Pots" and other large vessels in the Bible represent facts and factual ideas, which serve as containers for truth the same way pots serve as containers for water or wine. Pots fill their function because they are hard, strong and impervious; facts are also absolute and unchanging, filling their function the same way. And pots must be filled to serve any use, just as facts must be filled with truth to serve any purpose. To some extent this meaning also applies to cups, bowls and other smaller vessels, though it is a little more immediate. Generally you don't fill a cup so you can store a liquid; you fill it to drink it. Smaller vessels then often take more of their meaning from the substance they contain, and in many cases ("cup" and "wine" especially) actually mean the same thing.

1053. Verse 7. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns, signifies manifestation of all things, as is evident without explanation; but what each particular signifies, as "to wonder," "the mystery of the woman," "the scarlet beast," "the seven heads," and "the ten horns," has been told in the preceding pages, and will be further explained in what follows.

(Continuation: the Second Kind of Profanation)

[2] There is another kind of profanation of holy things that those come into who have domination as their end, and regard the holy things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, as means. The Divine order is that heaven and the church, and consequently the holy things of these, be the end, and domination the means for promoting that end. For when holy things are the end and domination the means, the Lord is worshiped and adored; but when domination is the end and holy things the means, instead of the Lord man is worshiped and adored. For the means look to the end as servants look to their master, and the end looks to the means as a master looks to his servants; consequently as a master esteems and loves his servants according to the compliance they render to his will, so a man who has domination as his end esteems and loves the holy things of the Word, of the church, and of worship, according to the compliance they render to his end, which is domination. And on the other hand, as a lord despises and dismisses servants and takes others in their place when they are not subservient to his will, so a man who has domination as his end despises and rejects the holy things of the church, and takes other things in their place when they are not subservient to his end, which is domination.

[3] From this it is clear that in those who have domination as their end, holy things are of no account except so far as they are subservient to the end, and also that they are not holy, but are profane when they are subservient to this end; and for the reason that the end, when it is domination, is the man himself, and as this end is love of self it is the man's own [proprium]; and man's own when viewed in itself is nothing but evil, and indeed is profane, and the end joins to itself the means that they may be as one. In this kind of profanation are all those who are in sacred ministries, and who are seeking by means of the holy things of the church to gain honor and glory, and these and not use, which is the salvation of souls, are what give them joy of heart.