5664. 'Has given you the concealed gift in your pouches' means that it came from Him without the exercise of any prudence by them. This is clear from the meaning of 'the concealed gift' as truth and good conferred by the Lord without man's knowledge; and from the meaning of 'the silver put back in their sacks (or in their pouches)' as without expending any power of their own, dealt with in 5488, 5496, 5499. From this it is evident that 'has given you the concealed gift in your pouches' means that from Him - that is to say, from the Lord's Divine Human - came truth and good in the natural, without the expenditure of any power of their own. And because the gift comes without the expenditure of any power of their own, it comes without the exercise of any prudence by them. The expression prudence is used for the reason that prudence is the virtue [in man] that answers to providence [in God]; and what is attributable to Divine Providence is not attributable to human prudence.

5664[a] 'Your silver came to me' means that it will seem as though truth has been acquired by them. This is clear from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, 2954. The coming of their silver to him implies that payment had been made by them, thus that they had made an acquisition for themselves; for' buying' means acquiring, 5655. This explains why 'your silver has come to me' means that truth has been acquired by them. Yet because the truth which constitutes faith is never an acquisition that a person makes but is a gift instilled and conferred by the Lord, though it seems to be an acquisition made by that person, the expression it will seem as though truth has been acquired by them is used.

[2] The fact that truth is instilled and conferred by the Lord is also well known in the Church, for the Church teaches that faith does not originate in man but comes from God, so that not only confidence but also the truths that constitute faith come from Him. Yet the appearance is that truths of faith are acquired by the person himself. The fact that they flow into him is something he is totally unaware of because he has no perception of their doing so. The reason he has no such perception is that his interiors are closed, so that he is unable to have any communication with spirits and angels that is perceptible by him. When a person's interiors are closed he cannot know anything whatever about what is flowing into him.

[3] But it should be recognized that it is one thing to know the truths of faith, another thing to believe them. Those who merely know the truths of faith consign them to their memory in the way they do anything else that is an item of knowledge. A person can acquire those truths without any such inflow into himself; but they do not possess any life, as is evident from the fact that a wicked person, even a very wicked one, can know the truths of faith just as well as an upright and God-fearing person. But in the case of the wicked, as stated, truths possess no life; for when a wicked person brings them forth he sees in each one either his own glory or personal gain. Consequently it is self-love and love of the world that fill those truths and give them what seems like life. But this life is akin to that in hell, which life is called spiritual death. Consequently, when such a person brings forth those truths he does so from his memory, not from his heart. But someone who has a belief in the truths of faith is bringing them forth from his heart when they pass through his lips; for in his case the truths of faith have so taken root in him that they strike root in the external memory and then, like fruitful trees, grow up into interior or higher levels of the mind, where tree-like they adorn themselves with leaves and at length blossom, to the end that they may bear fruit.

[4] This is what someone with belief is like. He too has nothing else in mind, when employing the truths of faith, than the performance of useful services or the exercise of charity, which is his 'fruit'. These are not the kind that anyone can acquire by himself. Not even the smallest can be so acquired by him; rather, the Lord gives such to him freely, doing so every single moment of his life. Indeed, if he will but believe it, countless gifts are imparted every single moment. But man's nature is such that he has no perception of the things that flow into him; for if he did have that kind of perception he would fight against the idea, as stated above, for he would then think that if the idea was true he would lose his selfhood, and with this his freedom, and with his freedom his delight, and so would be left with nothing. And without that perception a person knows no other than that such things originate in himself. This then is the meaning of the explanation 'it will seem as though truth has been acquired by them'. What is more, if a person is to have a heavenly selfhood and heavenly freedom conferred on him, he must do what is good as though he himself were the source of it and think what is true as though he were the source of that. But when he stops to reflect he must acknowledge that such goodness and truth have their origin in the Lord, see 2882, 2883, 2891.