AC 6645 - The Church Within a Person

AC 6645 [2]

The case with the church in a person 
is that it successively undergoes new states; 
for as a person is strengthened 
in the truth of faith and the good of charity, 
so he is introduced into other states, 
the former state then serving as a plane 
for the following state, and so on continually. 
Thus the person who is a church, 
or who is being regenerated, 
is continually led toward more interior things, 
thus more interiorly into heaven. 
That it is so done 
is because the Lord from love, 
which is infinite because Divine, 
wills to draw man even to Himself, 
and so to bless him with all glory and happiness, 
as also is very evident from the Lord's words in John:

I pray that they all may be one, 
as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee, 
that they also may be one in Us. 
The glory which Thou hast given Me 
I have given them, 
that they may be one even as We are one; 
I in them and Thou in Me. 
Father, I will that they whom Thou hast given Me 
be also with Me where I am; 
that they may see My glory 
which Thou hast given Me; 
for I have made known unto them Thy name, 
and I will make it known; 
that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me 
may be in them, 
and I in them. 
(John 17:21-24, 26)