Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
And Abram pitched his tent, and came and dwelt in the oak-groves of Mamre that are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to Jehovah. (Genesis 13:18)And there he built an altar to Jehovah. That this signifies worship from that state, is evident from the signification of "an altar," as being a representative of all worship in general.... By worship, in the internal sense, is meant all conjunction through love and charity.
When a man is in love and charity he is continually in worship, external worship being merely the effect. The angels are in such worship; with them, therefore, there is a perpetual Sabbath; and from this the Sabbath, in the internal sense, signifies the Lord's kingdom. But man, while in the world, ought not to be otherwise than in external worship also; for by external worship internal things are excited, and by means of external worship external things are kept in holiness, so that internal things can flow in. And besides, man is thus imbued with knowledges, and is prepared for receiving celestial things, and is also gifted with states of holiness, although he is unaware of this; which states of holiness are preserved to him by the Lord for the use of eternal life, for in the other life all the states of his life return.
(Arcana Cœlestia 1618)