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 take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God." (Jer. ii. 22.)

This signification of soap is from the immutable law of correspondence—which law teaches that all earthly things have a corresponding relation to spiritual states and properties of mind. The component parts of soap are oil or fat, alkaline salt, and water. Now all these are frequently mentioned in the Divine Word—and by the commingling of these together, that substance is produced, which when applied effects purification or cleansing; and the spiritual signification of them will clearly show the reason why the Lord is said to be like fuller's soap. Oil denotes celestial goodness, or love to the Lord, and water is representative of divine truth, as to its cleansing properties. The salt signifies a strong desire of the mind that love and truth may be firmly united, and thus become one living principle of action in the soul. Now as oil and water in the making of soap can only be made to mingle by throwing in the strong alkaline salt, and as when so mingled the substance produced thereby is used in the process of cleansing, washing, and purifying: so spiritual love and truth, denoted by oil and water, cannot be united where there is not in the soul a strong desire for such union; for in this case there is no salt, and nothing is produced in the life by which spiritual purification can be carried on to perfection, "Have salt in yourselves" (Mark ix. 50) is a most important command, and full of real wisdom. If we wish, literally, to unite oil and water together, we must throw in the salt; so if love and truth are to be united in us, and the precious boon of eternal life secured, we must throw in the spiritual