118、那些持有说服性信仰的人没有任何内在光照使他们知道他们的教导是真还是假。事实上，他们也不关心这一点，只要普通人相信他们就行了；因为他们没有为了真理而对真理的情感。如果他们被剥夺了尊贵和利益，那么只要不危及他们的名声，他们就会从信中退出。因为说服性的信仰不在人之内，而是站在外面，只在记忆中；当人教导它时，就把它从记忆中取出来。因此，死后这种信及其真理就会消失。因为那时，只有在人之内，也就是植根于良善，因而变成生活的一部分的那种信才会保留下来。
118、信奉误导性信仰的人，没有来自内在的光照，他不知道自己的教导是对还是错。对此他也不在乎。他在乎的只是听众相信他就好。因为，他没有兴趣为了真理而去追求真理。如果不能获得荣耀和利益，在不危及他名声的情况下，他会放弃信仰。这种误导性信仰不在人的内在深处，而非常表浅的存于记忆之中，当用它教导人时，就被召唤出来。身后，这种信仰和与它相连的任何真理都一并泯灭。那时只有深植于人内在的信仰才会长存，即扎根于良善并构成生命的信仰。
118. People whose faith is self-induced do not know from any inner enlightenment whether what they are teaching is true or false, and as long as the crowd believes them, they do not care. In fact, they have no interest whatever in knowing the truth for its own sake. As a result, if they cannot obtain status or profit they abandon their faith (or at least if they can do so without putting their reputation in jeopardy), because self-induced conviction does not live deep within us. It remains on the outside, only in our memory, so we can call on it when we are teaching. This means that this type of faith vanishes after death, and so do the truths that go with it, because the only kind of faith that remains then is the kind that lives within us-that is, that has taken root in our doing of good and has therefore become part of our life.
118. When we are caught up in a deceptively convincing faith, we have no inner enlightenment as to whether the things we teach are true or false. We do not even care about that. All we care about is whether the masses of people believe what we say. We do not love the truth for its own sake.
For this reason, if we lose the respect and profit we get from our faith, we also lose interest in it — provided our reputation does not suffer as a result. This deceptively convincing faith is not deep inside us. It is just superficial knowledge in our memory, which we can draw on when we are teaching people. This “faith” disappears after death, along with any truth there was in it. Only faith that is deep inside us lasts — faith that is rooted in goodness and has become a part of our life.
118. Those whose faith is from false belief have no inward light to tell them whether what they teach is true or false. Indeed, they do not care either, so long as the people believe them. For they have no affection for truth for truth's sake. For this reason they withdraw from faith if they are deprived of honours and gain, so long as they do not risk their reputation. For faith from false belief is not inside the person, but stands outside, being only in the memory, from which it is recalled when he is teaching. That faith therefore together with what it sees as truths evaporates after death. For then only as much of faith as is inside the person remains, so much, that is, as is rooted in good, and has thus become part of his life.
118. Those who are in faith by persuasion do not know from any internal enlightenment whether what they teach is true or false; nay, they do not care, provided they are believed by the common people, for they have no affection for the truth for the sake of the truth. Whenever, therefore, they are deprived of places of honour and gain, provided their reputation is not endangered, they decline from faith. For faith by persuasion is not inwardly with a man, but outwardly in the memory only, from which it is brought forth in teaching. Hence also, this faith with its truths vanishes away after death; for then only that much of faith remains as had been inwardly in the man, that is, as had taken root in good, and thus had become a matter of his life.
118. They who are in persuasive faith do not know, from any internal enlightenment, whether the things which they teach be true or false; yea, neither do they care, provided they be believed by the common people; for they are in no affection of truth for the sake of truth. Wherefore they recede from faith, if they are deprived of honors and gains, provided their reputation be not endangered. For persuasive faith is not inwardly with man, but stands without, in the memory only, out of which it is taken when it is taught. Wherefore also that faith with its truths vanishes after death; for then there remains only that faith which is inwardly in man, that is, which is rooted in good, thus which has become of the life.
118. Qui in fide persuasiva sunt, non sciunt ex aliqua illustratione interna num vera sint vel falsa quae docent, immo nec curant, modo a vulgo credantur; sunt enim in nulla affectione veri propter verum. Quapropter recedunt a fide si privantur honoribus et lucris, modo fama non periclitetur; nam fides persuasiva non est intus apud hominem, sed stat foris, solum in memoria, e qua depromitur cum docetur: quare etiam illa fides cum suis veris post mortem evanescit; nam tunc manet solum illud fidei quod intus in homine est, hoc est, quod radicatum est in bono, ita quod factum est vitae.