and as these are in agreement with his life they are called spiritual food. The natural man in like manner is delighted with natural things, which, being of his life, are called food, and consist chiefly of memory-knowledges. As the spiritual man is here treated of, his spiritual food is described by representatives, as by the "herb bearing seed," and by the "tree in which is fruit," which are called, in general, the "tree yielding seed." His natural food is described in the following verse.
57. The "herb bearing seed" is every truth which regards use; the "tree in which is fruit" is the good of faith; "fruit" is what the Lord gives to the celestial man, but "seed producing fruit" is what He gives to the spiritual man; and therefore it is said, the "tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for food." That celestial food is called fruit from a tree, is evident from the following chapter, where the celestial man is treated of. In confirmation of this we will here cite only these words of the Lord from Ezekiel:—
By the river, upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, there cometh up every tree of food, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed; it is born again in its month; because these its waters issue out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for food, and the leaf thereof for medicine (xlvii. 12).
"Waters issuing out of the sanctuary," signify the life and mercy of the Lord, who is the "sanctuary." "Fruit" is wisdom, which shall be food for them; the "leaf" is intelligence which shall be for their use, and this use is called "medicine." But that spiritual food is called "herb," appears from David:—
My shepherd, I shall not want; Thou makest me to lie down in pastures of herb (Ps. xxiii. 1, 2).
58. Verse 30. And to every wild animal of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, I give every green herb for food; and it was so. The natural meat of the same man is here described. His natural is signified by the "wild animal of the earth" and by the "fowl of the heavens," to which there are given for food the vegetable and the green of the herb. Both his natural and his spiritual food are thus described in David:—
