Question X: What the proximate subject of hope is

I ASSERT that Hope is in the will, against some who follow Suarez disp. 1. sect. 2, saying that it is in the judgment of the intellect. So D. Thom. and D. Bonau., whom others follow in Tanner disp. 2. quaest. 1. dub. 2.

It is PROVED by the Holy Doctor, first from the Philosophers and the Holy Fathers.

SECONDLY. To hope belongs to the same power as to fear; but to fear is an affection: therefore.

THIRDLY. Opposites are about the same thing; but despair is in the affection: therefore also hope, its opposite. The major is Aristotle's in postpraed.

FOURTHLY, because in the rational and concupiscible power some directive rule must be placed, since they can go awry. Therefore in the Rational is placed Faith; in the Concupiscible, Charity: therefore in the Irascible, no less prone to err, the Virtue of Hope ought to be placed, ruling and directing toward God as toward an arduous good.

FIFTHLY it is proved by the argument used by Caspensis disp. 16. sect. 7., Valencia disp. 2. sect. 1. p. 1., Fulsens. lib. 3. cap. 7.: A virtue that has for its object a good, as arduous, is in the will. Hope is of this kind: therefore. The minor is proved from what has been said. The major is certain; for good is the object of the will; the arduous is the object of the Irascible, which is part of the affective power. Hope indeed raises one up toward the supernatural end as arduous.

OBICTION first. Hope is called conscience in the Gloss ad primam Timot. primo.

THE HOLY DOCTOR ANSWERS that Hope is called conscience in the manner of an effect, because it is expectation rising from grace and merits; but merits cannot exist except where the conscience is pure.

OBICTION secondly from D. Bernard in Cant.: God to come is the continuation of eternity in memory, which is called tension, corresponding to hope, namely.

THE HOLY DOCTOR ANSWERS that God will be the continuation of eternity, which continuation is in the memory mediately, inasmuch as it preserves the species of the retribution to come, never to be lost, and of the perpetual merits in the hope answering to it.

OBICTION thirdly. According to D. Augustine in the Books de Civitate Dei: Hope is the virtue by which one presumes that he will arrive at that which he believes: therefore to hope is to believe firmly, which belongs to the cognitive power. Therefore also Rom. 4: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice, and there is added: Who against hope, believed in hope. Which authority the Sectarians abuse, so as to confuse Hope with faith.

THE HOLY DOCTOR ANSWERS that Hope, taken broadly, signifies a kind of firm belief with respect to attaining some good. Thus Abraham is said to have believed in hope, because in faith in the promises of God he founded his hope against hope, which nature could supply; yet he does not will that to hope and to believe be the same. For to hope properly is to trust, and from that confidence, with a certain security, to tend toward the attaining of an arduous good; and these two, namely confidence and secure tending, St. Augustine understands by the word presuming. See Caspensem numero 42.

THAT the Apostle distinguishes there faith from Hope is proved from Bellarmine lib. 1. de Iustificatione, cap. 5: He was not weakened in faith, nor did he consider his own body now dead, and the dead womb of Sara. He staggered not by distrust at the promise of God, but was strengthened by faith, giving glory to God: most fully knowing that whatsoever God has promised, he is able to perform. Therefore also it was reputed to him unto justice, where he speaks of justifying faith, as is clear from the last words; but what kind of faith that was he shows by the words denying: He did not consider; and by the words asserting: Most fully knowing. Which pertain to the understanding. But when he says: He staggered not by distrust; he signifies that his faith was outstanding and repelled all distrust, begetting hope. Next, distrust here signifies unbelief, for in the Greek you have ἀπιστία, as Bellarminus notes lib. 1. de Iustificatione, cap. 11. Hence Ephes. 3: In whom we have confidence and access in trust by his faith: If therefore we have confidence through faith; it follows that faith is the cause of confidence, and not confidence itself; for nothing causes itself.

ABSURDLY, however, does Kemnitius say in exam. that D. Bonaventure asserts Hope, as to its certainty, to belong to the intellect, and, as to expectation, to look to the will; for the Holy Doctor dist. 26. quaest. 5. asserts that Hope belongs to the will even as to its certainty; he does indeed grant that it is caused by the intellect, as Bellarminus also notes lib. 1. de Iustificatione, cap. 6.

The Holy Doctor says moreover in the body of the text: It belongs to Hope to establish, and in a manner to make secure, the attaining of future beatitude; but establishment and confirmation pertain to the irascible power, which is part of the affective power. What could be clearer? But you will hear clearer things still.

Faith, however, is placed in the intellect, as I said Tract. de fide, disp. 1. quaest. 18. Therefore the Apostle secunda Cor. 10. says, The understanding is taken captive unto faith. And if they should always wish to take believing as, having confidence, they will infer things absurdly, as when Christ says: Do you not believe, because I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Act. 8: I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Rom. 10: With the heart we believe unto justice, which they will explicate most unfittingly of confidence, saying: I have confidence that Jesus is the Son of God, etc.

OBICTION fourthly. The image of God is reformed by re-creation; but the essence of the soul is made deiform by grace; the powers, however, by the Theological virtues, of which faith restores the Intellect, Charity the Will: therefore Hope the Memory.

THE HOLY DOCTOR ANSWERS that the Image is reformed by re-creation, as is fitting. But since the Image is according to natural things, therefore it is more in cognition, and accordingly two powers correspond to it, memory and Intellect; and one of the affective, the Will. But the Likeness is according to the will the more, whereby by aversion from God it is made unlike in the unbridled concupiscible and irascible; therefore two virtues are required: one, Hope, for reforming the irascible; the other, Charity, for the concupiscible; and one, Faith, for the intellect. But in truth Hope also reforms the memory (which has sympathy/conformity in retaining what it perceived) by reforming the irascible. This he says is according to the mind of D. Augustine.

But it reforms the irascible formally, and the memory efficiently, only in this second manner. See these things p. 1. tract. 10. disp. 1. quaest. 2.

Objection fifth. Certitude looks to the cognitive power; but Hope is a certain expectation of future beatitude: therefore it is in the cognitive power.

The Holy Doctor answers again that the certitude of Hope does not look to the cognitive power, but rather to the affective power, which certitude is a kind of assurance, holding itself on the side of the irascible power. Do you hear this, deaf and mute Kemniti?