blood of the Virgin Mary, received in her womb its original being, consubstantial with our own, through the supervention of the Holy Spirit.” [11]

2. Nativity; which besides was accompanied with many humiliating circumstances. “Luke 2:7. The nativity of Christ is the going forth of God, as an infant, from the maternal womb into the light of day.” [12]

3. Circumcision; by which Christ, at the same time, made Himself subject to the Law. “Luke 2:21. The circumcision is the bloody cutting off of the foreskin of the infant Jesus on the eighth day.” [13]

4. Education; according to which Christ also subjected Himself to the laws of domestic life. “The education was His becoming accustomed, in boyhood, to the mode of life customary in Israel, and to a manual occupation.” [14]

5. The visible intercourse of Christ in the world; by which He exposed Himself to all kinds of ill treatment from those who surrounded Him, and to all the discomforts of a lowly life. “The intercourse of Christ was His most holy association, in the days of His flesh, with all kinds of men, even the most contemptible, an association full of troubles, inconveniences, and dangers.” [15]

6. The great suffering; the bodily and mental anguish which Christ endured in the last days of His earthly life. “The great suffering of Christ is the extreme anguish which our Redeemer suffered toward the end of His life, two days before His death, partly in His soul, partly in His body, by enduring to the end the most extreme and bitter sorrows.” [16]

7. The Death of Christ. “The death of Christ is His loss of life through the dissolution of the natural union of body and soul.” [17]

8. The Burial. “The burial of Christ was the placing of the body of our Redeemer, who had died upon the cross, in a new tomb, in demonstration of the truth of His death.”

II. THE STATE OF EXALTATION. — This begins with the return of Christ to life, [18] and exhibits itself to the lower world by the descent, to this world by the resurrection and ascension, attaining its completion in the session at the Right Hand of God the Father. [19]

1. The Descent to the Lower World. After Christ had been again restored to life, and before He had given to men in His resurrection from the dead the proof that He was alive, [20] He descended to hell (1 Pet. 3:18-20; Col. 2:15), and exhibited Himself there to Satan and the condemned spirits as the victor over death and Satan, and as Lord over death and life. [21] This descent of Christ into hell is, accordingly, not to be understood in a figurative sense, as if thereby only the greatness of the pains which Christ endured for the sake of men were indicated; or, as if thereby merely the benefits which were secured for men by the sufferings and death of Christ were set forth, namely, that men were freed from hell by them; but it is to be understood literally as a real descent into hell. [22] We are therefore to regard the whole Christ as being for awhile in hell; the act of descending is, however, to be predicated only of the human nature, since the divine nature, as filling all things, is, aside from this, to be understood as entirely present everywhere. [23] (1 Pet. 3:18-20; Eph. 4:9.)

HOLL. (777): “The Descent of Christ to the lower world is the true, real, and supernatural movement by which Christ, having been freed from the chains of death and restored to life, in His entire person betook Himself to the lower regions, that He might exhibit Himself to the evil spirits and to condemned men as the conqueror of death.” [24]

2. The Resurrection. After His descent to hell, three days after His death, Christ appears again upon earth to a small circle of intimate friends. Along with death, however, He had laid aside also the weaknesses and infirmities of human nature, and this is now in a glorified condition. Through the resurrection He has proven Himself conqueror of death and the devil, and, without it, our faith would be vain. (1 Cor. 15:14.)

HOLL. (779): “The resurrection is the act of glorious victory by which Christ, the God-man, through the same power as that of God the Father and the Holy Spirit, brought forth His body, reunited with the soul and glorified, from the tomb, and showed it alive to His disciples, by various proofs, for the confirmation of our peace, fellowship, joy, and hope in our own future resurrection.” [25]

3. The Ascension. After Christ had shown Himself to His disciples as one raised from the dead, He ascended to heaven, i.e., His human nature also betook itself into heaven, where it had not yet been. (Acts 1:9; Luke 24:51.)

HOLL. (784): “The ascension is the glorious act of Christ by which, after having been resuscitated, He betook Himself, according to His human nature, by a true, real, and local motion, according to His voluntary determination (per liberam oeconomiam), and in a visible manner unto the clouds, and thence in an invisible manner into the common heaven of the blessed, and to the very throne of God; so that, having triumphed over His enemies, He might occupy the kingdom of God (Acts 3:21), reopen the closed Paradise (Rev. 3:7), and prepare a permanent inheritance for us in heaven (John 14:2).” [26]

4. The Sitting at the Right Hand of God. This expression signifies the assumption, on the part of the human nature of Christ, of the full divine glory and dominion; for not until His ascension did the human nature of Christ assume, in all its extent, the real exercise of all the divine glory from which it had refrained in the state of humiliation. (Heb. 1:13; Eph. 1:20-22; Mark 16:19; Rom. 8:34; Rev. 3:21.)

HOLL. (786): “The sitting at the right hand of God is the highest degree of glory, in which Christ, the God-man, having been exalted, as to His human nature, to the throne of divine majesty, most powerfully and by His immediate presence governs all things which are in the kingdom of power, grace, and glory, for the glory of His own name, and for the solace and safety of the afflicted Church.” [27]

[1] HOLL. (765): “Although in an ecclesiastical and figurative sense the incarnation is sometimes said to be a self-renunciation (‘where it is employed in reference to the kind inclination by which the λογος inclined Himself to pity and assist us, and, descending from heaven, deigned to assume human nature. This self-renunciation, figuratively and in an ecclesiastical sense so termed, is called the humiliation of incarnation, GRH., III, 562’), yet properly speaking, and in accordance with scriptural usage, the incarnation must not be called self-renunciation (exinanitio). For (1) self-renunciation is predicated of the incarnate (ενσαρκος) Son of God, or Christ, the God-man; incarnation, of the not yet incarnate (ασαρκος) Son of God; (2) when the self-renunciation is removed by exaltation, the state of incarnation remains.”

[2] HOLL. (767): “Christ was humbled (exinanitus est) according to His human nature considered in the personal union.” Id.: “The subject (of the humiliation) is the human nature alone, but considered in the union; for (1) since the divine nature is immutable and most perfect, it cannot be exalted and humbled; (2) the self-renunciation extended even to the death of the cross, Phil. 2:8, and the divine nature neither died nor was crucified.”

[3] CHMN. (de duab. nat., 216): “Neither was it only after His resurrection that the entire fulness of the divine nature began to dwell bodily in Christ; as though, after the occurrence of the hypostatic union in conception and before the ascension, and sitting at the right hand, either any empty vacancy or partialness of divine nature dwelt bodily in Christ; or as though the hypostatic union or personal indwelling of the entire fulness of the Godhead, in the assumed nature of Christ, became in the process of years constantly greater, more intimate, fuller, and more complete: for, from the first moment of the hypostatic union, the entire fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, or, in other words, in the flesh, or assumed nature, of Christ.”

HOLL. (765): “The self-renunciation of Christ consists formally . . . not in the entire abdication or abandonment of divine majesty, . . . for (1) this could not have occurred without a dissolution of the personal union; for, since it is a perfect and inner union, it cannot exist without an impartation of natures and properties; (2) during the state of self-renunciation Christ sometimes produced remarkable proofs of the divine majesty dwelling in His flesh (John 2:1 sq.), although He exercised this majesty very rarely, and, as it were, extraordinarily.”

[4] HOLL. (765): “Self-renunciation does not consist in the mere concealment or hiding of divine majesty;” for, (1) self-renunciation does not pertain to Christ in His exaltation, although there pertains to Him in that state a hiding of majesty, 1 Cor. 1:7; (2) the hiding of gifts is not true self-renunciation, just as when the sun, when covered by clouds, has not been truly darkened; although we do not deny that Christ concealed the possession of communicated majesty and did not everywhere exert it.”

[GRH. III, 575; “1. If by κρυψις, or hiding, there be understood a simulation, we deny that the self-renunciation should be thus described: because there was a true and real self-renunciation, embracing both αρσις, i.e., abstaining from the use, not of just any, but of the plenary communicated, divine majesty and virtue, which the apostle calls κενωσις; and θεσις, i.e., the assumption of a servile form, and extreme humiliation, which the apostle joins to the κενωσις. Just as, on the other hand, exaltation embraces both αρσις, viz., the laying aside of the form of a servant and human infirmities, which Christ had spontaneously assumed, and θεσις, viz., the full use and administration of dominion in the entire universe, all of which are ascribed to Christ not feignedly or κατα φαντασμα, but truly. 2. κρυψις can be referred both to the communication of majesty, and to the employment of communicated majesty. In the former respect it is rightly so-called, because the divine majesty was hid in the assumed flesh, but not separated from it; and all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are said to be hid in Him, Col. 2:3. In the latter respect, it was not only κρυψις, but true and real κενωσις, as the assumption of the servile form, which Christ afterwards laid aside in exaltation, shows.”]

[5] CHMN. (de duab. nat., 216): “Self-renunciation, therefore, does not signify a deprivation, removal, despoiling, putting off, casting aside, laying down, removal, want, absence, defect, destitution, or vacancy of the fulness of the Godhead, which, from the very moment of conception, dwelt in Christ bodily. But it respects its use or employment, because, being covered by weakness during the time of self-renunciation, it did not always shine in and through the human nature of Christ, and through it fully and clearly exercise itself; for, for a short time withdrawing and withholding from activity and divine virtue present and dwelling bodily in the human nature, and through the human nature of Christ, as Ambrose says, He permitted His natural properties and other assumed infirmities to prevail, predominate, and exercise themselves, as if alone in His human nature. Yet, lest any one, because of the self-renunciation of this employment, should imagine the absence and defect of the very fulness of the divine nature in the humanity of Christ, He, in the very time of self-renunciation, whenever He wished, showed that this fulness dwelt in His flesh; and, in the very time of His self-renunciation, whenever and as far as He wished, He exercised, manifested, and employed its use by means of His assumed nature. Thus in miracles He manifested His glory.” . . .

HOLL. (765): Self-renunciation “consists in the abdication of the full and uninterrupted use of divine majesty, the assumption of the form of a servant, likeness to other men, and the most humble obedience.”

The detailed description of the state of humiliation is given by HOLL. (766): “Four requisites must be combined in order to describe fully the self-renunciation of Christ: (1) κενωις” (“intermission, withholding, restraining of the full activity, of the constant and universal divine majesty and excellence really imparted to Christ as a man,” QUEN. (III, 334)); “(2) λεψις μορφης δουλου, the taking upon Himself the condition of a servant, for Christ was treated and sold in the manner of a servant, and endured a servant’s punishment; (3) ομοιωσις ανθρωπων, likeness to the lower and meaner class of men, especially to the Israelites, in His birth, circumcision, ablactation, His trade as a carpenter, His intercourse, and mode of life; (4) ταρεινωσις υποτακτικη, most humble, active, and passive obedience.”

The Dogmaticians find the state of humiliation described in Phil. 2:5-8. The particular phrases occurring in this passage are thus explained by them: “Μορφη θεου formally and accurately denotes not the divine essence itself, but properly the glorious divine condition, or the glory and universal use of divine majesty, which cannot exist except with a true Godhead, but presuppose the same in the same person.” (QUEN., III, 333.) CHMN. (de duab. nat., 133): “A μορφη is when a nature or essence is considered as endowed, and clothes, and furnished as it were, with properties, attributes, and conditions, either divine or human.” QUEN. (III, 333): “Εν μορφη θεου υπαρχων. The particle υπαρχων is here very emphatic, showing (1) that Christ did not take upon Himself the μορφη θεου (as it is said that He took upon Himself the μορφη δουλου), but that He existed in it; (2) that with the μορφη θεου, Christ is said to have truly possessed at the same time a divine essence and nature; . . . (3) that Christ Jesus, when He had taken upon Himself the μορφη δουλου, neither laid aside the divine nature itself, nor in any way resigned the μορφη θεου, but that He did not entirely and fully exercise it, and did not make an ostentatious display of it, but rather that in the form of a servant He ministered to other men, yet in such a way as always to remain υπαρχων εν μορφη θεου.” HOLL. (766): “Ὀυχ ορπαγμου ηγησατο το ειναι ισα θεω.’ He did not judge that a public display of the majesty of the almighty and omnipresent God would have the form of robbery, but He held the same secretly, and only when it seemed good to Him sent forth some rays of His form as God. ‘Ισα θεω,’ to act as though equal in glory and majesty to God. ‘Εαυτον ενενωσε,’ by not shedding forth His imparted majesty, but restraining and withholding its full and universal use. ‘Μορφη δουλου’ is not human nature, which Christ, the God-man, not only assumed but possessed, and which by His exaltation He did not lay aside; but it is the state of a servant and a humble condition.” QUEN. (II, 335) explains the whole passage thus: “That Christ, from the very first moment of incarnation, could have exercised to its fullest extent the divine glory and majesty imparted to Him according to His human nature, and have acted as God, but that He withheld Himself from its full use, and showed Himself humble, and became obedient to His Heavenly Father, even to the death of the cross.”

[6] HOLL. (767): “Generally speaking, Christ in the state of self-renunciation abstained from the full, universal, and incessant use of eternal glory, imparted through the personal union to His assumed flesh. John 17:5.” (Concerning this passage it is observed: “Glorification does not denote (a) the granting of the possession of glory, for Christ as man already possessed infinite glory before, John 1:14; nor (b) its special employment, which He manifested in certain miracles; (c) but it denotes the enthronization and introduction of Christ as man into His kingdom, which He is to administer with Almighty power.”) “Specifically, He suspended and withheld the use of omnipotence (the exercise of which would have hindered Christ’s suffering and death of satisfaction for our sins), of omniscience (for He was truly ignorant of the day of final judgment, Matt. 24:36, the barrenness of the figtree, Matt. 21:19, the burial place of Lazarus, John 11:34), of the most abundant wealth (inasmuch as He became poor for us, 2 Cor. 8:9; Matt. 8:20), of omnipresent dominion (John 11:21), and religious worship (inasmuch as He became less than the angels, Heb. 2:7).”

GRH. (III, 575) develops the practical side of this doctrine, on the basis of 2 Cor. 8:9: “Christ was rich, because of the true and real communication of divine attributes to the flesh, Col. 2:9; He was rich, because given a name above every name, Heb. 1:4; He was rich, because of the power communicated to govern heaven and earth, Matt. 28:18; He was rich, because of His participation in infinite and divine knowledge, Col. 2:3, and because of the subjection of all things, Matt. 11:26; John 3:35. With these riches, Christ was endowed from the first moment of incarnation, as is shown by the personal union, the working of miracles, and every special demonstration of this majesty and power. But He became poor by His self-renunciation, humiliation, assumption of the form of a servant; hence, as a child of poverty, He is born in a stable, rest in the lap of a poor mother, lies in a poor hut, receives presents of gold from the magi, is presented to the Lord with the offering of doves — gifts of the poor, is brought up in poverty in the home of His parents, is regarded the son of a poor carpenter, experiences poverty in fasting, is without a home of His own, is stripped of His vesture on the cross, and at length is laid in the sepulchre of another — all of which pertain to the poverty and self-renunciation of Christ. But by this poverty, He has made us rich. Just as, by His death, He bought for us life, so by His poverty, He has restored to us heavenly riches; and hence, His poverty is described to us as a ground for our joy, Zech. 9:9. The poverty of Christ has earned for us our patrimony, our property in life, our passage money (viaticum) in death, heavenly riches.” Then, on Phil. 2:5: “1. The example: ‘Thou shouldst deign to be humble for God’s sake, since God deigned to be humble for they sake.’ (Augustine.) Christ, without whom nothing was made, humbled Himself, so as to seem almost nothing, while thou boastest immensely, and thinkest thyself something when thou art nothing. How absurd and preposterous it is for the highest sublimity to be humbled, and the lowest worthlessness to want to extol itself! 2. As Christ humbled Himself, God exalted Him; so thou wilt not attain to a lofty station, unless by the path of humility. αριστη οδος υψωσεως η ταπεινωσις. (Bernard.) As Christ, by His divine nature, was incapable of growth, but by His descent, He found that whereby He could grow; so it is only by humility that an entrance to what is high shall open to thee.”

[7] HOLL. (775): “Exaltation (υπερυψωσις, Phil. 2:9; δοξασις, John 17:5; στεφανωσις, Heb. 2:9; ενθρωνισμος, Heb. 8:1), actively taken, is defined as the solemn enthronization and inauguration of the revived Christ to the full and perfect employment of the heavenly government and the rule of heaven and earth, especially of the Church.”

QUEN. (III, 368): “The form of exaltation consists in the laying aside of the servile condition or the form of a servant, and in the full, universal, and uninterrupted employment of the divine majesty, received in the personal union and possessed during the period of self-renunciation. (For in exaltation there was not given to Christ new power, virtue, or majesty, which He did not have before, but there was only conferred upon Him the full power of administering His kingdom, which He had received through the union itself.”

The principal passage in which the State of Exaltation is described is (besides Ps. 8:6, 7; 110:4; Heb. 2:7; Acts 5:31) the same before referred to viz., Phil. 2:9-11. HOLL. (775): “(a) The particle διο does not denote a meritorious conferring, but a consequence in order. The διο being often cited to prove that by His humiliation, Christ procured merit for Himself, GRH., III, 584, argues that such doctrine would conflict with: 1. The dignity of Christ’s person, since, at the very first moment of the incarnation, the human nature was brought into the very person of the Logos, than which nothing higher in glory and dignity can be imagined, Heb. 1:5. 2. The truth of the communication of truly divine gifts. 3. The quality of His merit. For whatever Christ merited in His office, He merited for us, Is. 45:24; Zech. 9:9; John 17:19; 1 Tim. 1:15; 1 Cor. 1:30. 4. The worship due Him in the days of the flesh. For if it were only after the exaltation that worship was due Him, then in the days of His flesh such was not due; and yet often He did not refuse such worship when offered Him. As to the meaning of διο: 1. The humiliation is not described as the meritorious cause of the exaltation, but the exaltation is described as the consequent profit attending the humiliation. For the particles διο and δια τουτο do not always and everywhere denote the meritorious cause of a thing, but sometimes also the final cause, and more frequently the consequence, whereby one thing is concluded from another. Cf. Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5; Mark 7:29; Rom. 2:1; 2 Cor. 4:13; 6:17; Eph. 4:8, 25; Heb. 1:9. 2. Compare the parallel passage, Luke 24:29. The order, therefore, was divinely appointed, that Christ by His passion, and after His passion, should enter into glory. Heb. 2:9, 10, where δια το παθημα, δαα παθηματων, cannot refer to a meritorious cause. The διο, compounded of the pronoun ο and the proposition δια must be rendered wherefore, so that the order and consequence, but not the effect of the merit, are indicated. 4. Χαριζεσαι, “to give gratuitously,” excludes the idea of merit. 5. The scope of the argument is not to inculcate confidence in merit, but to commend the pursuit of humility, so that we may expect from God the gratuitously bestowed advantages consequent upon humility. (b) The bestower of glory is God the Father, John 17:7; Rom. 6:4.” (Yet only by way of pre-eminence, as the original source; otherwise, it is an act of the entire Trinity, and we can also say, “The Son raised Himself from the dead.” John 2:19.) “(c) υπερυψωσις, following self-renunciation and humiliation, . . . implies, in place of the emptying of the form of God, the full employment of the form of God; in place of the hiding of those things which are equal with God, their public manifestation; in place of the assumption of the form of a servant, the laying aside of the same, and the administration of universal dominion. (d) The giving of a name above every name, marks the conferring of the highest glory, than which none that is more lofty can be named, and which, with respect to its fullest use, has been presented to Christ by means of exaltation. (e) The consequence of the glory bestowed is the subjection of all creatures, represented by the bowing of the knee. Ps. 97:7; Rev. 5:13; John 14:13; James 2:19; 10:17. What was said of the humiliation is equally true of the exaltation, viz.: “(1) That this term is not employed in an ecclesiastical sense, for the bringing up of humanity into the person of the λογος, and therefore, as a consequence, the impartation of divine grounds of glorying (αυχηματα);” but “in a biblical sense, as it denotes the universal glorification of Christ, who has been freed from death;” (2) That the exaltation has reference only to the human nature of Christ.

CHMN. (de duab. nat., 218) thus contrasts the terms, incarnation, humiliation, and exaltation: “Accordingly it is from this also manifest, that a confusion of articles of faith cannot occur, but that they are and remain distinct, and that each contains something peculiar to itself. For in incarnation there occurred a hypostatic union of the Godhead of the λογος, with assumed humanity, in which the whole fulness of the Godhead dwelt personally from the first moment of conception. But by reason of self-renunciation, its employment and manifestation were for a time postponed, and, as it were, suspended, so that it did not exercise itself through the assumed humanity immediately and always. Moreover, by the ascension, infirmities being laid aside and self-renunciation removed, He left the mode of life according to the conditions of this world, and departed from the world. Moreover, by sitting at the Right Hand of God, He entered upon the full and public employment and display of the power, virtue, and glory of the Godhead, which, from the beginning of the union, dwelt personally in all its fulness in the assumed nature; so that He no longer, as in self-renunciation, withholds, withdraws, and, as it were, hides Himself, but clearly, manifestly, and gloriously exercises it in, with, and through the assumed human nature.”