The motion of grace toward hope
Thesis CIV. On the motion of grace that rouses us to the act of hope, he explains his view as follows. 'When the intellect, already enlightened by the light of supernatural faith, thinks about the eternal happiness God has prepared for man, about its goodness and excellence, about God's many other glorious works and the benefits he has conferred on man, among them Christ's incarnation and passion, and considers the other means most abundantly supplied to it for gaining eternal life, there arises naturally in the will not only an affection toward happiness, by which the will is drawn and invited to want it with love of desire, but also a motion of uplift, by which it is attracted and drawn to hope for that happiness from God.
This motion does depend on free choice, if choice turns away from the thought from which the motion arises. Nevertheless, once obstacles are removed, it rises purely by nature, and God, as it were, thrusts himself into it with a special influence. He sharpens it and makes it supernatural, so that in its order and degree it is what salvation requires, and through it he raises the will supernaturally and, so to speak, invites it to elicit the supernatural act of hoping for eternal happiness and for the means needed to gain it.
Through such grace, then, our free choice, anticipated and roused by God, elicits, if it wishes, the first free act of supernatural hope. Duly disposed by that act, it receives from God the habit of supernatural hope, through which it can afterwards elicit other similar supernatural acts whenever it chooses.'
Latin
CIV. Quod spectat gratiae motum, quo ad spei actum excitamur, sic mentem suam de illo explicat. Dum intellectus, inquit, illustratus jam lumine fidei supernaturalis, sempiternam beatitudinem homini a Deo praeparatam cogitat, bonitatem ac excellentiam illius, tum multa alia & praeclara Dei opera, ac beneficia in hominem collata, de quorum numero sunt Christi incarnatio ac passio, consideratque reliqua media quae sibi ad vitam aeternam consequendam abundantissime suppeditata sunt, naturaliter oritur in voluntate non solum affectus ad beatitudinem, quo allicitur & invitatur ut eam amore concupiscentiae velit, sed etiam motus erectionis, quo attrahitur & allicitur ad eam ipsam a Deo sperandam. Quamvis autem hic motus a libero arbitrio pendeat, si a cogitatione ex qua motus oritur cesset; nihilominus sublatis impedimentis, mere naturaliter insurgit, eique quasi se ingerit Deus specialiter influendo, eumque acuit & efficit supernaturalem, ut in suo ordine & gradu sit qualis ad salutem necessarius est; per eumque supernaturaliter erigit, & quasi invitat voluntatem, ut eliciat actum supernaturalem sperandi sempiternam beatitudinem, & media ad illam comparandam necessaria. Per ejusmodi ergo gratiam liberum nostrum arbitrium, a Deo praeventum & excitatum elicit, si vult, primum actum spei supernaturalis liberum, quo rite dispositum consequitur a Deo habitum spei supernaturalis, per quem in posterum elicere possit alios similes actus supernaturales quotiescunque voluerit.