AC 981 - "God blessed" - the presence & grace of the Lord

AC 981
That "God blessed" signifies the presence and grace of the Lord . . ..
"To bless" in the Word, in the external sense signifies
to enrich with every earthly and corporeal (bodily) good.
This is also how all people
who keep to the external sense
explain the Word . . ..
Consequently they have focused the Divine blessing, and still do,
on wealth, on having plenty of everything, and on personal glory.
But in the internal sense
'blessing' means being enriched with all spiritual and celestial good,
a blessing which neither does nor can possibly exist
unless it comes from the Lord.
This is why 'blessing' means the Lord's presence and grace.

[2] The reason the expression grace and not mercy is used . . .
is that celestial people do not talk of grace but of mercy,
while spiritual people talk not of mercy but of grace.
This difference has its origins in the fact
that celestial people acknowledge that the human race is wholly unclean . . ..

[3] Spiritual people however,
though they are aware that the human condition is such,
do not acknowledge it,
for they still remain in, and love, their proprium;
and therefore they find it difficult to make mention of mercy
but easy to do so of grace.
It is the different kind of humility existing with each
that produces this verbal difference.
The more anyone loves himself
and imagines that he is able to do good of himself and so merit salvation,
the less he is able to plead for the Lord's mercy.