the disciples did indeed believe the Lord to be the Messiah or Christ, likewise the Son of God, and the prophet of whom it was written in the Word, but still they did not yet believe in Him as God omnipotent, and that Jehovah the Father was in Him. In proportion as they believed Him to be a man, and not at the same time God, His Divine [principle], to which omnipotence belonged, could not become present with them by faith. Faith causes the Lord to be present, but faith in Him as a man only, does not bring His divine omnipotence present; which also is the reason why they cannot be saved, who, at this day in the world, look unto His Human [principle] and not at the same time unto His Divine.
It was from a similar cause that the Lord could not do miracles in His own country, for they there saw Him from infancy, like another man, and therefore could not add to this idea the idea of His divinity, and when this idea is not present, the Lord is indeed present in man, but not with divine omnipotence, for faith causes the presence of the Lord in man according to the quality of the perception concerning Him. The rest man does not acknowledge and so rejects. In order to the Lord's operating anything by faith with man, the presence of His divine [principle] must be in man, and not out of him.
Again, in John: "Many of the multitude believed in Jesus, and said, when Christ shall come, will He do more signs than this man doeth" (vii. 31). In Mark: "These signs shall follow them that believe: in My name they shall cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands upon the sick and they shall recover: and they went forth preaching everywhere, the Lord co-operating, and confirming the Word by signs following" (xvi. 17-20). It is a miraculous and not a saving faith which is there understood. The Jewish nation only believed
