6595. And they embalmed him. That this signifies preservation still, is evident from the signification of "embalming," as being preservation from the contagion of evil (n. 6503, 6504). As the end of the church is here treated of, it must be told what is meant by "preservation still when the church ceases to be," which takes place when its internal ceases with man (n. 6587, 6592). The external then still remains, but is such as to have within it an internal; and yet this internal is not then with the man, because he does not think about it, or if he thinks about it he is not affected with it; but it is with the angels who are with the man. And as the man of the vastated church thinks nothing about the internal, neither is affected with it, and for the most part does not know that it exists, therefore the internal cannot be injured by him; for what a man knows, and especially what he has once believed, he can injure, but not what he either does not know, or does not believe to exist. In this manner the internal of the church is preserved, lest it should be affected by any evil. So were the internal things of the church preserved among the descendants of Jacob; for they were in externals without an internal, insomuch that they were not even willing to know about any internal; and therefore the internal things of the church were not revealed to them. (That internal things were not made known to the descendants of Jacob lest they should injure them by profaning, see n. 3398, 3480; and that those cannot profane the internal things of the church who do not believe them, and still less those who are ignorant of them, n. 593, 1008, 1059, 2051, 3398, 3402, 3898, 4289, 4601; also that the interior things of the church are not revealed until the church has been vastated, because then they are no longer believed, thus neither can they be profaned, see n. 3398, 3399.) These are the things that are meant by "preservation."