2153.
'And he bowed down towards the ground' means the expression of humility from the resulting joy. This is clear from the meaning of 'bowing down' as expressing humility. Insofar as all interior affections
have corresponding gestures within external or bodily activity - gestures which are expressions of affections as their own efficient causes, the affection belonging to humility has the corresponding
gesture of bowing downa and also that of prostration. This gesture was clearly a product of joy, for as has been stated, He recognized the perception to be from the Divine. 'The Lord's state of humiliation
when He was in the Human has been referred to in various places already, and in the Lord's Divine mercy is to be referred to further in the present chapter.
Notes
a The printed Latin edition has the
word which means humiliation, but in his rough draft Sw. has a word which means a bowing down.