natural form; while among other glorious bodies
it is manifest that Christ's body shines with greater glory. Hence it
was most fitting for it to be set above all bodies. Thus it is that
on Eph. 4:8: "Ascending on high," the gloss says: "in place and
dignity."

Reply Obj. 1: God's seat is said to be in heaven, not as though
heaven contained Him, but rather because it is contained by Him.
Hence it is not necessary for any part of heaven to be higher, but
for Him to be above all the heavens; according to Ps. 8:2: "For Thy
magnificence is elevated above the heavens, O God!"

Reply Obj. 2: [*Omitted in Leonine edition; see Obj.[2]]

A place implies the notion of containing; hence the first container
has the formality of first place, and such is the first heaven.
Therefore bodies need in themselves to be in a place, in so far as
they are contained by a heavenly body. But glorified bodies, Christ's
especially, do not stand in need of being so contained, because they
draw nothing from the heavenly bodies, but from God through the soul.
So there is nothing to prevent Christ's body from being beyond the
containing radius of the heavenly bodies, and not in a containing
place. Nor is there need for a vacuum to exist outside heaven, since
there is no place there, nor is there any potentiality susceptive of
a body, but the potentiality of reaching thither lies in Christ. So
when Aristotle proves (De Coelo ii) that there is no body beyond
heaven, this must be understood of bodies which are in a state of
pure nature, as is seen from the proofs.

Reply Obj. 3: Although it is not of the nature of a body for it to be
in the same place with another body, yet God can bring it about
miraculously that a body be with another in the same place, as Christ
did when He went forth from the Virgin's sealed womb, also when He
entered among the disciples through closed doors, as Gregory says
(Hom. xxvi). Therefore Christ's body can be in the same place with
another body, not through some inherent property in the body, but
through the assistance and operation of the Divine power.

Reply Obj. 4: That cloud afforded no support as a vehicle to the
ascending Christ: but it appeared as a sign of the Godhead, just as
God's glory appeared to Israel in a cloud over the Tabernacle (Ex.
40:32; Num. 9:15).

Reply Obj. 5: A glorified body has the power to be in heaven or above
heaven, not from its natural principles, but from the beatified soul,
from which