3674. About David
I spoke with David, who was now overhead, who is such when there, that he imagines himself more subtle than others because the holy spirit spoke through him. He openly confessed that he did not understand the things he had written, although he did think they contained certain secrets, but what secrets he did not know; also that he had known that a certain one was to come into the world, but about him he had had no more specific information. This he openly admitted and more or less asseverated, then also that he had applied all things down to the least detail as they literally stand to himself and the Jews.
He said that because a spirit had spoken through him as they do through me, he was also of that quality, but I was prompted to tell him that he had not had higher knowledge concerning the Lord and thus higher knowledge of faith, and had therefore not known the inward things of the Word, but had remained only in the meaning of the letter, which is quite a different matter, and that the spirit had spoken through him things he did not understand, as he had through others. This all shows that he had not been in the inward regions, but only the outside; and to those on the outside spirits speak differently so that they do not understand inward things even though they are present in every least part. To this he could make no reply, nor to the fact that this is his nature because he was immersed in outer things only.
3674. CONCERNING DAVID.
Speaking with David who is now above the head, and, when there, is of such a quality as to deem himself possessed of far more subtlety than others, because the Holy Spirit spoke through him, he openly confessed that he did not understand what he wrote; that he might have thought indeed that his writings contained arcana, but what they were he knew not; that he might have known that a certain Personage was to come into the world, but that he had no farther knowledge respecting him. This [I say], he openly confessed, and as it were asseverated as also that he applied all and each of the things declared, to himself and the Jews, according to the sense of the letter. He said that because a spirit spoke through him as through me, he also was of such a quality, but it was given to say to him, that he had no knowledge of the Lord, thence no knowledges of faith, and so was ignorant of the interior things of the Word, and remained solely in the sense of the letter, which was a very different affair, and that spirits spoke through him things which he did not understand, as they do through others. Whence it may appear that he was not in interior, but only in exterior things, and with him who is in externals spirits speak differently [from what they do with those who are in internals], so that they do not understand interior things, although being in singulars. To this he had nothing to say in reply, as neither to the fact that he was such from being in externals only.
3674. De Davide
Loquutus cum Davide, qui nunc supra caput, qui talis est, cum ibi, quod putet se subtiliorem esse aliis, quia spiritus sanctus per eum loquutus; qui fassus aperte, quod non intellexerit, quae scripsit, quidem quod cogitaverit, quod arcana quaedam continerent, sed quae arcana, non scivit, tum quod sciverit, quendam venturum in mundum, sed de illo non quandam notitiam magis habuerit: hoc aperte fassus est, et quasi contestatus; tunc quod omnia et singula sic applicuerit ad semet et Judaeos, sicut sensus literae est: dixit, quod quia spiritus per eum loquutus sit sicut per me, quod talis quoque fuerit, sed dicere ei datum, quod non cognitionem habuerit de Domino, proinde nec cognitiones fidei, sic quod interiora Verbi non noverit, et sic quod solum in sensu literae manserit, quod sic alia res sit, et quod spiritus per eum loquuti ea quae non percepit, sicut per alios, inde constare potest, quod non in interioribus fuerit, sed modo in externis, et qui in externis, quod spiritus tunc aliter loquantur; sic ut non intelligant interiora, tametsi in singulis sunt: ad haec respondere nihil potuit; nec ad id, quod talis sit, quia in externis solum.