10203. 'Incense shall be continual before Jehovah' means in all worship springing from love received from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'incense' as worship springing from love, dealt with in 9475; from the meaning of 'continual' as all and within all, dealt with in 10133; and from the meaning of 'before Jehovah' as from the Lord, dealt with in 10146. The expression 'worship springing from love received from the Lord' is used because both faith and love, the essential elements of worship, come from the Lord, and also the raising up to the Lord of everything of worship is done by Him. The person who has no knowledge of the arcana of heaven supposes that worship comes from himself since he thinks about and pays homage to the Lord. But worship which comes from a person himself is not worship; only that which comes from the Lord with a person is such. For love and faith compose worship, and since love and faith come from the Lord worship too comes from Him. Nor is a person able to raise anything from himself up to heaven; it is the Lord who raises it. Within the person there is solely the capacity for this to happen, which he is endowed with when being regenerated, 6148; but all the motive force and energy of that capacity come from the Lord.

Life itself comes from the Lord, and men and angels are recipient forms, see 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.

6480. As the subject here is the influx of the Lord indirectly by way of heaven and from Himself directly, and as this activity is more appropriately called Providence - for the Lord does not flow merely into a person's will and thought but also at the same time into the multitude of things that happen to him - let such activity be called Providence in what now follows below.