AE 641 - The Progression of Churches; AE 644 - Conquering in Temptation

AE 641 [4]

As regards the successive states
of the churches on our globe,
they have evidently been similar
to the successive states of a person
who is being reformed and regenerated,
namely, that to become a spiritual person,
he is first conceived, next is born, then grows up,
and is afterwards led on further and further
into intelligence and wisdom.
The church, from the most ancient times
to the end of the Jewish Church,
progressed like a person
who is conceived, born, and grows up,
and is then instructed and taught;
but the successive states of the church
after the end of the Jewish Church,
or from the time of the Lord even to the present day,
have been like a person
increasing in intelligence and wisdom,
or becoming regenerate.
For this end the interior things
of the Word, of the church, and of worship,
were revealed by the Lord when He was in the world;
and now again, things still more interior are revealed;
and in the measure that things interior are revealed
can person become wiser;
for to become interior is to become wiser,
and to become wiser is to become interior.

AE 644 [24]

. . . he who receives Divine truths in both parts,
that is, both in the understanding and in the will,
conquers in temptation.