Chapter 5 (95)
112 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
Chapter 4 (94)
HE RETURNS TO THE QUESTION POSED EARLIER, NAMELY WHETHER FAITH
AND HOPE WERE IN CHRIST. After these matters, it remains to investigate whether faith and hope were in Christ, which is where this treatise had its beginning.'—To some, not unlearnedly, it seems that the virtue of faith and hope would not have been in him, as they are not in the saints who are already blessed, or in angels. And yet the saints believe and hope that the resurrection is to come, and angels believe the same; but the virtue of faith or hope is not in them, because they already enjoy the contemplation of God face to face, and in God's Word they already perceive most clearly, and not darkly through a mirror,' the resurrection and the judgement to come. If it is true that they have faith merely because they believe that the resurrection is to come, then they will in like manner be said to have faith after the resurrection has come, after the judgement, because they will believe it has happened. Indeed, they will then believe, and yet not have the faith which makes the faithful such, because they will not believe without a direct knowledge free of all darkness. In the same way, they believe even now and hope for the resurrection [which is to come], and yet do not have faith, because by believing they know. For they now have that which is perfect, and that which is imperfect has passed away.' They now have knowledge, and faith has become unnecessary; they see face to face, and hope has passed away.—In the same way, Christ, in whom were the goods of the fatherland, believed and hoped that his resurrection would occur on the third day, and he prayed to the Father for it.* But he did not have the virtue of faith or hope, because he did not have a darkened and ambiguous knowledge of his resurrection, but the clearest, because he did not know it more perfectly once it had happened than he had understood it when it was still future. And yet Christ hoped, as he says in the Psalm: Jn you, o Lord, I placed my hope; but he did not have the virtue of faith or hope, because he saw face to face the things which he believed.
Chapter 5 (95)
WHETHER THE JUST WHO WERE HELD IN HELL HAD FAITH AND HOPE. But
as to the Fathers of old, who were held in hell until Christ's passion, it can be said not incongruously that they had the virtue of faith and hope, because they believed and hoped that they would see God's face in a way in which they could not then do. The direct knowledge of God did not 'Beginning of dist. 23.
"1 Coma. ae:
7CEA Cort ioeo:
Cian. leel >Ps.30/%