10133. 'A continual [offering]' means within all Divine worship. This is clear from the meaning of 'continual', when it refers to such things as belong to Divine worship, as all and within all. For the subject is purification from evils and falsities by means of the good of innocence, this good being meant by 'lambs' and purification from evils and consequent falsities by a burnt offering of them. This is called 'continual' because it must be present in all Divine worship. Therefore also the offering was presented twice each day, in the morning and in the evening; and offerings made morning and evening served in general to represent all worship and what must be present within all worship. The good of innocence must be in all good, and consequently in all truth, if they are to be goodness and truth that have life from the Divine within them, and so it must be within all worship. For all worship, to be worship, must spring from the good of love and from the truths of faith.

All of the Church's and of heaven's good has innocence within it, and without that innocence good is not good, nor therefore is worship worship, see 2736, 2780, 6013, 7840, 7887, 9262.

What innocence is, 3994, 4001, 4797, 5236, 6107, 6765, 7902, 9262, 9936, and the places referred to in 10021 (end).

[2] 'Continual' means all and within all - that is to say, the all of worship, and within all worship - because it is a term that has a temporal connotation and in heaven, where the Word is understood not in the natural but in the spiritual sense, people have no notions of time. Instead of periods of time they perceive the kinds of things that are states. By 'continual' at this point therefore they perceive a perpetual state within worship, thus the all of worship and within all worship. The same applies to all other terms in the Word which have temporal connotations, such as yesterday, today, tomorrow, two days, three days, daily, a week, a month, a year, also times of day and seasons of the year - morning, midday, evening, night, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Therefore if the spiritual sense of the Word is to be understood, any idea of a period of time acquired from its natural sense, any idea of a place as well, indeed any idea of an actual person must be set aside, and states of things must be conceived of instead. From this it may be seen how perfect the Word is in its internal sense, and so how perfect is the perception of it by the angels in heaven, consequently how much more excellent angels' wisdom and understanding are than the understanding and wisdom of people in the world, who think with solely natural vision focused on the completely finite things of this world and planet. Regarding periods of time in heaven, that they are states, see 1274, 1382, 2625, 2788, 2837, 3254, 3356, 3404, 3827, 4814, 4882, 4901, 4916, 6110, 7218, 7381, 8070; and regarding what states are, 4850.

[3] From all this it is evident what the continual burnt offering of lambs means, and so what 'continual' and 'continually' mean elsewhere, as in the commands that 'the fire shall burn continually on the altar', Leviticus 6:13, and that 'the continual bread shall be on the table', Numbers 4:7. 'The fire' there and 'the bread' mean the good of love received from the Lord and offered back to Him. For 'the fire', that it has this meaning, see 4906, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324, 7852, 10055; and also for 'the bread', 2165, 2177, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 9323, 9545. In those places as well 'continual' means in addition that this good must be present in all worship; and the fact that the same good is the source from which the truth of faith must shine, as if from its fire, is meant by the decree that they were to cause a lamp to go up ¹ continually, Exodus 27:20, 'a lamp' being the truth and good of faith, see 9548, 9783.

Fusnotat:

4850. 'The days were multiplied' means a change of state. This is clear from the meaning of 'the days being multiplied' as undergoing a change of state, for 'day' or a time in the internal sense means state, 23, 487, 488, 893a, 2788, 3462, 3785, and 'being multiplied' when used in reference to days or times means undergoing a change. The fact that a change of state is the meaning is also evident from the details that follow. The expression 'to be multiplied' is used because it implies a change of state so far as truths are concerned; for 'to be multiplied' is used in reference to truths, 43, 55, 913, 983, 2846, 2847. Since the terms state and change of state are being used time and again, and yet few know what a state or a change of state is, a statement needs to be made about what these are. Neither time and the passage of time nor space and the extension of space can be associated with the interior aspects of the human being - that is to say, with his affections and his thoughts formed by these - because his affections and thoughts are not located in time and place, though to the senses in the world they do seem to be thus located. Rather, they are located in the interior things which correspond to time and place. The things which correspond to them cannot be called anything else than states, for no other term exists to describe the things that correspond to time and place. A change of state in interior things is said to take place when the affections and resulting thoughts in a person's mind or disposition (mens seu animus) undergo change, as when sadness turns to joy, or joy back to sadness, when ungodliness turns to godliness or devotion, and so on. These changes are called changes of state and are attributable to affections and, insofar as thoughts are governed by these, to thoughts also. But the changes of state which thoughts held within affections undergo are like those of individual parts within their general wholes, compared with which they are variations.