Bonaventure

In his own words on Deuteronomy

• Deuteronomy 6:4

  The Jews sometimes reproach us and say that we do not properly observe the first commandment. Concerning the first statement, namely: "You shall not have strange gods," they say that the Lord says: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one;" and you posit a Trinity, namely the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. To this objection, that we worship three gods, I say that if we worshipped three persons such that we said there were three gods and a threefold essence, it would necessarily follow that we worshipped three gods. But we worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God and one essence, but three persons. Whence, just as we see that in man there is a plurality of natures, namely intellectual and corporeal, and yet there is but one person, so conversely in the divine there is unity of essence and plurality of persons. God the Father has a Word and the Holy Spirit: indeed He has a Word, through which He made all things; and He has the Holy Spirit, through whom He preserves all things. The Word flows forth from the one who speaks and is God from God. Likewise the Holy Spirit is spirated from the Father and the Son and is God and in God. The Holy Spirit alone is the one who searches the depths of hearts, and He is God. Hence the person who wishes to understand these things and to speak about them must have the most elevated thoughts, not earthbound ones: for otherwise he cannot understand the most exalted things concerning God. For when we posit the Trinity, we do not posit Christ as a mere man, but God with man.

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 3

• Deuteronomy 6:4

  To the objection that if we are bound to believe this, it is either because it is true, or because it is a truth falling under a precept, it must be said that it is because it is a truth falling under a precept. And if you ask: under which precept? I say that under the first, in which indeed it is said: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God. You shall adore the Lord your God and Him alone shall you serve. In this precept indeed we are obligated expressly to believe that God is one, but implicitly to believe that God is triune. And this is evident as follows: because by this precept we are bound to worship God with the worship of latria, which is there called service. Now to worship in spiritual matters is according to a transumption from material things: in material things, however, to cultivate a field is to bring forth the shoots proceeding originally from the earth itself. In this same manner, to worship God is to profess by heart and mouth and deed that He is the principle, such that He is not perfectly worshipped unless we confess that He is the principiating principle not only effective in creation, but also restorative in redemption and perfective in glorification: nor yet perfectly, if He is believed to be a principle from time, unless He is believed to be a principiating principle from eternity: nor yet, unless He is believed to be a principle principiating one who eternally principiates: which we believe when we believe that the Father eternally generates the Son, who together with Him spirates the Holy Spirit, so that eternally in God there is a principle from a principle, and a principle not from a principle.

  Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, Question 1

• Deuteronomy 6:4

  And these things are so certain that the opposite of them cannot be thought by one understanding being itself, and one of them necessarily implies the other. For because it is simply being, therefore it is simply first: because it is simply first, therefore it is not made by another, nor could it have been made by itself, therefore it is eternal. Likewise, because it is first and eternal; therefore it is not from others, therefore it is most simple. Likewise, because it is first, eternal, and most simple: therefore there is nothing of potentiality mixed with act in it, and therefore it is most actual. Likewise, because it is first, eternal, most simple, most actual; therefore it is most perfect: to such a being absolutely nothing is lacking, nor can any addition be made. Because it is first, eternal, most simple, most actual, most perfect: therefore it is supremely one. For what is said through every manner of superabundance with respect to all things. "What also is said simply through superabundance, it is impossible that it should belong to any but one alone." Whence if God names being primary, eternal, most simple, most actual, most perfect: it is impossible for him to be thought not to be, nor to be anything but one alone. Hear therefore, O Israel, your God is one God. If you see this in the pure simplicity of the mind, you will be in some measure flooded with the illumination of eternal light.

  Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 5

• Deuteronomy 10:12

  The authority of the one commanding ought to move us to observe the commandments of God. He is of great authority, because by His munificent benevolence He saves us. "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, except that you fear the Lord your God and walk in His ways and love Him and serve the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul, and keep the commandments of the Lord?" Lord, who created you; God, who governs you; your own, who saves you.

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1

• Deuteronomy 10:12

  And in Deuteronomy it is said: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, except that you fear him and keep all his commandments and walk in his ways?" And Solomon says: "Fear God and observe his commandments: this is the whole man," that is, the perfect man. Therefore if you wish to be perfect, fear God.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 2

• Deuteronomy 11:7

  The authority of the one commanding ought to move us to observe the commandments of God, because by His great power He creates us. "Your eyes have seen all the great works of God, which He did, that you might keep His commandments."

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1

• Deuteronomy 11:10

  Now Sacred Scripture is generous in that God conveys His influence to it, producing the most abundant multiplications. Hence, in Deuteronomy: "The land which you are to enter and occupy is not like the land of Egypt," which is irrigated, but "a land... that drinks in rain from the heavens." For it is not like the other sciences, since God visits it.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 14

• Deuteronomy 11:26

  Behold, the wondrous benefit of observance and the wondrous calamity of transgression. Whence the Lord through Moses: "Behold, I set before thee blessing and curse: blessing, if thou shalt keep My commandments: curse, if thou shalt not keep them." The Lord places us in the middle and works with us wonderfully. When someone wishes to demonstrate something to another, he proceeds against him by a twofold way, namely by ostensive reasoning and by reasoning leading to an impossibility. Thus does the Lord: He places man in the middle between heaven and hell: in heaven is eternal glory, in hell are eternal punishments. And when the Lord shows man the glory of paradise, which he can merit by keeping the commandments, then He inclines him to the observance of the commandments by ostensive reasoning. But when He shows him the punishments of hell, into which he will fall if he transgresses the commandments, then He inclines him by reasoning leading to an impossibility.

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1

• Deuteronomy 15:11

  Just as that law, Deuteronomy 15: There shall be no needy person or beggar among you, was not given against the mendicancy of the poor, but against the tightfistedness of the rich — which is clear from the fact that in the same chapter it is added: The poor shall not be wanting in the land of your habitation; therefore I command you to open your hand to your needy and poor brother — so also this law is given to bishops who have abundance for the sustenance of poor clerics, especially those who are not in want voluntarily but by compulsion, lest on account of their indigence they become slack in divine service.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• Deuteronomy 16:19

  Just as mercy is a friend of wisdom, so avarice is its enemy. The avaricious deride all who do not love money. "Gifts blind the eyes of the wise and alter the words of the just." They blind the eyes, not bodily, but spiritual; therefore they take away the light of wisdom.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 9

• Deuteronomy 16:19

  The ninth plague was of darkness, by which the covetous and avaricious are struck, because nothing so blinds a man as covetousness. Whence the Prophet: "Gifts and presents blind the eyes of the prudent and change the words of the just."

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 7

• Deuteronomy 16:20

  Law slays a man when the minister of the law slays, and this with a just order having been observed, a just cause, and a just intention. It is necessary that there be a just order and a just cause, that is, that one be slain from a just cause, because the law says: "That which is just you shall justly pursue."

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 6

• Deuteronomy 17:12

  Deuteronomy 17: If you perceive that the judgment before you is difficult and ambiguous, and you see the words of the judges to vary: arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God has chosen. But the man who acts proudly, refusing to obey the command of the priest, that man shall die: there the Gloss says: "Here he grants the faculty of appeal." From this text and Gloss it is gathered that in the old law there was a supreme Pontiff, to whom recourse was to be had in judgments, and whom all were bound to obey. If therefore this was so in the law of the figure, much more does it seem that it ought to be so in the law of grace. And this for a threefold reason: first, because there is greater unity now than then: therefore much more ought there be one Pontiff. Likewise, the pontificate is now more worthy and lofty: therefore much more ought all now be subject to one Pontiff than in the time of the law of Moses. Finally, because here there ought to be a greater obedience and a more ordered hierarchy. From all of which it is gathered that if one supreme Pontiff was to be obeyed in the time of the law of Moses, much more so in the time of the law of Christ.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 4

• Deuteronomy 17:12

  Because the written law was a law of rigor, it not only approves this threefold obedience, but also punishes transgressors of this obedience. It punishes the rebellious son, the rebellious servant, and also the disobedient subject, Deuteronomy 17: He who acts proudly, refusing to obey the command of the priest, that man shall die.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 4

• Deuteronomy 21:18

  Because the written law was a law of rigor, it not only approves this threefold obedience, but also punishes transgressors of this obedience. For it punishes the rebellious son, Deuteronomy 21: If a man beget a rebellious and insolent son, who does not heed his father's command, and when corrected scorns to obey: they shall seize him and bring him to the elders, etc.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 4

• Deuteronomy 23:23

  The second mode of breaking a vow occurs through a contrary will, as when someone promises something to God and afterward repents of it. Against such persons it is said in Deuteronomy: "If anything has proceeded from your lips, you shall not make it void."

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 3

• Deuteronomy 25:2

  From the second consideration comes forth that fruit of justice which consists in fleeing evil, that is, by means of distinguishing judgments. No one, indeed, wants to reap cockle or tares, for as it is said in Deuteronomy: "According to the measure of the sin shall the measure also of the stripes be." Thus the consideration of the judgments will make one flee from evil.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 18

• Deuteronomy 30:11

  The commandments of God are irreproachable, because they contain nothing impossible. To one having charity the commandments of God are easy and sweet, but to one not having charity they seem difficult. Augustine gives the example of a bird having feathers and a bird without feathers: for a bird having feathers it is easy to fly, but for a bird not having feathers it is difficult. Similarly, to a man of perverse will the commandments seem difficult, which to one having charity are easy. Whence it is said in Deuteronomy: "This commandment which I command you today is not above you nor placed far off nor set in heaven nor placed beyond the sea, but the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it."

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1

• Deuteronomy 30:15

  It is now clear that there are ten precepts of the sacred decalogue. In the first three, right ordering toward God is commanded; in the fourth, right ordering and beneficence toward parents; in the other six, right ordering and innocence toward one's neighbor is commanded. Although certain precepts are called affirmative and certain negative, nevertheless all contain both affirmation and negation within themselves. When God prohibits something in a certain commandment, He commands its contrary; and conversely, when He commands something, He prohibits its contrary. For in the first commandment, humble adoration of the divine majesty is commanded, and idolatry is prohibited. In the second, faithful assertion of the divine truth is commanded, and perjury is prohibited. In the third, devout love of the divine goodness is commanded, and lack of devotion is prohibited. In the fourth, piety toward parents is commanded, and dishonor is prohibited. In the fifth, meekness is commanded, and wrath is prohibited. In the sixth, chastity is commanded, and adultery is prohibited. In the seventh, generosity is commanded, and theft is prohibited. In the eighth, truthfulness is commanded, and lying is prohibited. In the ninth, liberality of heart is commanded, and concupiscence for temporal things is prohibited. In the tenth, purity of mind is commanded, and concupiscence of the flesh is prohibited. See that all the precepts contain within themselves affirmation and negation, and that in every precept there is life and good, death and evil. In the observance of the commandments there is life and good, and in transgression there is death and evil. And from the observance of the law follows blessing, and from transgression, cursing. For from the observance of the law a man becomes reverent, faithful, devout, pious, meek, chaste, generous, truthful, content with his own possessions — that is, liberal in heart and undefiled in mind. On the contrary, from the transgression of the law a man becomes an idolater, a blasphemer, undevout, impious, a murderer, an adulterer, a thief, a liar, covetous, and carnal. Therefore the transgressor of the law and the observer are more distant from one another than hell is from paradise, because the one is at the center and the other is at the circumference; nor can the God of heaven do otherwise, because He is just and "cannot deny Himself."

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 7

• Deuteronomy 32:2

  "Give ear, O heavens, while I speak; let the earth hearken to the words of my mouth! May my instruction soak in like the rain, and my discourse permeate like the dew, like a downpour upon the grass, like a shower upon the crops." This dew is the influence of the Holy Spirit's grace which visits the Scriptures and in which it is sweetly found.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 14

• Deuteronomy 32:16

  In the first word: You shall not have strange gods before me, all profane pacts with demons are prohibited, whether they be made through incantations of words, or through inscriptions of characters or images, or through immolations of sacrifices. All these Augustine calls pacts with demons, because in such things there is attributed to the creature what ought to be attributed to the Creator; and therefore such persons sin against the first word of the commandment: You shall not have strange gods before me. Concerning such persons it is said in the canticle of Deuteronomy: They provoked him with strange gods, and stirred him to anger with him who was not God. Whence such persons fall into the hands of demons.

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 2

• Deuteronomy 32:27

  We see some who have been exalted by God, who nonetheless raise themselves up against God, saying: "Our hand is exalted, and God has not done all these things." Such men lose both the land of the living and the grace of the Holy Spirit.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 1

• Deuteronomy 32:28

  "It is a nation without counsel and without prudence: would that they were wise and understood and foresaw their last things." He touches upon the three parts of intelligence, namely memory of things past, understanding of things present, and circumspection regarding things future. Whoever does not have this understanding cannot be set right. This understanding is the rule of moral circumspections with desire of heart and pursuit of work, so that a person may consider what is to be avoided, what is to be done, and what is to be awaited. For God gives this understanding, and it is a gift of God.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 8

• Deuteronomy 32:29

  "It is a nation without counsel and without prudence: would that they were wise and understood and foresaw their last things." He touches upon the three parts of intelligence, namely memory of things past, understanding of things present, and circumspection regarding things future. Whoever does not have this understanding cannot be set right. This understanding is the rule of moral circumspections with desire of heart and pursuit of work, so that a person may consider what is to be avoided, what is to be done, and what is to be awaited. For God gives this understanding, and it is a gift of God.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 8

• Deuteronomy 32:39

  Concerning the first, we proceed as follows and it is shown that the divine being is supremely one. And that this is so, faith and divine Scripture sufficiently proclaim, Exodus twenty: Your God is one God; and Deuteronomy thirty-two: See therefore that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me; and David in the Psalm: There shall not be in you a new god, nor shall you adore a foreign god: and divine Scripture sufficiently preaches this.

  Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, Question 2

• Deuteronomy 32:39

  It must be said that this truth, that God is one, is a truth not only believable, but also intelligible: since it is necessary and certain not only from the testimony of Scripture and the illumination of grace, which is found in faith; but it is also certain from itself and from the testimony of creatures. From itself, therefore: because the divine being, on account of its singular sublimity and sublime singularity, possesses unity in every way. For since God has every perfection in himself, and this in the highest degree and most excellently, he is shown to be one not only from the sublimity of nature and wisdom, power and goodness and influence and causality, but indeed from all his conditions and noble properties that are attributed to him in the highest degree. Hence all conditions attest to the unity of the supreme essence. From the testimony of creatures also: because every creature, just as it has natural goodness, so also is shown to have unity. "For nothing can exist unless it is one," as Boethius and Augustine say, and as sense and intellect teach. Therefore, just as every creature by its goodness proclaims that in God there is true and supreme goodness, so by its unity it proclaims that the cause of all things is one in itself. Nor does the diversity of things stand against this testimony. For every diversity of things is comprehended within one universe, which in itself is indeed finite and limited and perfect. But this would not be so unless that plurality were reduced to something in which there would be a stopping point: and therefore it is necessary that all things be reduced to one ultimate end and one first principle, otherwise there would be a regress to infinity. Therefore the very universe of things testifies that God is one: whence, just as it is impossible for one circumference to have, nor can one rationally conceive, any but one center, from which lines flow and to which they are reduced as to a terminus: so in one universe one cannot posit or understand anything but one God alone.

  Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, Question 2

• Deuteronomy 33:12

  Finally, there is the ecstatic taste of sweet contemplation. It is written: "Of the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand sealed." Benjamin, "the son of the right hand, the son of pain," in giving birth to whom Rachel died, and yet, Benjamin, "the best beloved of the Lord, as in a bride chamber shall he abide all the day." And this signifies the ecstatic excess of contemplation. The son of Jacob is not born to anything beyond this. Here is sleep with excess. No one attains this sealing unless he has gone through all the preceding ones.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 23

• Deuteronomy 33:13

  Now, there arises from these twelve enlightenments a threefold fruit. From the first four comes forth the fruit of grace, from the intermediate four, the fruit of righteousness, from the last four, the fruit of wisdom. These fruits are referred to in Deuteronomy: "To Joseph also he said: Of the blessing of the Lord be his land, of the fruits of heaven, and of the dew, and of the deep that lieth beneath. Of the fruits brought forth by the sun and the moon. Of the tops of the ancient mountains, of the fruits of the everlasting hills, and of the fruits of the earth, and of the fullness thereof." And so these fruits come forth from Christ, blessed by Joseph who produced fruit of heaven, and of the dew, and of the deep that lieth beneath, that is, the charismatic gifts of the graces, by means of dew on humble hearts. The fruits of the sun and the moon and the tops of the mountains refer to the exercise of perfect righteousness which consists in this, that man trains himself to fulfill God's commands, according to his condition of being a subject, a prelate, or a contemplative. By the fruits of the everlasting hills, wisdom is understood, or the fruit of wisdom, which consist in the contemplation of eternal reasons and the consideration of lofty heavenly spirits. The fruits of the earth refer to the consideration of the divine condescensions in the orders of the Churches. Their fullness is seen as the conjunction of both Churches, the militant and the triumphant.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 18

• Deuteronomy 33:19

  Hence, if charity is patient, long-suffering and good, then it "shall suck as milk the abundance of the sea." In this way did Lawrence rejoice over the glowing embers as if they had been flowers. These fruits are in the spirit, not in the flesh.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 18