Bonaventure

DISTINCTIO XXVI.

Cap. I. De spe, quid sit.

Est autem spes virtus, qua spiritualia et aeterna bona sperantur, id est cum fiducia exspectantur^p553-1. Est enim spes certa exspectatio futurae beatitudinis, veniens ex Dei gratia et ex meritis praecedentibus vel ipsam spem, quam natura praeit caritas, vel rem speratam, id est beatitudinem aeternam. Sine meritis enim aliquid sperare non spes, sed praesumtio dici potest.

Cap. II. De quibus sit spes.

Et sicut fides, ita et spes est de invisibilibus. Unde Augustinus^p554-1: «Fidem appellamus earum rerum, quae non videntur. De spe quoque dicitur: Spes, quae videtur, non est spes. Quod enim videt quis, quid sperat»? Quod attinet ad non videre vel quae creduntur, vel quae sperantur, fidei speique commune est.

Cap. III. Quo differant fides et spes.

Distinguitur tamen fides a spe, sicut vocabulo, ita rationabili differentia. «Est enim fides malarum rerum et bonarum, quia et bona creduntur et mala, et hoc fide bona, non mala. Est etiam fides et praeteritarum rerum et praesentium et futurarum. Credimus enim mortem Christi, quae iam praeteriit; credimus sessionem, quae nunc est; credimus venturum ad iudicandum, quod futurum est. Item fides et suarum rerum est et alienarum. Nam et se quisque credit esse, coepisse nec fuisse utique sempiternum, et alia atque alia non modo de aliis hominibus multa, quae ad religionem pertinent, verum etiam de Angelis credimus. Spes autem non nisi bonarum rerum est nec nisi futurarum et ad eum pertinentium, qui earum spem gerere perhibetur^p554-2».

Cap. IV. Si in Christo fuit fides et spes.

Post haec superest investigare, utrum fides et spes in Christo fuerint; unde tractatus iste sumsit exordium. Quibusdam non indocte videtur, fidem-virtutem et spem in eo non fuisse, sicut in Sanctis iam beatificatis vel in Angelis non sunt; et tamen Sancti credunt et sperant resurrectionem futuram, et Angeli eandem credunt; nec tamen in eis fides vel spes virtus est, quia et Deo per speciem contemplando fruuntur et in Dei Verbo resurrectionem futuram sive iudicium non per speculum in aenigmate^p554-3, sed praeclarissime inspiciunt. Si enim, quia credunt resurrectionem futuram, ideo verum est, eos fidem habere: ergo ea consummata, post iudicium similiter et fidem habere dicentur, quia credent eam praeteritam. Sed sicut tunc credent, nec tamen fidem, quae fideles facit, habebunt — quia non credent absque scientia, quae non erit aenigmatica, sed per speciem — ita et modo credunt et sperant resurrectionem; nec tamen fidem habent, quia credendo cognoscunt. Venit enim eis quod perfectum est, et evacuatum est quod ex parte est; venit enim cognitio, et evacuata est fides; venit species, et desiit spes. Ita et Christus, in quo fuerunt bona patriae, credidit quidem et speravit resurrectionem tertia die futuram, pro qua et Patrem oravit; nec tamen fidem-virtutem vel spem habuit, quia non aenigmaticam et specularem, sed clarissimam de ea cognitionem habuit, quia non perfectius eam cognovit praeteritam, quam intellexit futuram. Speravit tamen Christus, sicut in Psalmo^p554-4 ait: In te, Domine, speravi; nec tamen fidem vel spem-virtutem habuit, quia per speciem videbat ea quae credebat.

Cap. V. Si iusti in inferno fidem et spem habuerunt.

De antiquis vero Patribus, qui apud inferos usque ad passionem tenebantur, non incongrue dici potest, quod fidem et spem-virtutem habuerint, quia credebant et sperabant, se visuros Deum per speciem, qualiter eum tunc non videbant; quia non patuit eis cognitio Dei per speciem ante passionem Christi, qua consummata, a fide transierunt ad speciem.

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Cap. I. On hope, what it is.

Now hope is a virtue by which spiritual and eternal goods are hoped for, that is, awaited with confidence^p553-1. For hope is a certain expectation of future beatitude, coming from the grace of God and from merits preceding either the hope itself, which charity by nature goes before, or the thing hoped for, that is, eternal beatitude. For to hope for something without merits cannot be called hope, but presumption.

Cap. II. Concerning what things hope is.

And just as faith, so also hope is concerning things invisible. Hence Augustine^p554-1: «We call faith of those things which are not seen. Concerning hope also it is said: Hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he hope for»? As to not-seeing, whether of things believed or of things hoped for, it is common to faith and to hope.

Cap. III. How faith and hope differ.

Yet faith is distinguished from hope, as by word, so by a reasonable difference. «For faith is of evil things and of good, since both good things are believed and evil, and this by a good faith, not an evil one. There is also faith of past things and of present and of future. For we believe the death of Christ, which has already passed; we believe the session, which now is; we believe that he will come to judge, which is future. Likewise faith is both of one's own things and of another's. For each one believes himself to be, to have begun and not to have been at all everlasting, and we believe many different things, not only about other men, which pertain to religion, but also about the Angels. But hope is only of good things, and only of future things and of those pertaining to him who is said to bear hope of them^p554-2».

Cap. IV. Whether in Christ there was faith and hope.

After these things it remains to investigate whether faith and hope were in Christ; whence this treatise took its beginning. To some it seems not unlearnedly that faith-as-virtue and hope were not in him, just as they are not in the Saints already beatified or in the Angels; and yet the Saints believe and hope for the future resurrection, and the Angels believe the same; nor yet in them is faith or hope a virtue, because they both enjoy God by contemplating him through vision, and behold the future resurrection or judgment in the Word of God not through a glass in a dark manner^p554-3, but most clearly. For if, because they believe the future resurrection, it is therefore true that they have faith: then, that resurrection being consummated, after the judgment they will likewise be said to have faith also, because they will believe it past. But just as then they will believe, nor yet have the faith which makes the faithful — because they will not believe without knowledge, which will not be enigmatic, but through vision — so also now they believe and hope for the resurrection; nor yet do they have faith, because by believing they know. For there comes to them that which is perfect, and that which is in part is done away; for knowledge comes, and faith is done away; vision comes, and hope ceases. So also Christ, in whom were the goods of the fatherland, did indeed believe and hope for the resurrection that would be on the third day, for which he also prayed to the Father; nor yet did he have faith-as-virtue or hope, because he had not an enigmatic and mirror-like, but a most clear knowledge of it, since he did not know it more perfectly as past than he understood it as future. Yet Christ hoped, as he says in the Psalm^p554-4: In thee, O Lord, have I hoped; nor yet did he have faith or hope-as-virtue, because through vision he saw the things which he believed.

Cap. V. Whether the just in hell had faith and hope.

But concerning the ancient Fathers, who were held among those below until the passion, it can not incongruously be said that they had faith and hope-as-virtue, because they believed and hoped that they would see God through vision, in the manner in which they did not then see him; because the knowledge of God through vision did not lie open to them before the passion of Christ, which being consummated, they passed over from faith to vision.

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