To theological hope answers the gift of fear ; that is to say, not worldly, not servile fear, which, although it may come from the Holy Ghost, still may be combined with a sinful will; but filial and chaste fear, whereby we reverence God Himself, and avoid withdrawing ourselves from Him, From this we infer, that filial fear and hope are mutually connected together, since by filial fear we do not dread lest that should fail us which we hope to obtain by Divine assistance, but we dread lest we should deprive ourselves of that assistance, according to the doctrine of S. Thomas.
And as the gift of fear answers to the virtue of hope, and for heroicity there is required the influx of some gift of the Holy Spirit, it follows that the influx of a gift for the heroic degree of the virtue of hope will be the influx of the gift of fear, not however every sort of fear, but of that which we have just described.
Prospero Lambertini (later Benedict XIV), Heroic Virtue, vol. I, pp. 104-105.
