“By Little and Little”
When man is being regenerated, he is not regenerated speedily but slowly. The reason is that all things which he has thought, purposed and done since infancy, have added themselves to his life and have come to constitute it. They have also formed such a connection among themselves that no one thing can be removed unless all are at the same time. Regeneration, or the implantation of the life of heaven in man, begins in his infancy, and continues to the last of his life in the world, and is perfected to eternity.
—Arcana Coelestia, n. 9334