Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/126

106 the will or life of man, until it be first taken; in other words, well considered, meditated, and ruminated on by the understanding. Probably too, in agreement with the same idea, it is recorded of the two disciples who were favoured with a sight of the on their way to Emmauss, that He “was known of them in ;” [Luke xxiv. 35.]; for unless some spiritual meaning be annexed to the expression, breaking of bread, it is difficult to conceive how such an act could make the  known; whereas when it is considered, that by breaking of bread is figuratively described the operation above mentioned, of masticating or mincing the good of the Divine love, by meditating or ruminating upon it with the understanding, the expression then acquires an edifying force and clearness which render it worthy of a place in the Divine Record.

Having thus then, I trust, satisfied you, that the bodily act of mastication, or chewing of food, is a figurative act, applying to the mind as well as to the body, need I be at any pains to convince you, that the same is true of the bodily act of deglutition, or swallowing of food? For doth not every one know, that by the act of swallowing, the