649. 'And he cried with a great cry to the one having the sharp sickle, saying, Put forth thy sharp sickle, and gather the vintage of the clusters of the vineyard of the land' signifies the Lord's operation out of the good of His love by means of the Divine Truth of His Word into the works of charity and faith that are with the men of the Christian Church. This is the spiritual sense of these words, since by those two 'angels' are signified the heavens of the Lord's spiritual kingdom and celestial kingdom (n. 647, 648); and the heavens do nothing of themselves, but from the Lord, for the angels in the heavens are only the recipients, and therefore in the spiritual sense nothing else than the Lord's operation is signified, here into the Church in Christendom and into the works of charity and faith with the men there. For by 'the vineyard' is signified that Church, of which [something will be said] in paragraph 651 following, and by 'clusters' and 'grapes' are signified the works of charity. These are signified by 'clusters' and 'grapes' because they are the fruits of the vine in the vineyard, and by 'fruits' in the Word good works are signified. [2] The angel going out of the altar said to the angel who went out of the temple that he should put forth the sickle and gather the vintage, because by 'the angel going out of the altar' are signified the heavens of the celestial kingdom or the heavens that are in the good of love, and by 'the angel going out of the temple' are signified the heavens of the spiritual kingdom or the heavens that are in the truths of wisdom, as was said above; and the good of love does not operate anything of itself, but by means of the truth of wisdom, nor does the truth of wisdom operate anything of itself, but out of the good of love. That this is the case has been shown in many places in ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. This is the reason why 'the angel going out of the altar said to the angel who went out of the temple that he should put forth the sickle and gather the vintage of the clusters of the vineyard of the land'. It is why now by those [words] the Lord's operation out of the good of His love by means of the Divine Truth of His Word is signified. [3] That 'grapes' and 'clusters' signify the goods and works of charity can be established from the following passages:-
Woe is me, I have become as the gatherings of the summer, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat; my soul longs for what is primitive; the holy one has passed away out of the land, and the upright among men Micah vii 1, 2.
Their grapes are grapes of gall, the clusters have bitterness Deut. xxxii 32.
My well-beloved had a vineyard, he expected it to produce grapes, but it produced wild grapes Isa. v 1, 2, 4.
These looking to strange gods, loving flagons of grapes Hosea iii 1.
Every tree is recognised by its own fruit, of thorns they do not gather figs, nor of the bramble do they gather as vintage the grape Luke vi 44.
There shall be in the midst of the land as it were grape-gleanings, when the vintage is done Isa. xxiv 12, 13.
If grape-gatherers come to thee, shall they not leave grape-gleanings Jer. xlix 9; Obad. vers. 4, 5.
The waster has fallen upon thy vintage Jer. xlviii 32, 33.
You shall be violently moved, O confident ones, because the vintage is consumed, the gathering shall not come Isa. xxxii 9, 10;
besides elsewhere, where it is termed 'the fruits of the vineyard', and 'of the vine'. There are goods of a celestial love, and there are goods of a spiritual love. The goods of a celestial love are of a love directed to the Lord, and the goods of a spiritual love are of a love towards the neighbour. These goods are called the goods of charity and are understood by 'the fruits of the vineyard', which are the grapes and clusters; but the goods of a love directed to the Lord are understood in the Word by 'the fruits of trees', especially by 'olives'. [4] [649a*.] 'For the grapes thereof have ripened' signifies because it is the last state of the Christian Church. A similar thing is signified by 'the grapes of the vineyard have ripened' as above by 'the harvest has dried up', but 'harvest' is said of the Church in general, and 'vineyard' of the Church in particular. That 'the harvest has dried up' signifies the last state of the Church may be seen above (n. 645), and therefore likewise' the grapes of the vineyard have ripened'. 'A vineyard' signifies the Church where there is the Divine Truth of the Word and the Lord is thereby known, since 'wine' signifies the interior Truth that is from the Lord by means of the Word. Consequently 'the vineyard' here signifies the Christian Church. That 'wine' signifies the truth derived from the good of love, thus from the Lord, may be seen above (n. 316). * This paragraph is not numbered in the Original Edition.
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