Bonaventure

In his own words on Leviticus

• Leviticus 10:9-10

  Gratuitous knowledge is called the knowledge of the Saints, because it has nothing of vice mixed in, nothing of carnality, nothing of curiosity, and nothing of vanity. Whence in Leviticus: "The Lord also said to Aaron: You and your sons shall not drink wine or anything that can intoxicate, so that you may have the knowledge of discerning between the holy and the profane." He who has the knowledge of discerning between the holy and the profane will abstain from everything that can intoxicate, that is, from every superfluous delight in creatures: this is the intoxicating wine. Whether someone on account of vanity, or on account of curiosity, or carnality inclines toward superfluous delight, which is in creatures: he does not have the knowledge of the Saints.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4

• Leviticus 18:4-6

  Conjugal chastity accords with the written law by reason of the divine statute, Leviticus 18. For the Lord established laws according to which legitimacy is observed in the persons who contract marriage. For He says: I am the Lord your God: keep my laws and judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. No man shall approach to her that is near of kin to him, etc. Since therefore the Lord as a benefit promised that He would give offspring to Abraham through the way of marriage, and miraculously made fruitful the dead womb of Sarah, and also gave laws according to which marriage is to be contracted: it is evident that conjugal chastity accords with the written law.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3

• Leviticus 19:2

  To be sanctified is to be drawn away from any love that sullies and corrupts and may lead the soul to ruin. In this must the creature resemble the Creator: "You shall be holy," He said, "because I am holy." This holiness makes one God-conformed. That is why the Seraphic spirits cried out: "Holy, holy, holy."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• Leviticus 24:16

  We take up the name of God in vain through uttering of blasphemous speech; and this occurs in three ways: first, when someone, speaking of God, uses cursing speech, as when he curses God. The second mode is through mendacious speech, when someone denies what is true of God, or affirms what is false; because Anselm says that the nobler part of every contradiction is to be attributed to God. The third mode is through reproachful speech, such as when someone speaks of the lower members of Christ, he blasphemes most wickedly, even if he speaks the truth, and despises Christ in that He was humble and assumed our nature. And such persons have been destroyed by divine judgment. For Gregory narrates that a certain boy of six years was accustomed to blaspheme the name of the Lord. One day, when he was blaspheming and was in the lap of his father, he was seized by demons and carried into hell. On account of which it is said in Leviticus: "Whoever shall have blasphemed the name of the Lord, let him surely die."

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 3

• Leviticus 26:16

  The danger of transgression ought to move us to the observance of the commandments, because the transgressor of the commandments falls into many dangers: first, because he loses many goods; second, because he rushes into abominable crimes; third, because he merits eternal punishments. Transgressors lose many goods; whence in Leviticus: "If you will not hear my voice and will not do all my commandments, I will visit you with want and burning heat, which shall consume your eyes and consume your souls." He says: "I will visit you with want": behold, the privation of all goods; "and with burning heat, which shall consume your eyes and consume your souls," because it blinds the intellect of the true and takes away the affection for the good.

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1