It must be understood that, when the Son says, «No one ascends into heaven, except Him who descended from heaven» (John 3:13), it is only the power of divinity, whence it had come, that is said to be about to ascend—not in the manner in which the same Lord either grants or has promised ascent to the saints. Of these, Enoch (Heb. 11:5) was translated from the earth on account of his merit; Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) was carried up to heaven in a chariot. I pass over that man who (2 Cor. 12:2, etc.)—whether in the body or out of the body I know not, God knows—heard in the threefold secrets of the heights words which it was not lawful for men to utter, because he beheld hidden things which it was not permitted to mortals to gaze upon. But perhaps it seems too little to repeat personal instances concerning the ascent of the faithful.
The Apostle indeed knew the rewards of things to come, when he promised those to whom he wrote (Phil. 3:20) that the conversation of those who live rightly was even now in heaven, where assuredly, after the resurrection of the body, their dwelling too would be kept: just as our Lord also intimates to His disciples in the Gospel of John, saying: «I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will take you to Myself, that where I am, there you also may be» (John 14:2-3). According to which promise the saints are to be in heaven. Will they enter the height of the heavenly kingdom without ascent? And how then, «No one ascends into heaven, except Him who descended from heaven» (John 3:13)?
But because the unchangeable Truth can as little be deceived concerning Himself when He testifies, as He can deceive concerning us when He promises; however many are to be there with Him who shall be glorified, He alone ascends who, being a stranger to it, does not need to be lifted up by another's help. For Him, when He willed, the step of the air was made firm beneath. As He returned whither He had come, that footprint—vibrating with heavenly vigor, corpulent with earthly substance—the yielding air scarcely sustained as it hung suspended. Except for this one alone, therefore, to whom, as I have already often said, this power was supplied through a twofold generation, many are to be in heaven, but none shall ascend. For, so that the divine promise may be fulfilled to the faithful, the height shall be given not to those who ascend, but to those who are to be taken up.
This the Apostle foresaw (1 Thess. 4:15-17), when he forewarned that we should be joined to the Lord, and, being to be forever with Him, should be caught up through a cloud into the air. Moreover, it is easy to understand that he who is carried by another's will does not walk by the proper impulse of his own liberty, who is caught up. Nor should you think that the unwilling are always caught up: grace often shows that its own are caught up. For, as the Gospel testifies (John 6:44), the Father also draws those who come to the Son, and «the heavenly kingdom is snatched by the violent» (Matt. 11:12). Which snatching so makes the saint master of his own desire, that it the more provokes the bounty of God, from whom this is violently wrested.