Coll. 12
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/11/d/12/q/bon-hex-c12
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### Collation XII.
#### *On the second vision: the fifth treatment, which is the third on the comeliness of faith and treats of God as the exemplar of all things.*

### Summarium

*Introduction; recapitulation, 1. — Part I. That God is the exemplar of all things is understood from four suppositions of faith. He is the creator of things, the governor of acts, the teacher of understandings, the judge of merits, 2. — First, of God the creator, 3. — Second, of God the conserver and governor of acts, 4. — Third, of God the teacher of understandings, 5. — Fourth, of God as judging and rewarding according to the most just laws, 6. — These things are proved from Scripture, 7. 8. — Part II. On the speculation that contemplates the divine exemplar. It is an art one and manifold; a cause immediate, most powerful, most actual; a light inaccessible and near, unbindable and inmost, 9-11. — It represents contingent things infallibly, mutable things immutably, material things immaterially, possible things actually, divisible things undividedly, accidents substantially, corporeal things spiritually, temporal things everlastingly, distant things undistantly, dissonant things undissonantly, deficient things indeficiently, 12. 13. — A threefold help toward contemplating the divine exemplar; the first is the sensible world, which is a shadow, a way, a vestige, a book written without, 14. 15. — The second, the spiritual creature, which is a light, a mirror, an image, a book written within, 16. — The third, sacramental Scripture, which is God's heart, mouth, tongue, pen, and a book written without and within, 17.*

1. *But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with open face* etc. It has been said of the *loftiness of faith*, that it exceeds the investigation of reason, as is plain in the twelve articles designated by the twelve *stars* and by the twelve *wings of the Seraphim*. — It has been said of its *firmness*, designated by the twelve *foundations of the city*. — Likewise, of its *comeliness*, designated by the twelve *gates of the city* and by the twelve *pearls*,

which are the speculations of faith, and they are *shining* and *life-giving* and *delightful* as regards the two eastern gates: namely, to behold that God is *first* and *most pure*; second, that God is *three and one*.

2. There follows the third gate, namely that he is the *exemplar of all things*. For it must be supposed by faith that God is the *founder* of things, the *governor* of acts, the *teacher* of understandings, the *judge* of merits. And from this it is understood that he is the *cause of causes* and the *art* that originates most excellently, the *guide* that governs most providently, the *light* that declares or represents most manifestly, the *right* that rewards and judges most uprightly.

3. The first is shown thus. The creature goes forth from the *Creator*, but not by *nature*, since it is of another nature: therefore by *art*, since there is no other noble mode of emanating than by *nature*, or by *art* or from will; and that art is not *outside himself*: therefore he is one *acting by art* and *willing*: therefore it is necessary that he have expressed and expressive accounts. For if he gives to this thing the *form* by which it is distinguished from another thing, or the *property* by which it is distinguished from another, it is necessary that he have an ideal form, indeed *ideal forms*. For so they are called in the plural by the Saints.

4. Likewise, since he is the *conserving cause*, he is the *governing guide*. For he presides over the directing of all acts, according as they are governable; not as a craftsman who leaves the house behind, but he conserves and directs things. Therefore he has with himself *the most directive norms*. Nor is it the same mode by which the creature flows from the Creator according to expressive forms or accounts, and that according to which there emanate from the divine mind rules for the conservation of those creatures according to the direction of the eternal rules.

5. Likewise, since he is himself the *teacher*, he teaches infallibly and certifies in such a way that it is impossible to be otherwise. According to the judgement of all the doctors Christ is the teacher within, nor is any truth known except through him — not by speaking, as we do, but by illumining within; and therefore it is necessary that he have *the clearest species* with himself, nor yet that he have received them from another. For he is inmost to every soul and with his clearest species shines above the darkened species of our intellect; and thus those overshadowed species, mingled with the obscurity of phantasms, are illumined, that the intellect may understand. For if *to know* is to know a thing as impossible to be otherwise, it is necessary that he alone make us know who knows the truth and has the truth in himself.

6. Likewise, he is the *right* that rewards most uprightly through the most just laws. If therefore he rewards justly, it is necessary that he have *the most just laws*.

7. Now Scripture speaks of him as the exemplar by which every creature *lives* in the eternal forms; John the first: *What was made, in him was life.* And it lives through *knowledge* and *love*; and he who denies this denies eternal predestination. For from eternity God knew the creature and loves it, since he prepared it for glory and for grace. — Likewise, he has *the most directive norms*; whence the Apostle and Jeremiah say: *I will give my laws in their bowels, and in their heart I will write them over.* For he writes them over first in *nature*; second, in *industry* or in progress; third, in *grace*; fourth, in *glory*. In every state he gives his own norms: therefore it is necessary that he have them in himself.

8. Likewise, since he is the *light that illumines*; in Wisdom: *For she is more comely than the sun, and above all the disposition of the stars: being compared with the light, she is found before it;* because, although the sun has the character of *radiating*, yet it does not have *species* described in itself: and therefore that exemplar is more beautiful, since together with this, that it has light, it also has *clear species*. — Likewise, he is the *right that judges through itself*; in the Apocalypse: *The books were opened, and another book was opened,* namely the *book of life* and the *book of conscience.* Through the *book of life* the soul has *to live* and *to be judged*; and if the book of conscience agrees with the book of life, it is approved; but if it disagrees, it is reproved; whence in the Psalm: *Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written*, that is, they shall be made manifest as written, not written anew. In this book are written all the *eternal laws*. — God therefore is the *eternal exemplar*, and this belongs to faith, which believes that God is the founder of things, and so on.

9. And upon this speculation is borne, that he may be the *art* that represents most excellently. Now this art both is *one* and is *manifold*. But how this can be cannot be seen unless there come an *illumination from the ever-*

*lasting hills*, and then *the foolish of heart shall be troubled*, that is, the stupid. For one must think loftily of God. — Now it is *multiform*, since it represents many things *distinctly* and *with certitude*. Whence I shall see myself better in God than in myself. Yet it is *supremely one*.

10. On this it is to be noted that the first cause both is *first* and is *immediate*; because it is *first*, therefore it has nothing from another, but all things are from it; and it is *immediate*, since an immediate cause is nobler than a mediate one. Since therefore it is *first*, it is on that account *most powerful*: therefore it can do *many things*; likewise, since it is *immediate*, it is on that account *most actual*, since an immediate cause is in act; it is also most actual in that it is immediate, since act is more immediate than potency. But it is not most actual according to *efficiency* or according to *extrinsic act*, since it does not straightway do whatever it can: therefore it is most actual according to *intrinsic act*, which is *to speak*. Whence from eternity he said that this was to be done, and this in time. — This cause also, since it is one, is *supremely simple*; and in that it is supremely simple, it is *infinite*, since « a power or cause, the more united and simple it is, so much the more is it infinite » — not indeed by the extension of *mass*, but of *power*.

11. This light is *inaccessible*, and yet near to the soul, even more than the soul is to itself. It is also *unbindable*, and yet supremely *inmost*. — But to see this belongs only to a man uplifted beyond himself in a lofty vision; and when we wish to see by a simple intuition how that art is *one* and yet *manifold*, then, because imagination mingles itself in, we cannot think how it should be infinite except through extension: and therefore we cannot see by a simple intuition except by *reasoning*.

12. Since therefore that art is a *cause*, it follows that in that art there is a representation of causable things *uncausably*; since those accounts are causes, they are on that account uncaused; and hence it is that they are causes of contingent things *infallibly*. For what is *contingent* is there represented infallibly; for it expresses the *mode* which befalls in the thing, infallibly, because it expresses it according as it is in itself and with itself. For the contingency is true on the side of the thing, and the infallibility on the side of God.

13. Likewise, of mutable things *immutably*, of material things *immaterially*, since those accounts are not material; of possible things *actually*, of divisible things *undividedly*, since there is no greater account of a mountain than of a millet-seed, nor even in our soul; of accidents *substantially*, since those accounts are the substance which is God; of corporeal things *spiritually*; of temporal things *everlastingly*; of distant things *undistantly*, as is plain also in the soul, since the placements of species are not in the soul; of dissonant things *undissonantly*, as the account of white and of black; of deficient things *indeficiently*, since whatever is there, lives by life.

14. To these exemplar splendours reason leads, and faith. But further, there is a threefold help toward rising to the exemplar accounts, namely of the *sensible* creature, of the *spiritual* creature, of *sacramental* Scripture, which contains mysteries. — As to the first, the whole world is a *shadow*, a *way*, a *vestige*, and is a *book written on the outside*. For in every creature there is a shining-back of the divine exemplar, but mingled with darkness; whence it is like a certain opacity mixed with light. — Likewise, it is a *way* leading into the exemplar. As you see that a ray entering through a window is coloured in diverse ways according to the diverse colours of the diverse parts, so the divine ray shines back in single creatures in diverse ways and in diverse properties; in Wisdom: *In his ways he sheweth himself.* — Likewise, it is a *vestige* of the wisdom of God. Whence the creature is nothing but a certain likeness of the wisdom of God and a certain carved thing. — And out of all these there is a certain *book written without*.

15. When therefore the soul sees these things, it seems to it that it ought to pass from the *shadow* to the light, from the *way* to the term, from the *vestige* to the truth, from the *book* to true knowledge, which is in God. To read this book belongs to the highest *contemplatives*, not to the natural philosophers, since these know only the *nature* of things, not as *vestige*.

16. Another help is that of the *spiritual creature*, which is as a *light*, as a *mirror*, as an *image*, as a *book written within*. — Every spiritual substance is a *light*; whence in the Psalm: *The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us.* — Together with this it is also a *mirror*, since it receives and represents all things; and it has the nature of *light*, that it may also judge concerning things. For the whole world is described in the soul. — And it is also an *image*. Since therefore it is a *light* and a *mirror* having the images of things, it is on that account an image. — From

this it is also a *book written within*. Whence to the *inmost* of the soul none can enter unless he be simple; and this is to enter to the powers; since, according to Augustine, the inmost of the soul is its highest; the more inward a power, the more sublime. — These two the magicians of Pharaoh have.

17. But the third help is that of *sacramental Scripture*. Now all Scripture is God's *heart*, God's *mouth*, God's *tongue*, God's *pen*, a *book written without and within*. — In the Psalm: *My heart hath uttered a good word; I speak my works to the king. My tongue is the pen of a scrivener that writeth swiftly*: the *heart* of God, the *mouth* of the Father, the *tongue* of the Son, the *pen* of the Holy Spirit. For the *Father* speaks through the Word or *tongue*; but he who completes it and commends it to memory is the *pen of the scrivener*. — Scripture therefore is the *mouth* of God. Whence Isaiah: *Woe to you that go down to Egypt*, namely to the secular sciences, *and have not asked at the mouth of the Lord*, namely sacred Scripture. For one ought not to go down to other sciences in order to know certitude, unless he have testimony on the mountain, namely of Christ, of Elijah, of Moses — that is, of the New Testament, of the Prophets and of the Law. — Likewise, it is a *tongue*, whence *honey and milk are under his tongue*. *How sweet are thy words to my palate, more than honey to my mouth!* This tongue gives savour to foods; whence this Scripture is compared to loaves, which have savour and restore. — Likewise, it is the *pen* of God, and this is the Holy Spirit; since, as one writing can write things past, present and future as present, so in Scripture are contained things past, present and future. — Whence it is a book written *without*, since it has beautiful histories and teaches the properties of things; it is written also *within*, since it has mysteries and diverse understandings.

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