Chapter 3 (85)
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.
Distinction XXIV | 105 2. THAT FAITH IS NOT COMPREHENDED BY ANY SENSE. But it is to be known that, since there is an inner vision and an exterior one, faith is not among the things subject to the exterior vision; and yet it is among the things which are in some manner grasped by the interior gaze. And some things are certainly grasped so as to be understood, even if not as they will be in the future; others are not. And since faith comes from hearing, but in an interior way, and not an exterior one, it cannot concern something of which one is entirely ignorant. Augustine sets down that faith does not pertain to a bodily sense; he says: "Although faith comes to us from hearing, yet it does not pertain to that sense of the body which is called hearing, because it is not a sound; nor to any other sense of the body, because it is a thing of the heart, and not of the body.""
3. AUGUSTINE, ON OCTONARY 10. And so some things are believed by faith which are understood by natural reason, but some are believed which are not so understood. Hence the Prophet: Unless you believe, you will not understand..—Which Augustine plainly distinguishes, saying: "There are some things which, unless we understand them, we will not believe; there are others which, unless we believe them, we will not understand."
"But no one can believe in God unless he understand something, since faith comes from the hearing of preaching."'—The same, in the book On the Trinity: "A sure faith is in some manner the beginning of knowledge; but this knowledge is not made sure, except after this life."°—ONn OCTONARY 10. Ambrose too says: "Where there is faith, knowledge does not immediately follow; where there is knowledge, faith has gone before."'—
From these words, it is apparent that some things are believed which are not understood or known unless they are first believed; but some things are sometimes understood even before they are believed.
4. And yet they are not now understood as they will be known in the future; and even now they are better understood through faith, by which hearts are cleansed, because unless God is loved through faith, the heart is not cleansed to know him.—AUGUSTINE, IN BOOK 8 OF ON THE TRINITY.
Hence Augustine: " But what is it to know God, except to behold him in our mind and to perceive him firmly? But even before we are able to behold and to perceive God as he is perceived by the pure in heart, unless he is first loved by faith, the heart will not be cleansed so as to be fit to see
'Cf. Rom. 10, 17.
*Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 13 c2 n5.
*Is. 7, 9, Septuagint.
'Ordinary gloss, on Ps. 118, 73; from Augustine on the same text, Enarrationes in Psalmos, sermon 18 n3.
*[bid.
°Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 9 cl n1.
7Ambrose, Expositio de Psalmo 118, sermon 10 n31.