Question IV: Whether a certain object is set forth for hope, and is hoped for

FROM the definitions of Hope its certainty seems to be gathered; for it is called a certain expectation of beatitude. For indeed, since the outcome depends on the aids of God and our merits, and no one knows: Whether he be worthy of love or of hatred, Ecclesiastes 9, it does not seem that a certain expectation can be had, as D. Bonaventure notes in the opposing arguments.

OBSERVE that certainty pertains properly and formally to the intellect; for it is an effect of truth, which is the formal object of the intellect: but the will is said to be certain insofar as it can infallibly attain its end.

That Hope is most certain, all concede.

IT IS PROVED from D. Bonaventure first from the Apostle, who hoped for glory most certainly for himself, Rom. 8.: For I am sure that neither death, nor life, etc. will be able to separate us from the charity of God. And chapter 5.: Hope confoundeth not. And 1 to Timothy 1.: I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that the just judge is able to keep my deposit. And Heb. 6.: That we may have the strongest comfort, who have fled for refuge to hold fast the hope proposed to us, which we have as a sure anchor. Which passage the holy Doctor urges in Diata, tit. 5. cap. 4., where he notes that for this reason the Helmet is compared to Hope, 1 Thessal. 5., which is safe in battle; and Heb. 6. an anchor, which makes safe in a ship, as he notes also here on the last foundation. St. Thomas shows this most beautifully in Psal. 30.

HENCE in the little work on the seven gifts, on the Gift of piety near the end he notes that Hope is called full of immortality, Sap. 3. But more beautifully in the Commentaries. And Rom. 5.: We glory in the hope of the sons of God. Therefore session 6. cap. 13. the Council of Trent says all ought to place a most certain Hope in the aid and mercy of God. For God, unless his graces fail, will perfect as he began. Hence the holy Doctor asserts certainty thus here, and in Compend. Theolog. verit. lib. 5. cap. 22. From this it begins to appear in what this certainty consists.

The holy Doctor reports some saying that the certainty of faith gives to Hope all its certainty; but that it has no certainty of its own, just as particular science obtains all its certainty from universal science. For by faith man believes that all the good will be saved; but by Hope he believes that he himself in particular will be saved; whence he appropriates to himself what he believed universally; and since there is no certainty about singulars except insofar as they are referred to the universal, therefore hope does not appropriate to itself the certainty of faith absolutely, but under a condition, namely, if he shall have persevered unto the end. Whence they call the certainty of faith that of fidelity, because God cannot deny himself, since he promised salvation to those who persevere; but the certainty of hope is called that of confidence; and confidence is nothing else than a kind of fidelity turned upon oneself.

BUT this mode is not proved by the Seraphic Doctor, because Hope has its own certainty, as the Gloss on Rom. 5. says: Trial worketh hope, that is, the certainty of hope; otherwise it would not have its own proper aspect of a habit per se, but only a subaltern one, as Bellarmine also notes lib. 3. de Iustificatione, cap. 11. Therefore Hope has a proper certainty on the part of the will; another on the part of the intellect. On the part of the will, the certainty of hope is the firm adherence of the will to the thing hoped for, and this can be most great, even if on the part of the intellect man is not certain that he will attain that thing. Indeed, Hope seems not only not to require, but not even to be able to bear on the part of the intellect an absolute certainty: For what we certainly know we shall have, we do not properly hope for, but absolutely expect, as the holy Doctor hints argumento 4. opp. For in this way the souls of the blessed do not properly hope for the resurrection of the body, but only expect it, because on the part of the intellect they are most certain that it cannot be wanting to them. Hence Bellarmine infers that the sectary heretics, who require an absolute certainty on the part of the intellect about Justification and salvation, leave no place for Hope, properly so called.

HOWEVER, although Hope does not require an absolute certainty on the part of the intellect, yet hence it has also a twofold certainty. One arises from the primary foundation of hope, which is the promise of God. For we are certain that God cannot deceive. And indeed if nothing were required for our justification or salvation except the promise of God, we should have about these things an absolute and infallible certainty too; but because other things are also required, about which we are not so certain, therefore Hope does not expel all fear. The other certainty of Hope on the part of the intellect arises from charity, and by this it does not belong except to the just; for a friend can hope all good things from a friend, nor is he confounded, as is said Rom. 5.: And hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, etc. for charity is the form which perfects Hope.

Therefore Christian Hope has a certainty distinct from Faith, as the holy Doctor gathers: because faith is certain about this enunciation: I believe that there is eternal life; but Hope is borne toward eternal life incomplextly.

He proves this also from contraries; for one thing is opposed to one: but the certainty of faith is opposed to error and doubt; whereas the certainty of hope is repugnant to diffidence and despair.

But just as the certainty of faith in this life does not make it impossible that we fall into error against the truth believed, although it can overcome every error: so Hope does not make every diffidence impossible, although it carries with it a manly adherence.

Doubt can indeed befall our hope per accidens, on the part of the subject; if it does not take care to correspond to the grace of God by working faithfully. From this others deduce that the certainty of hope is conditional, which the Council of Trent seems to hint at, defining that the Just ought to hope for beatitude if they shall have persevered in well-doing unto the end. So they discourse at length in Bassaeus.

It is proved, because beatitude is to be hoped for in the same mode in which God promised it, but he promised conditionally, Rom. 8.: If so be that we suffer with him. And Matth. 8.: If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments: Therefore. So the holy Doctor runs through it in the body of the text, and ad 4.

Therefore what D. Thomas says at quaest. 18. art. 4. does not please him, that the certainty of hope is such as is the certainty of nature; but he adduces this as absolute in 3. dist. 26. quaest. 2. Nor does the argument of Caisensis press, namely, that we hope in God, whose power is insuperable, and whose will is ready to do good; and the certainty of hope is the determination of the inclination to its proper object.

These things are indeed frivolous; for the determination of hope to the object is, as it is proposed to us by faith, that we may be certain of beatitude if we persevere; to which end the inclination tends, desiring absolutely; but it does not hope absolutely, but with the due means, as the Council of Trent says.

Caisensis objects. If the certainty of hope were conditional, it could not fail; for as that truth cannot fail: He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved; so neither this: If I shall persevere, I shall be saved.

It is answered, by conceding that the conditional truth of Hope does not fail.

He objects secondly. Fear is opposed to Hope; but fear is not borne conditionally, thus: If I die in mortal sin, I shall be damned; for he is certain of this.

It is answered, that Fear is borne toward an imminent evil. Therefore it is borne conditionally. If therefore I do not do what I am bound to, I shall lose perseverance, without which I shall certainly not be saved.

From these the holy Doctor gathers first ad 2. that the certainty of Hope does not rest on the firmness of the will alone; but that the will rests on God, who is our firmness, as D. August. says, lib. 11. Confess. cap. 30.

He gathers secondly, that Hope has the certainty of order, because hope orders to salvation efficaciously and infallibly; but there is no certainty about the event, and thus even the foreknown are bound to hope, according to that: In him hath every congregation of the people hoped.

Caspensis says the Tridentine spoke of this certainty of the event, when he appends the condition: But the words of the Council mean something else; for it says: Let no man promise himself anything with absolute certainty; although all ought to place and repose in the aid of God a most firm hope.

He gathers thirdly lib. 5. Compendii Theolog. cap. 12. that the Hope of the souls in Purgatory, and of the Fathers in the Limbo, declined somewhat from the notion of Hope toward that which is the certainty of science. So, he says, the high faith of Paul to the third heaven declined; and that of Stephen, when he saw Christ, Act. 7.; and of Adam in the state of innocence.