261. From these facts it can be established that, if the spiritual mind has been closed up, the natural mind continually acts against the things of the spiritual mind, while fearing lest anything should flow in therefrom to disturb its own states. Everything that flows in through the spiritual mind is from heaven, for the spiritual mind is, in form, a heaven. And everything that flows into the natural mind is from the world, for the natural mind is, in form, a world. And from this it follows that, when the spiritual mind has been closed up, the natural mind reacts against all things of heaven, nor does it admit them except in so far as they are serviceable to it as means of acquiring and possessing the things of the world. And when the things of heaven also serve the natural mind as means to its own ends, then those means, although they appear heavenly, yet become natural, for the end qualifies them as they become like the knowledges of the natural man in which inwardly there is no life. But because heavenly things cannot be so joined to natural things that the two act as one, therefore they separate, and in merely natural men, heavenly things arrange themselves from without, encompassing the natural things which are within. Hence it is that a merely natural man can speak and preach about heavenly things, and also stimulate them by actions, although inwardly he thinks against them. The latter he does when alone, the former when in company. But of these things more will be said in what follows.