1151. And ointment and frankincense signifies profaned worship from spiritual love. This is evident from the signification of "ointment," as being the good of spiritual love (of which presently); also from the signification of "frankincense," as being the truth of spiritual good (See n. 491). "Ointment and frankincense" signify spiritual love because the incense offerings were made with these; and the incense offerings signified spiritual love because of the fragrant smoke that went up from the holy fire in the censers. Spiritual love is love towards the neighbor, which makes one with the love of uses. There are two loves of heaven, and thus of the church, from which the Lord is worshipped; celestial love, which is love to the Lord, and spiritual love, which is love towards the neighbor; the former is signified by "cinnamon and perfumes," the other by "ointment and frankincense." Moreover, all worship is from love; the worship that is not from one or the other of these loves is no worship, but only an external act in which there is inwardly nothing of the church. That the incense offerings signified worship from spiritual love may be seen (n. 324, 491-492, 494, 567). Ointment means a compound of aromatics that was used in the incense offerings, as can be seen from these words in Moses:

Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense. And thou shalt make it an incense; an ointment, the work of the perfumer, salted, pure, holy; and thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put it before the testimony in the Tent of meeting where I shall meet with thee; it shall be unto you the holy of holies (Exodus 30:34-37).

Here all these things are called "the ointment of the perfumer." (The particulars are explained in Arcana Coelestia 10289-10308.)

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] There is infernal freedom and there is heavenly freedom. Infernal freedom is that into which man is born from his parents, and heavenly freedom is that into which man is reformed by the Lord. From infernal freedom man has the will of evil, the love of evil, and the life of evil; while from heavenly freedom he has the will of good, the love of good, and the life of good; for as has been said before, a man's will, love and life, make one with his freedom. These two kinds of freedom are opposites of each other, but the opposition is not evident except so far as man is in one and not in the other. But a man cannot come out of infernal freedom into heavenly freedom unless he compels himself. To compel oneself is to resist evil and to fight against it as if from oneself, but still to implore the Lord for help. Thus a man fights from the freedom that is inwardly in him from the Lord against the freedom that is outwardly in him from hell. While he is in the combat it seems to him that it is not freedom from which he fights, but a kind of compulsion, because it is against that freedom into which he was born; and yet it is freedom, since otherwise he would not fight as if of himself.

[3] But this inward freedom from which he fights, which seems like compulsion, is afterwards felt as freedom, for it becomes like what is involuntary, spontaneous, and as it were innate, comparatively like one's compelling his hand to write, to work, to play a musical instrument, or to contend in games, for after a while the hands and arms do these things as if of themselves or spontaneously; for man is then in good because he is then removed from evil and is led by the Lord. When a man has compelled himself to act in opposition to infernal freedom he sees and perceives that infernal freedom is servitude and that heavenly freedom is freedom itself, because it is from the Lord. The essence of the matter is this, that so far as a man compels himself by resisting evils, so far the infernal societies with which he acts as one are removed from him, and he is introduced by the Lord into heavenly societies, with which he acts as one. On the other hand, if a man does not compel himself to resist evils he remains in them. That this is so I have learned through much experience in the spiritual world, and further, that evil does not withdraw in consequence of any compulsion that comes from punishments, or from fear of them afterwards.

491. Having a golden censer, signifies the conjunction of celestial good with spiritual good, and thus the conjunction of the higher heavens. This is evident from the signification of a "censer," as being worship from spiritual good, for such worship was represented by incense from the censers (See above, n. 324). "Having a golden censer" signifies the conjunction of celestial good with spiritual good, because the angel standing at the altar had a censer, and the "altar" signifies worship from celestial good, and "a golden censer" spiritual good from celestial good, "gold" signifying celestial good. The censers that were in use with the Jewish and Israelitish nation were of brass; and the offerings of incense from those censers represented worship from spiritual good, and conjunction at the same time with natural good, for "brass" signifies natural good; so here "a golden censer" signifies the conjunction of celestial good with spiritual good. It also signifies the conjunction of the two higher heavens, because the good of the inmost heaven is celestial good, and the good of the middle heaven is spiritual good; when therefore the conjunction of these goods is mentioned, the conjunction of the heavens is also meant, because the good is what constitutes the heaven. Celestial good is the good of love to the Lord, and it constitutes the highest or inmost heaven; and spiritual good is the good of love towards the neighbor, and it constitutes the heaven next below, which is called the second or middle heaven.

[2] "Frankincense" in the Word signifies spiritual good, the same as the censer that contained it (where the containant is taken for the content), as can be seen in the following passages. In Isaiah:

I have not made thee to serve by a meal-offering, nor wearied thee by frankincense (Isaiah 43:23).

"A meal-offering and frankincense" are mentioned, because the "meal-offering," which was made of fine flour and was therefore bread, signifies celestial good, consequently "frankincense" signifies spiritual good. Both are mentioned because in every part of the Word there is a marriage of good and truth, that is, where it treats of good it also treats of truth, and spiritual good in its essence is truth; this shows that "frankincense" means spiritual good, or the truth of celestial good. This can be seen further from other passages in which "meal-offering" and "frankincense" are mentioned together. Thus in Isaiah:

Causing the meal-offering to ascend, offering frankincense (6 Isaiah 66:3).

[3] In Jeremiah:

They shall offer the whole burnt-offering and the sacrifice, the meal-offering and frankincense (Jeremiah 17:26).

"Burnt-offering" also signifies worship from the good of celestial love, and "sacrifice" worship from the good of spiritual love; these two goods are signified also by "meal-offering and frankincense." The like is true of "meal-offering and incense-offering," for the incense-offering was chiefly of frankincense. In Malachi:

In every place incense is offered to My name, and a clean meal-offering (Malachi 1:11).

In David:

My prayers are accepted as incense before Thee; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening meal-offering (Psalms 141:2).

Therefore:

Oil was poured upon the meal-offering, and frankincense put on it (Leviticus 2:1, 2, 15).

This was done that the meal-offering might represent the conjunction of celestial good and spiritual good, for "oil" signified celestial good, and "frankincense" spiritual good.

[4] So again:

Frankincense was put upon the bread of faces in the tabernacle (Leviticus 24:7);

and this was done on account of the conjunction of the two kinds of good, for the "bread" signified celestial good, and "frankincense" spiritual good; so when the frankincense was put upon the bread the conjunction of the two goods was represented. For the sake of representing the conjunction of celestial good and spiritual good, a table for the bread was placed in the tabernacle, and on the other side an altar for incense offerings was placed.

[5] Where "meal-offering and frankincense" are not mentioned, "oil and frankincense" are mentioned, and "gold and frankincense," since "oil" and "gold," in like manner as "meal-offering," signify celestial good. "Oil and incense" are mentioned in Ezekiel:

Thou hast taken my oil and my incense and hast set them before them (Ezekiel 16:18).

"Gold and frankincense" are mentioned in Isaiah:

All they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and they shall proclaim the praises of Jehovah (Isaiah 60:6).

And in Matthew:

The wise men from the east who came to the newborn Christ opened their treasures, and offered unto Him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:11);

"gold" signifying celestial good, "frankincense" spiritual good, and "myrrh" natural good therefrom, thus the three goods of the three heavens. This makes evident the signification of the angel that was seen at the altar having a golden censer, for the "altar" was representative of celestial good, and the censer was representative of spiritual good, and the two together were representative of the conjunction of celestial good with spiritual good, or what is the same, of the conjunction of the higher heavens, or of the heaven where celestial angels are with the heaven where the spiritual angels are.