938. 22:4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. This symbolically means that they will turn to the Lord and the Lord to them, being conjoined by love.

To see the face of God and the Lamb, or the face of the Lord, does not mean to see His face, because no one can see the Lord's face such as He is in His Divine love and wisdom and live, for He is the sun of heaven and of the whole spiritual world. Indeed, to see His face as He is in Himself would be like entering the sun and being consumed in a moment by its fire. Nevertheless, the Lord sometimes presents Himself to be seen outside of the sun, but He veils Himself then and so presents Himself to those who see Him, which He does by means of an angel, as He did also in the world when He appeared to Abraham, Hagar, Lot, Gideon, Joshua, and others. That is why those angels are called angels and also Jehovah, for Jehovah was present in them from afar.

[2] Here, however, that His servants will see His face does not mean that they will see His face in this way, but that they will see the truths from Him contained in the Word and will know and acknowledge Him by means of them. For the Divine truths in the Word provide the light that emanates from the Lord as a sun, the light which angels enjoy, and because those truths provide the light, they are like mirrors in which the face of the Lord is seen. That to see the Lord's face symbolically means to turn to Him, will be explained below.

The Lord's name being on the servants' foreheads means, symbolically, that the Lord loves them and turns them to Him. The Lord's name symbolizes the Lord Himself, because it symbolizes His every attribute by which He is known and in consequence of which He is worshiped (nos. 81, 584). The forehead symbolizes love (nos. 347, 605), and being written on the forehead symbolizes the Lord's love in them (no. 729). It can be seen from this what is properly meant by the statement here.

[3] The statement, moreover, symbolically means that they will turn themselves to the Lord and the Lord to them, because the Lord gazes upon the forehead of all those who are conjoined with Him by love and so turns them to Him. Consequently, in heaven angels turn their faces only to the Lord as the sun, and this is astonishingly the case in whatever direction they turn physically. So people say in common speech that they have God ever before their eyes. The same is the case with the spirit of a person living in the world and conjoined with the Lord by love. But regarding this turning of the face to the Lord, more accounts may be seen in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 129-144 and in the book Heaven and Hell (London, 1758), nos. 17 123, 143, 144, 151, 153, 255, 272.

729. 17:5 And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Whoredoms and Abominations of the Earth. This symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion such as it is interiorly, which is concealed, that from its origin, springing from a love of exercising dominion from a love of self over the sanctities of the church and over heaven, thus over everything connected with the Lord and His Word, it defiled and profaned things having to do with the Word and so with the church.

To be written on the forehead means, symbolically, to be deep-seated in the love, for the forehead symbolizes the love (nos. 347, 605). Mystery means symbolically that it is inwardly concealed. Babylon the Great symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion and its whole character, as said in no. 717 above. Whoredoms symbolize adulterations of the Word's goodness and truth (nos. 719-721), and also defilings of them, as in no. 728 just above. Abominations symbolize profanations of the church's sanctities, as also in no. 728 above. The earth symbolizes the church (no. 285). Consequently the mother of whoredoms and abominations of the earth symbolizes the origin of these.

Now because these words were written on her forehead, and to be written on the forehead means, symbolically, to be deep-seated in the love, and because the love in Roman Catholics is a love of exercising dominion from a love of self over everything connected with the church and over heaven, thus over everything connected with the Lord and His Word, therefore the symbolic meaning is as stated.

[2] It can be seen from this that "on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Whoredoms and Abominations of the Earth," symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion such as it is interiorly, which is concealed, that from its origin, springing from a love of exercising dominion from a love of self over the sanctities of the church and over heaven, thus over everything connected with the Lord and His Word, it defiled and profaned things having to do with the Word and so with the church.

That their love is a love of exercising dominion over everything connected with the church is something people know from the jurisdiction they claim they have over people's souls and over everything connected with their worship. They know that it is a love of exercising dominion over heaven from the power they have appropriated of loosing and binding, and thus of opening and closing. ¹ They know that it is a love of exercising dominion over everything connected with the Lord from the Vicariate, by which they attribute to themselves all that is the Lord's. They also know that it is a love of exercising dominion over everything connected with the Word from their reserving its interpretation for themselves alone.

We say that their love of exercising dominion comes from a love of self because possible also is a love of exercising dominion from a love of performing useful services. These two loves are diametrically opposite each other. That is because a love of exercising dominion from a love of self is diabolical, for it has regard for self only and for the world in the service of self. In contrast, a love of exercising dominion from a love of performing useful services is heavenly, for it has regard for the Lord, from whom emanate only useful endeavors, and useful endeavors to it are to do good to the church for the salvation of souls. This latter love consequently abhors a love of exercising dominion from a love of self.

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