688. Fell upon their faces and adored God.- That this signifies, their adoration of the Lord from a most humble heart is evident from the signification of falling upon their faces, as denoting the deepest humiliation of heart, for it is a posture of the body corresponding to humiliation of the heart, thus a posture representative of the humiliation of the whole man. It is adoration of God that flows forth at such times from such a heart, and is various according to the subject which engages the mind.

[2] To fall upon the face before God is the representative gesture of deepest humiliation because the face is the form of man's affections, consequently of the interiors pertaining to his mind (mens) and disposition (animus); for the affections shine forth in the face as in their type, and this is why the face is called the index and image of the mind. When therefore man acknowledges that all things in him are turned away from God, and therefore damned, and that thus he neither is able nor dares look to God, who is holiness itself, and that if he should from himself in such a condition look to Him, he would spiritually die, then a man from such thought and acknowledgment falls upon his face to the earth; and because man's proprium is thus removed, therefore he is then infilled by the Lord, and raised up so as to be able to look to Him.

[3] It is said that they adored God, for the reason that God, in the Word, means the proceeding Divine which is called Divine Truth. And as this Divine is truth in the angels - for they are its recipients, and it constitutes their wisdom - therefore angels, are called gods in the Word, and signify Divine Truths. Also in the Hebrew, God is called Elohim, in the plural, therefore God, in the Word, means the Divine which is with the angels of heaven and men of the church, and which is the proceeding Divine. And because the higher heavens were now in enlightenment and power, on account of the separation of the evil from the good in the lower [parts], and on account of the Last Judgment which was shortly to take place, therefore it is said that they adored God, from which it is evident that the Lord was then with them, for they possessed enlightenment and power from the more intense and powerful influx of the Divine Truth that proceeds from the Lord.

343.Be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. That this signifies [the Lord] as to Divine good, and as to Divine truth, is clear from what has been said and shown above (n.297), namely, that by throne is signified heaven, by Him that sitteth upon the throne the proceeding Divine good, and by the Lamb the proceeding Divine truth, both of them filling the heavens and forming them. Because the Divine good proceeding from the Lord as a sun is received by the angels in His celestial kingdom, and the Divine truth by the angels in the spiritual kingdom, therefore two are mentioned, namely, He that sitteth upon the throne, and the Lamb; but by both, in the internal sense, is meant the Divine proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human, which is the Divine good united with the Divine truth, but in the sense of the letter it is distinguished into two because of reception. The Divine which constitutes heaven, and gives to angels and men love, faith, wisdom, and intelligence, does not proceed directly from the Lord's essential Divine, but by means of His Divine Human, and this Divine that proceeds, is the Holy Spirit (see above, n.183).

[2] Thus it is to be understood that the doctrine of the church teaches, that the Son proceeds from the Father, and the Holy Spirit by the Son, likewise that the Lord's Divine and His Human are not two, but only one person or one Christ; for the Lord's Divine is that which assumed the Human, and which He therefore called His Father; thus He did not call another Divine His Father, which is at this day worshipped in His place for His Father. The proceeding Divine also is what is called the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, and the Paraclete; for it is the holiness of the Spirit, or the holy Divine which the Spirit speaks, and not another Divine, which is worshipped as the third person of the Divinity. That this is the case, all may understand who are in any light of heaven; although from the doctrine of the Trinity, which was given by Athanasius, it is said by many, that the three are one. Let any one examine himself, when he says with the mouth that God is one, whether he does not think of three, when yet there is but one God, and the three names of the Divine are of the one God. Because Athanasius did not understand this, he believed the three names to be three Gods, but as to essence one.

[3] Still, however, it cannot be said that they are one as to essence when something is attributed to one, which is not to the other; for thus the essence is divided; consequently, to each essence is given the name of person. But they are one essence when the three are attributed to one person, namely, the essential Divine, which is called the Father; the Divine Human, which [is called] the Son; and the proceeding Divine, which [is called] the Holy Spirit (as may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 280-310). These things are said [to show] that by Him that sitteth upon the throne, and the Lamb, are not meant two but one, namely, the Lord as to the Divine proceeding.