647. And another angel went out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle, signifies the heavens of the Lord's spiritual kingdom, and the Divine truth of the Word with them. By "an angel" is signified, in the highest sense, the Lord, also the angelic heaven, and likewise the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord (see above, n. 5, 65, 170, 258, 342, 343, 344, 415, 465); but here by "an angel" the heavens of the spiritual kingdom are signified, and thence the Divine truths there, because it follows that "another angel went out from the altar," by whom the heavens of the Lord's celestial kingdom are signified, thus the Divine goods there, which will be treated of in the next article. There are two kingdoms into which all the heavens are distinguished, the spiritual kingdom and the celestial kingdom. The spiritual kingdom is the kingdom of the Lord's wisdom, because the angels there are in wisdom from Divine truths from the Lord; and the celestial kingdom is the kingdom of the Lord's love, because the angels there are in love from the Lord, and thence in all good. That there are two kingdoms, into which all the heavens are distinguished, may be seen in the work concerning Heaven and Hell, published at London, 1758 (n. 20-28), and in the Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom, published at Amsterdam, 1763 (n. 101, 381). By "the temple" is signified the whole heaven, as above (n. 644); but as it is here said, "the temple which is in heaven," and afterwards "the altar," by "the temple" is signified the heaven of the Lord's spiritual kingdom, as was observed above; and by "a sharp sickle" is signified the Divine truth of the Word, as above (n. 643, 645).
[2] The reason why it is said above, that "He that sat on the cloud sent his sickle and the earth was reaped," and now that "an angel went out of the temple from heaven, he also having a sickle, and he sent it into the earth and gathered the vineyard of the earth," is, because by "the earth," which was reaped by Him who sat on the cloud, or by the Lord, is signified the church in the whole earth, but by "the vineyard of the earth" is signified the church in the Christian world. These words involve things similar to what the Lord foretold in the parable of the sower and the gathering in of harvest, Matt. 13, as above cited (n. 645, at the end), where it is said that "the harvest is the consummation of the age," that is, the end of the church, and that "the reapers are the angels," by whom are signified Divine truths. For the angels are not sent to reap, that is, to do those things, but the Lord does them by the Divine truths of His Word; for the Lord says:
The Word that I have spoken, it will judge in the last day (John 12:48).
See above (n. 233, 273).