277. 'And golden phials full of incense-offerings' signifies the confession of the Lord's Divine Human out of spiritual goods. 'Incense' [signifies] worship out of spiritual goods, but here confession out of those goods, because the original worship in the Jewish and Israelitish Churches was established in sacrifices and incense-offerings. There were, therefore, two altars, one for the sacrifices and the other for the incense-offerings. The latter altar was in the tabernacle and was called the golden altar, but the former was outside the tabernacle and was called the altar of burnt offering. This was because there are two kinds of goods out of which all worship is made, celestial good and spiritual good. Celestial good is the good of a love directed to the Lord, and spiritual good is the good of a love towards the neighbour. The worship by sacrifices was a worship out of celestial good, and the worship by incense-offerings was a worship out of spiritual good. Whether you call it worship or confession it is the same, for all worship is confession. What is signified by the 'incense-offerings' is also in like manner signified by the 'phials' in which the incenses were, inasmuch as the thing containing and the thing contained, like the instrumental and the principal, have one thing in view. [2] Worship out of spiritual good is signified by the 'incense-offerings' in the following passages:-
From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same My Name shall be great among the nations, and in every place an incense-offering shall be brought unto My Name Mal. i ii.
They shall teach Jacob Thy judgments, they shall put an incense-offering in Thy nose, and a burnt offering upon Thine altar Deut. xxxiii 10.
I will offer unto Thee burnt offerings of fatlings with incense Ps. lxvi 13, 15.
They shall come out of the circut of Judah offering a burnt offering, a meal-offering (mincha) and frankincense Jer. xvii 26.
They shall come out of Sheba, they shall bring gold and frankincense, and they shall declare the praises of Jehovah Isa. lx 6.
A similar thing is signified by 'frankincense' as by 'incense', because frankincense was the special spice out of which the incense used to be made. In like manner in Matthew:-
Wise men from the east opened their treasures, and offered to the newly born Lord, gold, frankincense and myrrh Matt. ii 11.
They offered these three things because 'gold' signifies celestial good, 'frankincense' spiritual good, and 'myrrh' natural good and out of these three all worship is made. * A Hebrew word meaning perhaps a soft tone.
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