10298. 'And you shall make this an incense' means worship consisting of them. This is clear from the meaning of 'incense' as acts of thanksgiving, adoration, prayer, and like forms of worship, which are emanations from the heart passing into thought and speech, dealt with in 9475. By 'the smoke of the incense' a raising up is meant, 10177, 10198, and by 'a sweet odour' a perception and reception that are pleasing, in the places referred to in 10292.

[2] Since the worship of God, meant by 'sweet-smelling incense', is described here, and the spices from which that incense was made mean different kinds of truth in their proper order, what that worship is like must be stated briefly here. But it is impossible to reveal this arcanum without knowledge of the nature of the human being. The human being is a human being not by virtue of his face, nor indeed by virtue of his speech, but by virtue of his understanding and will. The character of understanding and will make a human being what he is. It is well known that at birth nothing constituting his understanding nor anything composing his will exists, and that from earliest childhood his understanding and his will are being formed gradually. In this way he is made a human being, and the kind of human being he becomes is determined by the character of those two powers of mind that have been formed in him. The understanding is formed by means of truths and the will by means of forms of good, so much so that his understanding is nothing other than a mass of ideas such as are related to truths, and his will nothing other than an affection for things such as are called good. From this it follows that nothing else than the truth and the good from which both his powers of mind have been formed constitute the human being.

[3] All the individual parts of his body correspond to them, as may be recognized from the consideration that the body acts instantaneously in response to what the understanding thinks and the will intends. For his mouth speaks in conformity with his thoughts, his face alters in conformity with his affections, and his body makes movements in conformity with the signals received from both. From this it is evident that the character of a person's understanding and will, thus what he is like in respect of truths and forms of good there, make him wholly and completely what he is. For as has been stated, truths constitute the understanding part of his mind and forms of good the will part, or what amounts to the same thing, his truth and his good constitute the human being.

[4] This is plainly apparent in the case of spirits. They are nothing other than their own truths and forms of good, which they took to themselves when they were people living in the world. But they are still human forms, and therefore the character of the truths and forms of good that are theirs shines from their faces; it is also revealed in their tone of voice and the feeling in what they say, in their gestures, and most of all in the words they use when they speak. For the words composing their speech are not like those used by people in the world but are in complete harmony with the truths and forms of good that reside with them, in such complete harmony that they flow naturally from them. This kind of speech is what spirits and angels use when they talk to one another. As to his spirit a person uses something similar while living in the world, though he is unaware of doing so then. For his thought consists of ideas of this type, as has also been observed by certain learned people who have termed those ideas immaterial and intellectual. Those ideas become words after death, when the person becomes a spirit. From all this it is again evident that nothing else than his truth and his good constitute the human being. Consequently after death he continues to be the kind of person that his truth and good have made him. The words 'the kind that his truth and good have made him' should be taken to mean also the kind that his falsity and evil have made him; for people who are bad call falsity truth, and evil they call good.

[5] This arcanum is what people must be fully aware of if they are to have any knowledge of what the worship of God is like. But in addition to this, another needs to be known, namely that the entire person is present within every idea emanating from the person's will. This also follows from the first, for what a person thinks springs from the truth and what he wills from the good that constitute him. This may be seen to be so from the following experience, that when angels perceive one idea a person has, or one idea a spirit has, they know instantly the character of that person or this spirit.

[6] These things have been stated in order that people may know what the worship of God, meant by the incense consisting of the spices, is like, namely that the entire person is present within every single part of his worship, because the truth and good constituting him are present within it. This is the reason why the four spices are mentioned, by which all the levels of truth in their entirety are meant. From this it also follows that it amounts to the same thing whether you say that the worship of God consists of these levels of truth and good or you say that the person consists of them; for as has been stated, the entire person is present within all the particular ideas which compose his thought and constitute his worship.

4748. 'And their camels carrying spices, and resin' and stacte' means interior natural truths. This is clear from the general meaning of 'camels' as things belonging to the natural man which serve the spiritual, and from their specific meaning as general facts within the natural man, dealt with in 3048, 3071, 3114, 3143, 3145, 4156; and from the meaning of 'spices, resin, and stacte' as interior natural truths joined to the good there, which are dealt with below. Among the ancients, sweet smelling and fragrant substances were used in their sacred worship; from these substances they obtained their frankincense and incense, similar substances being mixed with oil for their anointings. But no one today knows why those fragrances were used, for the reason that no knowledge at all exists of the fact that all aspects of the worship of the ancients had their origin in the spiritual and celestial things existing in heaven, or that those aspects of it corresponded to these. Mankind has been removing itself so far from spiritual and celestial things, immersing itself in natural, worldly, and bodily ones, that it lives in obscurity, many people having a negative attitude of mind to the existence of anything spiritual or celestial.

[2] The reason frankincense and incense were used among the ancients in sacred acts of worship is that 'odour' corresponds to perception, and 'a fragrant odour' - like that of the aromas which various kinds of spices have - to a pleasing and acceptable perception, as is the perception of truth derived from good, or of faith from charity. Indeed the correspondence of one to the other is such that, as often as it pleases the Lord, actual perceptions in the next life are converted into odours. Regarding these, see what has already been told from experience in 925, 1514, 1517-1519, 3577, 4624-4634. What specifically is meant here by 'spices, resin, and stacte' may be seen from other places where these three are mentioned. In general they mean interior truths within the natural, but those truths which are derived from the good there; for truths do not on their own constitute the natural, but good does by means of truths. Consequently variations exist, conditioned by what the truth joined to the good is like and therefore by what the good is like, since the particular nature of the good depends on what the truths are like.

[3] 'Gilead' means exterior good like that belonging to the senses, called pleasure, 4117, 4124, while 'Egypt' in the good sense means facts, which are the external truths of the natural man that correspond to, that is, are in accord with, that good, 1462. Therefore the reference to Ishmaelites from Gilead bringing down those aromatic commodities on camels to Egypt means bringing their own interior truths, based on their own facts, to the facts meant by 'Egypt', which matters are dealt with below. Interior truths are conclusions based on exterior truths, that is, on facts; for the facts belonging to the natural man are the means that enable conclusions to be drawn about interior truths and thereby to identify them, just as a person identifies another's state of mind in his facial expressions and in the twinkling of light in his eyes, as well as in his tone of voice and his gestures.

[4] Because such truths are the means by which a person's natural is made more perfect and also receives correction, healing is therefore associated with spices of this kind - with resin, for example, in Jeremiah,

Is there no balsamic resin in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why has not the healing of the daughter of my people arisen? Jeremiah 8:22.

In the same prophet,

Go up to Gilead to take resin, O virgin daughter of Egypt! In vain you have multiplied medicaments; there is no healing for you. Jeremiah 46:11.

In the same prophet,

Suddenly Babel has fallen and been broken; wail over her! Take resin for her pain; perhaps she will be healed. Jeremiah 51:8.

[5] Wares similar to this mean spiritual things, as is quite evident in John,

The merchants of the earth will weep and will mourn over Babel, that nobody buys their wares any longer, wares of gold and silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel made of most precious wood, and bronze, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and incense, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and draught-cattle, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and the bodies and souls of people. Revelation 18:11-13.

These wares would never have been listed in this specific manner if each and all had not meant the kinds of things that exist in the Lord's kingdom and in His Church. Otherwise they would have been words that had no real meaning. It is well known that 'Babel' means those who turn all worship of the Lord into worship of themselves, so that profanity exists inwardly while outwardly they are doing what is holy. This being so, 'their wares' means the things which, for the sake of worship of themselves, they themselves have invented enthusiastically and skillfully, as well as doctrinal teachings and ideas of good and truth from the Word which they have twisted to suit themselves. Thus the individual wares mentioned in these verses mean specific features of their invention, 'cinnamon, incense, ointment, and frankincense' meaning truths that are derived from good, but with those people perverted truths and falsities that are the products of evil.

[6] Something similar may be seen in what is recorded in Ezekiel regarding the wares of Tyre,

Judah and the land of Israel, they were your traders. Wheat of minnith and pannag, and honey, and oil, and resin, they exchanged for your trading. Ezekiel 27:17.

Here also 'resin' means truth derived from good. To one who has no belief in the internal sense of the Word all these expressions will be mere words and so vessels with nothing in them, when in fact they hold Divine, celestial, and spiritual things within them.