3162. Verses 52-54 And so it was, when Abraham's servant heard their words, that he bowed down to the earth to Jehovah. And the servant brought out vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; and he gave precious things to her brother and to her mother. And they ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and stayed the night; and they rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me to my master.

'So it was, when Abraham's servant heard their words, that he bowed down to the earth to Jehovah' means the perception of joy in the natural man. 'And the servant brought out vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and garments' means truth and good, and the adornment of these. 'And gave them to Rebekah' means which passed at that point to the affection for truth. 'And he gave precious things to her brother' means spiritual things passing from there to natural good. 'And to her mother' means to natural truth also. 'And they ate and drank' means making one's own the good and truth introduced in this way. 'He and the men who were with him' means the things which were in the natural man. 'And they stayed the night' means its peace. 'And they rose up in the morning' means a degree of raising up. 'And he said, Send me to my master' means the affection desiring the joining together.

2146. 'As the day was getting warmer' means generated by love. This is clear from the meaning in the internal sense of 'warmth' as love. And because the word warmth is used either of the day or of the year, love is represented either by the warm part of the day or by the warm part of the year, depending on what is mentioned in the historical narratives. That 'warmth' means love becomes clear from the fact that love is called spiritual warmth and by the fact that even in everyday speech a person's whole affection is meant by his increasing warmness. The same is further clear from the fact that love and its affections show themselves as a type of warmth in man's interiors, and also in his exteriors, and even in his actual bodily parts. Indeed that warmth has no other origin in a person when it is flowing out from his interiors. But as is the nature of the love, so is that of the warmth. Celestial love and spiritual love are what produce genuine warmth. Every other kind of warmth - namely that generated by self-love and love of the world, and so by other filthy loves - is unclean and turns in the next life into excrement, see 1773. Furthermore it should be realized that the expression holiness cannot be used except of love and charity and cannot be used of faith except insofar as love or charity are present within the truths of faith. But for that presence in them the truths of faith are not holy at all. See what has been stated already in 2049.