2026. That 'I will give to you' means that the things which exist in heaven and on earth are His follows from what has just been stated. In the sense of the letter 'giving to you' means that God or Jehovah would give to Him, as is also declared in the Word of the Gospel-writers about the Father giving all things in heaven and on earth to Him. But in the internal sense in which truth itself is presented in its purity, the meaning is that the Lord acquired it to Himself, because within Him and within every part of Him Jehovah was present, as has been stated. further light can be shed on this by the following analogy: It is as though the interior or rational man, or else thought, were to say that the bodily part of him would discover peace and quiet if it were to refrain from doing this or that. In this case the one who speaks is the same as the one spoken to, for the rational belongs to that person just as much as the bodily part. When therefore the former is spoken of the latter also is meant.

[2] Besides, the fact that things in heaven and on earth are the Lord's is clear from very many places in the Word, from many in the Old Testament as well as from the following in the Gospels, Matthew 11:27; 28:18; Luke 10:22; John 3:34-35; 17:2, and from what has been shown in Volume One, in 458, 551, 552, 1607. And because the Lord governs the whole of heaven He also governs everything on earth, for the two are so interconnected that whoever governs one governs all. For dependent on the heaven of angels is the heaven of angelic spirits; dependent on the heaven of angelic spirits is the world of spirits; and dependent in turn on the world of spirits is the human race. And dependent in like manner on the heavens is everything in the world and the natural order, for without influx from the Lord by way of the heavens nothing in the natural order and its three kingdoms can ever come into existence and remain in existence; see 1632.

1258. That 'from these the nations on the earth were spread abroad' means that in these all the forms of that Church's worship took rise, all forms that entailed goods and those that entailed evils, and that these goods or evils are meant by 'the nations', is clear from the meaning of 'nations'. As stated already, nation is used to mean a number of families grouped together, for a number of families that recognized the same father made up one nation in the Most Ancient and Ancient Churches. But with regard to 'nations' in the internal sense meaning forms of the Church's worship, and in particular as to the goods or the evils entering into that worship, the situation is that when angels contemplate families and nations they never envisage a nation, but only the worship existing with it. For they contemplate all from the point of view of essential character, that is, what kind of people they are. The essential character or quality of a person from which heaven contemplates him is charity and faith. This any person may easily grasp if he considers that when he contemplates any individual, or any family, or any nation, he is thinking mainly of their character, each person doing so from that which rules in him at the time. A mental image of their character instantly comes to mind, and it is from this image that he considers them. This applies even more to the Lord, and from Him to the angels, who are incapable of contemplating a person, family, or nation except from the point of view of their character as regards charity and faith. This is why in the internal sense 'nations' means nothing other than the Church's worship, and indeed as regards the essential character of that worship, which is good stemming from charity and the truth of faith from this. When the expression 'nations' occurs in the Word, angels never dwell on the idea of a nation in accordance with the historical sense of the letter, but on the idea of the good and truth present with the nation that is mentioned.