3164. 'And the servant brought out vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and garments' means truth and good, and the adornment of these. This is clear from the meaning in the internal sense of 'vessels of silver, vessels of gold, and garments' - 'silver' meaning truth, see 1551, 2048, and 'gold' good, 113, 1551, 1552. The words 'vessels of silver and vessels of gold' are used because they have reference to the affection for truth, meant here by 'Rebekah'. Indeed regarded in itself truth is nothing else than a vessel or recipient of good, 1496, 1832, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269, 3068. Specifically, by 'vessels of silver' facts are meant since facts are the recipients of truth, and by 'vessels of gold' truths are meant because truths are the recipients of good. But as for 'garments' meaning adornment, this may be seen without explanation.

[2] In ancient times such things used to be given to a virgin at her betrothal. They were given to her because of the representation and the meaningful sign which denoted that 'a betrothed virgin' corresponded to the truth of the Church that was to be joined to good. This also is how the Ancient Church in its earliest days is described in Ezekiel,

When it was the time for falling in love, I clothed you with embroidered cloth, swathed you in fine linen, and covered you with silk, and I adorned you with ornaments, and put bracelets on your hands and a chain on your neck, and I put a jewel on your nose, and earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus were you adorned with gold and silver, and your garments were fine linen, and silk, and embroidered cloth. Ezekiel 16:8-13.

And when the same Church had departed from truth and good it is described in that chapter as follows,

You took some of your garments and made for yourself gaily-decked high places. And for your adornment you took vessels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and you made for yourselves figures of the male. And you took your embroidered garments and covered them. Ezekiel 16:16-18.

From these places it is quite evident that 'silver, gold, and garments' means nothing else than things that are the Church's, that is to say, truth and good, and things that belong to truth and good.

The heart means love. A good heart means love to the Lord and to the neighbor, while a hard or stony heart means the love of self or the world -- riches and things. When the psalmist asks the Lord to search his heart, he wants the Lord to see what it is that he loves. And we are what we love. What we eat may form our earthly body, but it's only temporary, what we love forms our spiritual body, beautiful or ugly as we have chosen. It's interesting to note that the first multi-cellular motion of our embryo is the pulsating that starts in a twist of blood vessel that is to become our heart, and the last motion of our natural body is our heartbeat. It is there for all of our natural life. And of course there is a beating heart in our spiritual bodies when we come to put them on.