9219. 'For I am merciful' means that such help comes wholly from Him, out of mercy. This is clear from the meaning of 'being merciful', since it refers to the Lord, as the truth that help comes wholly from Him. The reason why out of mercy is meant is that everything done by the Lord is an act of mercy. The Lord in His Essential Being (Esse) is Divine Love; and love, when it is shown towards those in a state of wretchedness, is called mercy. Thus His Love as it is shown to the whole human race is called mercy; for the human race is set fast in a state of misery, since the human self or proprium is nothing but evil, 210, 215, 874-876, 987, 1581, 5660, 5786, 8480.

874. This describes the first state following temptation in the regeneration of the member of this Church, a state common to all who are being regenerated. It is a state when people imagine that they themselves are the source of the good they do and of the truth they think. And because they are still in the greatest obscurity, the Lord lets them cling to that opinion. But as long as they cling to that opinion which is false, no good deed they do nor any truth they think is the good or truth of faith. For whatever a person carries out from himself cannot be good since it has come from self, an impure and most unclean origin. From that impure and most unclean origin no good can possibly emerge, for the individual is thinking all the time about his own merit and righteousness. Some go even further, and look down on everybody else, as the Lord teaches in Luke 18:9-14. And others' attitudes are different again. People's selfish desires intermingle in such a way that the outside may look good while the inside is filthy. The good therefore that a person does in this state is not the good of faith. And the same applies to the truth he thinks. What he thinks may be the perfect truth; but as long as the proprium is the source of it, though it is in itself the truth of faith, he does not have the good of faith within him. To be the truth of faith all truth must include from the Lord the good of faith. Only then do they become good and truth.