10203. A continual incense before Jehovah. That this signifies in all worship from love from the Lord, is evident from the signification of “incense,” as being worship from love (see n. 9475); from the signification of “continual,” as being all in all (n. 10133); and from the signification of “before Jehovah,” as being from the the Lord, (n. 10146). It is said “worship from love from the Lord,” because both love and faith, which are the essentials of worship, are from the Lord; and also from the Lord is the uplifting of all things of worship to Himself. A man who is not acquainted with the arcana of heaven supposes that worship is from himself, because he thinks and adores; yet the worship which is from man himself is not worship, but that which is from the Lord with man. For love and faith make worship, and as love and faith are from the Lord, worship also is from Him; neither can a man uplift into heaven anything from himself, but the Lord uplifts it; there being in man merely the capacity that this can be done, with which capacity he is endowed during regeneration (n. 6148); but all the activity and life of this capacity are from the Lord. (That life itself is from the Lord, and that men and angels are recipient forms, see n. 1954, 2021, 2536, 2706, 3001, 3318, 3484, 3741-3743, 4151, 4249, 4318-4320, 4417, 4523, 4524, 4882, 5847, 5986, 6325, 6467, 6468, 6470, 6472, 6479, 9338)

2021. For an eternal covenant. That this signifies conjunction with these, is evident from the signification of a “covenant,” as being conjunction (explained before, n. 665, 666, 1023, 1038) and that it is with those who are called his “seed” is evident from its immediately following, and because a “covenant” is spoken of a second time in this verse. The “covenant” first spoken of refers to the union of Jehovah with the Human Essence, and the second mention of a “covenant” refers to the conjunction with those who are the seed. In order that a more distinct idea may be formed concerning the union of the Lord’s Divine Essence with His Human Essence, and concerning the Lord’s conjunction with the human race through the faith of charity, it may be well here and in what follows to call the former Union, but the latter Conjunction. Between the Lord’s Divine Essence and His Human Essence there was a Union; but between the Lord and the human race there is a Conjunction, through the faith of charity, as is evident from the fact that Jehovah or the Lord is Life, and that His Human Essence also was made Life, as shown above, and between Life and Life there is Union. Whereas man is not Life, but a recipient of life, as also has been shown before; and when Life flows into a recipient of life, there is conjunction; for it is adapted to the recipient as is the active to the passive, or as that which is in itself alive to that which is in itself dead, and which lives therefrom. The principal and the instrumental-as they are termed-do indeed appear to be conjoined together as if they were a one, but still they are not a one; for the former is by itself, and the latter is by itself. Man does not live from himself, but the Lord in mercy adjoins man to Himself and thereby causes him to live to eternity; and because the Lord and man are thus distinct, it is called conjunction.