648. From this can also be deduced what a belief based on the understanding [alone] is worth, or what preaching is worth, when a person is being carried along by desires, and whether a faith based solely on understanding can save! For in love there is life; in the understanding of such things there is nothing but memory.
This was told to souls after death, or spirits, and corroborated in such a way that they admitted they had been completely mistaken during their lifetime, and acknowledged their errors with sadness.
648. It can also be concluded from this of what avail faith in the understanding is, also preaching, so long as man is carried away by his cupidities. And how can intellectual faith alone be saving? For life is in the love, and nothing except the memory is in the understanding of these things. This was said to souls after death, or spirits, and it was so confirmed that they confessed that during their life they had altogether erred, and they have acknowledged their errors with sadness.
648. Inde quoque concludi potest, quid fides intellectu, tum quid praedicatio valeat, dum homo cupiditatibus aufertur, et quomodo fides intellectualis sola salvare possit! nam in amore est vita, in intellectu talium est nihil nisi memoria quod animabus post mortem aut spiritibus 1
dictum est, ac ita confirmatum, ut fassi sint, se in vita prorsus erravisse, et agnovisse cum tristitia suos errores.
Footnotes:
1. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has spiritus