Dist. 25, Art. 1, Q. 2
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/3/d/25/q/bon-sent-III-d25-a1-q2
----------------------------------------
### Question II. *Whether for those who came before the advent of Christ it sufficed for salvation to believe only those things which pertain to the Divinity.*

Secondly there is inquiry concerning the sufficiency of faith as to those who came before the advent of Christ, and the question is whether for them it sufficed for salvation to believe only those things which pertain to the Divinity. And that it is so, it seems.

1. To the Hebrews, chapter eleven: *It is necessary that one approaching believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder*: if therefore the Apostle determines sufficiently that which was fitting for faith, it seems that it sufficed for them to believe that. But all that could be believed while believing nothing concerning the humanity of Christ: therefore it seems that at that time for salvation faith in the Divinity alone sufficed.

2. Likewise, faith which sufficiently directs to hoping and loving suffices for salvation; but the faith by which one believes God to be his creator and rewarder sufficiently directs him to hoping and loving: therefore it seems that, with all faith of the humanity excluded, faith in the Divinity alone sufficed for salvation.

3. Likewise, many were saved without faith in the passion of Christ — for very few came before in the Old Testament who believed that the Son of God was to be crucified for the salvation of the human race — if therefore they could be saved without faith in the passion, by the same reasoning [also] without faith in the incarnation: therefore also without faith in the Mediator.

4. Likewise, no man is bound to know what the Angels are ignorant of; but before the advent of Christ the Angels were ignorant of the incarnation of Christ: therefore men were not bound to believe it. The major proposition is manifest in itself; the minor is proved through that which is said in Isaiah, chapter sixty-three: *Who is this who comes from Edom?* there the Gloss: «It is openly declared that certain Angels, until it was fulfilled, did not know the mystery of the incarnation». And to the Ephesians, chapter three, it is said: *That it may be made known to the Principalities and Powers in the heavenly places*; and it can be had from several other passages. Hence Chrysostom in the first Homily on John: «We are greatly honored, in that together with us the Angels learned through the voice of John»; and the same is had in the Gloss on that passage to the Ephesians, chapter three: *What is the dispensation of the mystery hidden from the ages in God.*

5. Likewise, he who fulfills in the evangelical Law that which is of its dictate attains to salvation, and likewise of the Mosaic Law: therefore by parity of reasoning he who fulfilled those things which were of the dictate of the Law of nature attained to salvation, according as the Apostle intimates to the Romans, chapter two: therefore in the time of the Law of nature it was not necessary to believe for salvation, except what was of the dictate of nature. But that God should become incarnate and that there should be a future Mediator was not of the dictate of the Law

of nature: therefore it does not seem that it was necessary to believe at that time.

6. Likewise, no one is bound to do that to which his operative power cannot raise itself: therefore no one was bound to believe that whose knowledge he could not acquire either through discovery or through teaching. If therefore in the time of the law of nature they could not by themselves discover knowledge of the Mediator, nor was there one who might teach externally, nor were there as yet prophetic revelations; it seems that at that time they were bound to believe nothing concerning the Mediator: therefore without faith in the Mediator they could attain to salvation.

**Against this** there are many authorities, which the Master adduces in the text, and this same thing is shown by reason.

1. Christ is the head of the whole Church, therefore no one can be saved unless he be made a member of Christ; but one cannot be made a member of Christ unless he believe in Christ: therefore without faith in the Mediator no one could ever be saved.

2. Likewise, no one could enter heaven unless the gate were open; but the gate could not be opened except through the passion of Christ: therefore no one could be saved except by the merit of the passion of Christ. But the merit of the passion of Christ does not avail except for those in whom Christ dwells: if therefore Christ dwells through faith and charity, which is had toward him; it was impossible for anyone to be saved without faith in the Mediator.

3. Likewise, no one can be saved without the remission of original sin; but original sin cannot be remitted except through faith, or through some Sacrament of faith, which is a sign of the Mediator himself: therefore no one could attain to salvation before the advent of Christ who did not believe in the Mediator.

4. Likewise, no one can attain to salvation except one who hopes; no one rightly hopes except one who believes that he will attain to salvation through merits, because hope proceeds «from grace and merits»: if therefore those who came before the advent of Christ were saved, they believed that they were saved through merits: either therefore they believed their *own* merits to suffice for themselves, or [believed themselves] to need the merits of *another*. If they believed their *own* [merits] to suffice for themselves: therefore they were puffed up and deceived, therefore they were not saved; if they believed themselves to need the merits of another: therefore they had faith concerning the Mediator: therefore no one could be saved after the fall without faith in the Redeemer.

### Conclusion.

> No one after the fall could be saved without faith in the Mediator, at least implicit.

**I respond:** It must be said that, as the Master proves by many authorities in the text, after the fall of Adam no one could be saved without faith in the Mediator. For no one could be freed from that sin unless he believed in that Mediator, either he himself for himself, if he were an adult, or another for him, if he were a little child.

And the reason of this is: that, since *grace and truth were made through Jesus Christ*, and the liberation from that sin is through the merits of Christ, and the merits of Christ do not extend except to those who are made his members and are joined to him through faith; just as it is impossible that anyone now be saved, unless he be joined to him either through faith, or through the Sacrament of faith: so also it was impossible, after the fall, for anyone to attain to salvation who in no way believed in Christ the mediator. But I say *in some way*, because faith in the Mediator can be had in two ways, namely *implicitly*, or *explicitly*: *explicitly*, as if someone believed that the Son of God would assume our humanity, would be born of the Virgin, would suffer on the Cross, would rise again on the third day, etc. And to believe in this manner *explicitly* was not fitting for all, but only for those to whom it had been revealed by God, as for the most holy Fathers. — But to believe *implicitly* is to await a future redeemer, but in what manner and how this ought to be, to *believe* according as those believed to whom it has been revealed by the Lord; and this indeed was fitting for all.

And this is what master Hugh of St. Victor says in the book *On the Sacraments*: «These are, he says, the things which right faith from the beginning could never have any less of, namely to believe that there is one God, the creator of all things and the ruler of the universe;

that he indeed is not the author of evil, yet [is the author of good things] of those who in their evils sought his mercy and awaited a future redeemer. This we believe to have sufficed for the faith of the simple in the beginning; and yet we say that they most truly had in this [implicit faith] faith in his nativity, passion, resurrection, and ascension, because they clung [to it] with faith and devotion, believing and knowing this». — Thus therefore it must be granted that no one after the fall could be saved without faith in the Mediator; of which, because the philosophers lacked it, clinging to their own merits and virtues, therefore as proud and separated from the members and merits of Christ, they were excluded from the joys of paradise. — The reasons adduced for this side are therefore to be granted.

1. To that, then, which is objected first concerning the authority of the Apostle, it must be said that the Apostle does not precisely intend to determine the whole that is necessary for salvation, but that without which there can be no salvation. For he says that this is *fitting*, but he does not say that this is *sufficient*. And he touches upon those two especially, because they were necessary for every state of nature, not only for the state of fallen nature, but also for the state of innocence.

2. To that which is objected, that faith in the Creator and Rewarder sufficiently directs to hoping and loving; it must be said that this is false according to the state of *fallen* nature, because, since hope proceeds from merits, as was touched upon in the [arguments] opposing, if someone were to hope to be saved by his own merits, without the merits of the Mediator, he would not rightly hope, but rather presume. Therefore hope is not sufficiently directed through faith in the Creator and Rewarder; likewise neither is charity, because we ought to love not only because [he is] Creator and Rewarder, but more because [he is] Redeemer.

3. To that which is objected, that many were saved without faith in the passion; it must be said that if we speak of *explicit* faith, it is true; if of *implicit* faith, it is not true. For all who were to be saved awaited a future Redeemer, and also in their sacrifices and oblations prefigured this, in all of which Christ to be offered is signified. Hence in a certain way they professed it *by deed* secretly, although *by word* they did not utter it openly. Likewise it was not necessary to believe the incarnation *explicitly*, but it sufficed to believe that someone would come who could, would know how, and would will to redeem the human race.

4. To that which is objected, that men are not bound to know what the Angels are ignorant of; it must be said that even if the Angels did not know the mystery of the incarnation fully, yet there was none of the Blessed who did not know that the human race was to be redeemed; and therefore from this it is not concluded that it was not necessary to have faith concerning the Mediator, but that it was not necessary to believe *explicitly*, but it sufficed to believe *implicitly*.

5. To that which is objected, that in every time it sufficed to fulfill what was of the dictate of that Law which was in that state; it must be said that this is true, according as this is understood of the Law of *nature* or of the Law of *Scripture*, according as it is aided by the gift of grace. For without the gift of grace it does not befall [anyone] in any Law to attain to salvation. But although the Law of nature, destitute of the help of grace, cannot dictate anything concerning the Mediator himself; yet insofar as it is aided through grace, when it perceived its own infirmity and misery and noticed the justice and mercy of God, it could sufficiently dictate that man needed a repairer, and that the divine goodness was disposed to give [it]. Hence there were always certain renowned worshippers of God from the beginning of the world, who professed these things by their oblations, at whose sight and example others could be instructed.

6. To that which is objected last, that they could not know that through discovery and teaching; the response is already evident: because divine grace was at hand for all, and nature could lead them to this by the consideration of its own misery and crookedness and by a certain general instruction, which they could receive from the men who were renowned in the worship of God. Hence since there was not then prophecy nor open revelation; they were not bound altogether to explicit faith. Yet it is undoubtedly true that knowledge of the Mediator was at hand for them, as much as was fitting according to the exigency of the time, both from the dictate of nature and from instruction by another and also from the inspiration of God, who offers himself to all who seek him humbly.