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AR 777

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777. Verse 13. And cinnamon and incense and ointment and frankincense, signifies that they no longer have worship from spiritual goods and truths, because they have nothing within their worship which corresponds to the things here named. In the foregoing verse it treats of all the things that are of the doctrine of the church, but in this verse it treats of all the things which are of the worship of the church. The things which are of doctrine are premised, and those that are of worship follow, because the quality of the worship is from the goods and truths of doctrine; for worship is nothing but an external act, in which there should be the internals, which are of doctrine. Without these the worship is without its essence, life and soul. Now because all the things which are of doctrine have relation to the goods which are of love and charity, and to the truths which are of wisdom and faith, and these goods and truths, according to the degrees of their order, are celestial, spiritual, and natural, so also are all the things of worship. And because in the preceding verse the spiritual things of doctrine are mentioned first, so likewise here the spiritual things of worship, which are "cinnamon, incense, ointment and frankincense;" and the celestial things of worship are named in the second place, which are "wine, oil, fine flour and wheat;" and the natural things of worship are named in the third place, which are "beasts of burden and sheep." That all these goods and truths of worship should be from the Word, is signified by their being "of horses, of chariots, of the bodies and of the souls of men." This is the series of the things in the spiritual sense in this verse. But by all those things which are enumerated in this verse, the like is meant as by those that are enumerated in the preceding verse; that is, that these goods and truths are not with them, because they have not with themselves such things as correspond to them. This is evident from what precedes, where are these words, that "the city of Babylon should be burnt up with fire, and no one should buy her merchandise anymore" (verses 8-11); and from those which follow, where are these words, that "all things fat and splendid had departed from her, and were not found anymore" (verse 14); and that they were devastated (verses 16, 19).
[2] But something shall now be said of the things that have been mentioned, which are cinnamon, incense, ointment, and frankincense. These are mentioned, because they are such things as incense was made of. That the worship of the Lord from spiritual goods and truths is signified by "incense," may be seen above (n. 277, 392); and that incense was pleasing, because it was from fragrant things which correspond (n. 394). All the fragrant things by which it was prepared are meant by the cinnamon, incense, and ointment and their essential by the frankincense. This is manifest from the enumeration of the spices of which it was compounded, in Moses:
Jehovah said unto Moses, Take to thee spices - stacte, onycha, and galbanum - and pure frankincense; and thou shalt make of them incense, an ointment, the work of a perfumer, salted, pure, holy (Exod. 30:34-37).

Of these the incense was made, by which, as was said, worship from spiritual goods and truths was signified. Cinnamon is mentioned here in place of all the spices there. But what each of those spices signifies in the spiritual sense, may be seen in Arcana Coelestia, upon Exodus, where they are severally explained.

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