Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/30

 marvelling, searching for the cause of the revivification of the churches. A downward course does not of itself turn into an upward course. Satan does not let go his hold of man or race of his own will. As in the first century, so in the eighteenth, he could be cast down from his encroachment on heaven by no less power than that of the Son of God, the Word made flesh and dwelling among us.

It was the sign of the Son of Man to be seen again in the clouds of heaven that was to effect the judgment. It was the Lion of the tribe of Judah who alone could prevail to loose the seals of the Book, at once the Book of the Word and the Book of the judgment. The two prophecies are one. In the written Word after the resurrection, as in the flesh transfigured on the mount, the Lord showed Himself to His disciples in glory, Son of God in Son of Man. But in the succeeding centuries, as we have seen, clouds of misinterpretation, the clouds of tri-personalism, of vicarious atonement, and of salvation by faith alone, had hidden His face from men's minds. The dispersion of these clouds, the re-appearance of the face—the grace and truth—of the Son of Man, even