Chapter 2 (84): 1. Whether Peter Had Faith In The Passion When He Saw That Man
104 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
3. THAT FAITH IS ALSO SAID OF PRESENT THINGS, BUT IMPROPERLY. But
Augustine says elsewhere that faith can be of things present: that shall be the case in the future, when we shall see God face to face; and yet this is not properly called faith, but truth——AUGUSTINE, IN THE BOOK OF QUESTIONS ON THE GOSPELS. He says: "There is a faith by which are believed the things which are not seen; but there is also a faith in things, when we believe not in words, but in the very things present to us: that shall be the case when God's wisdom shall openly offer itself to the saints for contemplation face to face."*—-But this is not properly called faith, but the reward of faith to which one will come by believing, so that from "faith in words" the just one may pass "into faith in things."
Chapter 2 (84)
1. WHETHER PETER HAD FAITH IN THE PASSION WHEN HE SAW THAT MAN
SUFFER. But if it is asked whether Peter had faith in the passion, when he discerned with his own eyes that the man Christ suffered, we say that he had faith in the passion not in that he believed that man to suffer because he saw this, but in that he believed that the one who suffered was God.
For it was not the virtue of faith to believe that the man suffered and died, which even the Jewish bystander believed, but to believe that it was God who suffered.
2. Hence Augustine, on that place in the Psalm: He answered him in the way of his power: "The praise of faith is not that he believes that man to be dead, which even the pagan believes, but that he believes him to be glorified"' and true God. And so faith believes that God died and man was glorified. Therefore it was not [a matter of] faith for Peter to believe that that man was dying, which he could see with his own eyes, but to believe that it was God who was dying. Nor do we gain any merit by our faith, if we believe that the man died, which even a Jew believes, but because we believe that it was the man-God who died.
Chapter 3 (85) 1. WHETHER SOME THINGS WHICH ARE BELIEVED ARE KNOWN. After these matters, it is usual to ask, since faith concerns things that are not apparent and not seen, whether it is also only of things which are unknown, for if it concerns only things which are unknown, it appears to concern only things of which we are ignorant.
"Augustine, Quaestiones Evangeliorum, bk 2 q39.
Ibid.
'Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, on Ps. 101, 24, sermon 2 n7.