32. Love and faith are first called 'the great lights', then love is called 'the greater light' and faith 'the lesser light'. In reference to love it is said that it will have dominion over the day, and in reference to faith that it will have dominion over the night. Because these are arcana and have become hidden, especially at this end of an epoch, in the Lord's Divine mercy let the whole subject be opened up. The reason they have become hidden, especially at this present end of an epoch, is that now is the close of the age, when love is almost non-existent, and consequently faith too, just as the Lord Himself foretold in the Gospels with these words,

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matthew 24:29.

Here 'the sun' is used to mean love, which is 'darkened', 'the moon' faith which does not give its light, 'the stars' cognitions of faith which fall from heaven, and which are the various 'powers of the heavens'. The Most Ancient Church acknowledged no other faith than love itself; celestial angels as well do not know what faith is except faith which stems from love. Love pervades the whole of heaven, for in the heavens no other life is found except the life that belongs to love. This is the source of all happiness in heaven, a happiness so great that no aspect of it can be described or in any way captured in human concepts. People in whom this love is present love the Lord wholeheartedly. Yet they realize, say, and perceive that all love, thus all life, which belongs exclusively to love, and so all happiness, come from the Lord and nowhere else, and that they derive not one trace of love, life, and happiness from themselves. The Lord's being the source of all love was again represented by the greater light, that is, the sun, at the Transfiguration, for His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as the light, Matthew 17:2. What is inmost is meant by His face, and what emanates from the inmost by His garments. Thus His Divinity is meant by the sun or love, and His Humanity by the light or wisdom coming from love.

493.That he should give [them] with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.- This signifies the conjunction of the heavens with those who were to be separated from the evil, and saved, as is evident from the signification of giving incenses with prayers, as denoting to conjoin the good of the higher heavens, by means of truths, with those who are in worship from spiritual good, concerning which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of all the saints, as denoting those who are in good by means of truths, thus those who are in spiritual good; that these are called saints, may be seen above (n. 204). And from the signification of the golden altar, as denoting the heaven where spiritual good is; for the altar upon which incenses were offered was called the golden altar; and from the signification of "before the throne," as denoting conjunction with heaven. That to be before the throne signifies that conjunction, may be seen above (n. 462, 477, 489).

[2] That these words signify the conjunction of the heavens with those who were to be separated from the evil and saved, is clear also from the series of things in the internal sense, and from the connection of those things which precede with those just stated and those which follow, and also from the signification of the expressions in the internal sense. For the subject treated of in this chapter and in the following chapters is the last state of the church, or its state when its end has come and judgment is at hand. And before that state is described, the separation of those who were to be saved is treated of, all of whom are meant by those sealed on their foreheads, and those clothed in white robes, mentioned in the preceding chapter. And because these were then together in societies, with those who were to be condemned, therefore the means by which they were separated and saved is described in this chapter. The higher heavens were first intimately conjoined with the Lord by Divine influx into celestial good and by means of that into spiritual good, and afterwards, by means of these goods united into one, into the lower parts, where those who were to be saved and those who were to be condemned were together in societies. This influx of the Lord out of the higher heavens was received by those who had lived in good when they were in the world; for they possessed that good, and by means of it they were conjoined to the higher heavens, and thus separated from those who could not receive that influx because they had not lived in good, but in evil, in the world.

[3] This also is meant by the words of the Lord in the Evangelists:

"Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left" (Matthew 24:40, 41; Luke 17:34-36).

This is the order of the things in the internal sense, and their connection with those which both precede and follow; more may be seen concerning this above (n. 413, 418, 419, 426, 489). From these things it is now clear what is the spiritual sense of the words, "that he should give the incenses with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne," namely, the conjunction of the higher heavens with those who were to be separated from the evil, and saved. The prayers with which incenses were to be given, do not mean prayers, but truths from good, by means of which prayers are made, for these are the things in a man which pray, and he is continually in such prayers when he lives according to them. That prayers in the Word mean the truths from good which man possesses, and not the prayers of the mouth, may be seen above (n. 325).