Ad omnes Germaniae ecclesias reformatas, piorum, qui sub Zvingliani et Calviniani nominis invidia, vim & iniuriam patiuntur, apologia

perfect God, and perfect man, consisting of a rational soul and human flesh.

Passion and death. We believe and confess that JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God and Mary, was nailed to the cross and, after the most acute pains he endured, truly died and offered a sacrifice of his body and blood for the sins of the whole world, so that he might be our satisfaction, justice, and redemption.

Resurrection. We believe that this very same true God and Man rose from the dead in that very body in which he hung on the cross and which was taken down and buried. He did not pass into a spirit in the resurrection, but retained the human nature he had assumed, the flesh and bones, hands and feet, along with the other limbs and all natural properties, in accordance with the saying: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."

Ascension into heaven. We believe that he ascended into heaven with his body so that he might open for us the way of the Saints, which sin had closed. We say that this Ascension occurred ἐνσάρκον in the flesh, as Irenaeus says, and therefore was truly and historically accomplished. We do not say that he acts any longer in his body on earth, but in heaven, which is the seat of blessed immortality, where (as Peter says) he must be held until the day of the restoration of all things, so that just as he gave us the Holy Spirit as an earnest a pledge or down payment of salvation, his flesh in turn (to use the words of Tertullian) may be our pledge in the heavens, that our flesh will one day be brought up there. Nor do we imagine him to be a captive, or tied against his will or with reluctance to any certain place in heaven.