17. It is with no
loss or disparagement therefore of His Divine nature that Christ
suffers in the flesh, but His Divine nature through the flesh descended
into death, that by the infirmity of the flesh He might effect
salvation; not that He might be detained by death according to the law
of mortality, but that He might by Himself in his resurrection open the
gates of death. It is as if a king were to proceed to a prison, and to
go in and open the doors, undo the fetters, break in pieces the chains, the bars, and the bolts, and bring forth and set at liberty the prisoners, and restore those who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death to light and life. The king, therefore, is said indeed to have been in prison, but not under the same condition as the prisoners who were detained there. They were in prison to be punished, He to free them from punishment.