496. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar. This signifies the conjunction of celestial and spiritual love, as is evident from the signification of a censer, which denotes spiritual good (see above, n. 491); therefore also, spiritual love, since all good is of love; and from the signification of fire of the altar, as denoting celestial love, for fire signifies in the Word love in both senses, that is, celestial love and infernal love. The fire of the altar signifies celestial love, because the altar of burnt-offering, upon which was the fire, was the chief representative of the worship of the Lord from that love, as may be seen above (n. 490). And because this love of the Lord is perpetual, it was therefore appointed that fire should be kept burning continually upon the altar, and that they should take of that fire in the censers, and burn incense, which was done to represent the conjunction of celestial love with spiritual love.

[2] That the fire burned continually upon the altar, is plain in Moses:

"The fire upon the altar shall be kept burning thereon; it shall not go out; and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt-offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace-offerings. The fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually, it shall not go out" (Leviticus 6:12, 13).

This represented that the Lord's Divine Love is perpetual and eternal.

[3] That they were to take of the fire of the altar in censers and burn incense is also seen in Moses:

"And" Aaron "shall take burning coals of fire from off the altar before Jehovah in a censer, and he shall put the incense upon the fire before Jehovah" (Leviticus 16:12, 13).

And Aaron took fire from off the altar, and "put incense thereon and made an expiation for the people" (Num. 16:46, 47).

This represented, that all propitiation and expiation were from the Divine Love of the Lord; likewise that every thing is heard and received by the Lord in which that love is. The ascending of the smoke of the incense represented also hearing and reception.

[4] And because Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their company, took fire from the altar and burned incense, and consequently sanctified their censers, therefore, after they had been swallowed up by the earth, it was commanded that their censers, which were of brass, should be taken up, and that after the fire had been scattered abroad, they should be beaten out into plates to cover the altar (Num. 16:36-39). This also represented the sanctity of the Lord's Divine Love. And because the incenses derived their sanctity from the fire of the altar, therefore offerings of incense from strange fire were profane; wherefore Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were consumed by fire from heaven, because they offered incense from strange fire (Leviticus 10:1, 2). Incense from strange fire represented worship from love other than the Divine, and worship from any other love is profane.

[5] These passages are adduced to shew, that the fire of the altar signifies the Divine Love of the Lord, and this love in heaven is called celestial Divine Love and spiritual Divine Love; celestial Divine Love in the celestial kingdom of the Lord, and spiritual Divine Love in the spiritual kingdom of the Lord. All the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms, the celestial kingdom and the spiritual kingdom; celestial Divine Love makes the celestial kingdom, and spiritual Divine Love the spiritual kingdom. That all the heavens are distinguished into those two kingdoms, may be seen in the work concerning Heaven and Hell 20-28); and that those two loves make those two kingdoms, or all the heavens (n. 13-19). It must, however, be understood, that the Divine Love of the Lord in the heavens is called celestial and spiritual from its reception by the angels, and not from any division in itself; also, that spiritual love exists from celestial love, as an effect from its efficient cause, and as truth exists from good; for the good of spiritual love in its essence is the truth of the good of celestial love. Hence it is that those two kingdoms are conjoined, and form one in the sight of the Lord. These observations are made for those who love to search into things of an interior nature. That fire signifies love in both senses, will be seen confirmed from the Word in what follows.

308. What 'the east' means and what 'the garden of Eden' means has been shown already and therefore there is no need to pause over them here. But the fact that 'cherubim' means the Lord's providing against a person's insanely entering into mysteries of faith from the proprium, sensory evidence, and factual knowledge as the starting point, and against his profaning those mysteries, and in so doing perishing, becomes clear from several places in the Word where mention is made of cherubim. Because the Jews were the kind of people who, if they had had any clear knowledge about the Lord's Coming, about the fact that the representatives, or types, in that Church meant the Lord, about life after death, about the inner man, and if they had had any clear knowledge of the internal sense of the Word, they would have committed profanation and would have perished for ever; the Lord's protection against this therefore was represented by the cherubim on the Mercy Seat over the Ark, and by those on the curtains of the Tabernacle, and on its veil, and similarly in the Temple. And the provision of the cherubim meant the Lord's care and protection of them, Exodus 25:18-21; 26:1, 31;1 Kings 6:23-29, 32, 35. For the Ark, which contained the covenant, had the same meaning as the tree of life ¹ does here, that is, the Lord and heavenly things which are altogether His. Consequently the Lord is also many times called 'the God of Israel seated upon the cherubim'; and it was from between the cherubim that He spoke to Aaron and Moses, Exodus 25:22; Numbers 7:89.

[2] A plain description of this exists in Ezekiel where the following is stated,

The glory of the God of Israel was raised up from above the cherub over which it had been, towards the threshold of the house. He called out to the man clothed in linen. And He said to him, Pass through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who groan and sigh over all the abominations committed in the middle of it. And to the others He said, Pass through the city after him and smite; let not your eye spare, and show no clemency; slay outright old men, young men, virgins, little children, and women. Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. ² Ezekiel 9:3-7.

And later on,

He said to the man clothed in linen, Go into the wheel underneath the cherub, and fill the palms of your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim and spread them over the city. A cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and he took [some of it] and put it into the palms of the man clothed in linen; and he took it and went out. Ezekiel 10:1-7.

From these verses it is clear that the Lord's providence which guards against people's penetrating mysteries of faith is meant by 'the cherubim', and that people were therefore abandoned to their insane desires, which in this quotation are also meant by 'the fire which was spread over the city', and by 'nobody's being spared'.

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