AC 8711 - gain; AC 8717 - Divine Blessing

AC 8711
By "gain" in general is signified
all the falsity from evil
that perverts the judgments of the mind;
and as this is the case
with those who have the world as their end,
therefore by "those who hate gain"
are also signified those who are without a worldly end.

AC 8717 [2,3]
. . . by means of the truth proceeding from Himself
the Lord directs all things down to the veriest singulars;
not as a king in the world,
but as God in heaven and in the universe.
A king in the world exercises only a care over the whole,
and his princes and officers a particular care.
It is otherwise with God,
for God sees all things,
and knows all things from eternity,
and provides all things to eternity,
and from Himself
holds all things in their order.
 
But this subject falls with difficulty into the idea of any person,
and least of all
into the idea of those who trust in their own prudence;
for they attribute to themselves
all things that happen prosperously for them,
and the rest they ascribe to fortune, or chance;
and few to the Divine Providence.
Thus they attribute the things that happen to dead causes,
and not to the living cause.
When things turn out happily they indeed say that it is of God,
and even that there is nothing that is not from Him;
but few, and scarcely any, at heart believe it.
In like manner do those who place all prosperity
in worldly and bodily things, namely, in honors and riches,
and believe that these alone are Divine blessings;
and therefore
when they see many of the evil abound in such things,
and not so much the good,
they reject from their heart
and deny the Divine Providence in individual things,
not considering
that Divine Blessing is to be happy to eternity,
and that the Lord regards
such things as are of brief duration,
as relatively, are the things of this world,
no otherwise than as means to eternal things.
Wherefore also the Lord provides for the good,
who receive His mercy in time,
such things as contribute
to the happiness of their eternal life;
riches and honors
for those to whom they are not hurtful;
and no riches and honors
for those to whom they would be hurtful.