food is received more interiorly into the body; and that unless this act followed the act of mastication, or chewing, this latter act would be of no effect whatsoever in regard to bodily nourishment? And who doth not know, or may not know, if he be disposed to know, that this is precisely the case in respect to the mind; since the food of the mind, which is every spiritual good and truth relating to the love of GOD and our neighbour, is capable of a twofold reception, one external, or in the memory and understanding only; and the other internal, or in the will and life: and that if the external reception be not succeeded by the internal, the former is of no manner of use in regard to mental nourishment, but may be compared with the case of a man who keeps his food constantly in his mouth without swallowing it? It is then absolutely necessary, with a view to the full reception and incorporation of the good of heavenly love, and of the truth of heavenly wisdom, that it not only be received in the mouth, or in the thought, and there well masticated by meditation or rumination, but that it afterwards be swallowed; in other words, be admitted interiorly into the will, the love, and the life, that so it may become that blessed “meat
