AC 6587, 6592 - The Internal and External of the Church

AC 6587 [2-3]

A church in order to exist must be internal and external, 
for there are those who are in the internal of the church, 
and those who are in its external; 
the former are few, 
but the latter are very numerous. 
Nevertheless with those with whom is the internal church, 
the external must be also, 
for the internal of the church 
cannot be separated from its external; 
and also with those with whom is the external church, 
the internal must be also, 
but with these the internal is in obscurity.

The internal of the church consists 
in willing good from the heart, 
and in being affected with good; 
and its external consists in doing it, 
and this according to the truth of faith 
which the man knows from good; 
but the external of the church consists 
in the devout performance of rituals, 
and in doing works of charity, 
according to the precepts of the church. 
From this it is evident that the internal of the church 
is the good of charity in the will. 
Therefore when this ceases, 
the church itself also ceases, 
for the good of charity is its essential. 
External worship indeed remains afterward, as before, 
but then it is not worship, but a rite, 
which is preserved because it has been so appointed; 
but this rite, which appears like worship, 
is like a shell without a kernel, 
for it is an external which remains wherein is no internal. 
When such is the state of the church it is at its end.

AC 6592

. . . the quality of the church 
when it is only in externals without internals, 
namely, that it is like 
the bony structure of a man without flesh.