278. Which are the prayers of the saints. This symbolizes thoughts that are matters of faith springing from affections that are matters of charity in people who worship the Lord in accord with spiritual goods and truths.

Prayers mean matters having to do with faith in people who pour forth prayers, and at the same time matters having do to with charity, since without these, prayers are not prayers but empty sounds.

That saints symbolize people who are impelled by spiritual goods and truths may be seen in no. 173 above.

Burnings of incense are called the prayers of the saints because fragrant aromas correspond to affections for goodness and truth. That is why reference is made so often in the Word to a pleasing aroma or a restful aroma to Jehovah, as in Exodus 29:18, 25, 41, Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17; 2:2, 9, 12; 3:5; 4:31; 6:15, 21; 8:28; 23:13, 18; 26:31, Numbers 28:6, 8, 13; 15:3; 29:2, 6, 8, 13, 36, Ezekiel 20:41, Hosea 14:7.

Prayers called incense have the same symbolic meaning in the following verses in the book of Revelation:

(An angel, standing at the altar,) having a golden censer..., was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar... And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand. (Revelation 8:3-4)

And in the book of Psalms:

Give ear to my voice... My prayers are accepted as incense before You... (Psalms 141:1-2)

7542. 'Onto your heart' means into what is inmost. This is clear from the meaning of 'heart' as that which belongs to a person's will, thus to his love, dealt with in 2930, 3317, 3888, 3889, consequently what is central to the actual life within him; for his love, belonging intrinsically to his will, constitutes that life within him. This is why 'heart' means what is inmost. What is inmost in the case of the good is love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, whereas what is inmost in the case of the evil is self-love and love of the world. The latter is what is meant here; and what is around it, constituting so to speak the surrounding parts, are the evils and falsities that lend support, arranged into order according to the ways in which they support it. In the next life they are brought out into the open in the order in which they have been arranged. First to come forth are those that occupy the outermost surrounding parts, then those that lie further in; and finally what is inmost is revealed. So it is that a person in the next life passes through a large number of states, and that the evil are afflicted in successive stages by scourges or plagues before they are cast into hell, as accords with what has been stated immediately above. What is inmost, which they come to last of all, is hell itself residing with them, for it is the evil that had been central to their love, and so the end which they held in view in everything they did and which in the world they had kept deeply hidden within them.