8530.
'Take a jar' means truth. This is clear from the meaning here of 'a jar' as truth. The reason why 'a jar' means truth is that it was a vessel to contain 'the manna', by which good is meant; and all truth
is like a vessel for good. So it is also that truths are meant by 'vessels' generally, 3068, 3079, 3316, 3318, consequently by 'vessels' in particular, and here by 'a jar'. Various things in the
natural order may serve to elucidate the idea that truths are vessels for containing good. Light for example is a container of heat from the sun, and also by light is meant truth and by the heat within
light is meant good; the relationship of truth to good is like these. Their relationship is also like that of clothing to the body, and of the body to the soul, as well as being like that of a blood
vessel or of a fibre to the blood or to the animal spirita enclosed within it. In addition it is like that of the lungs to the heart, and therefore of the breathing of the lungs to the beating of the
heart. In short, the relationship is like that of any organic form which the body possesses to the life within that form. These comparisons make clear what truth without good is like, or what faith without
charity is like. They show that it is like organic forms belonging to the body without any life; like the breathing of the lungs without the beating of the heart, or like the lungs without the
heart; like a blood vessel or a fibre without blood or animal spirit; and also like the body without the soul. Consequently truth without good is like an inanimate object; or if evil is present instead
of good it is like a corpse.
Notes
a See 4227:3