Coll. 17
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/17/q/bon-hex-c17
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### COLLATION XVII.
#### *On the third vision: the fifth treatment, which treats of the contemplations of Scripture signified through the fruits, that is, of the considerations that refresh the understanding and the affection, and first indeed of those that refresh the understanding.*

### Summarium

*Introduction; recapitulation, 1. — Part I. On the contemplations which consist in considerations of the salutary refreshments in general. How the fruits refresh the understanding and the affection. Many men's bread is tasteless, 2. — This refreshment is intimated in Scripture, 3. 4. — The soul, in which Scripture is planted, is a paradise, is a garden enclosed and a fountain sealed, 5. — Part II. On the refreshment of the understanding in particular. What the soul is without the understanding of truth; it needs an object to steady its unsettled thoughts, 6. — This Scripture supplies, 7. — It illumines the understanding through twelve regards, 8. — First, from within through inner sights; second, from without through examples set forth, 9. — Third, from above through the divine promises, 10. — Fourth, from below through the torments of hell, 11. — Fifth, forwards through the directing precepts, 12. — Sixth, backwards through the strict judgments, 13. — Seventh, to the right through the severe consolations, 14. — Eighth, to the left through the kindly scourgings, 15. — Ninth, from the opposite side, by showing the battle-lines of the threefold war, 16-18. — Tenth, round about, by showing the defences on every side, 19. — Eleventh, from afar through the twelve signs of the figures in all creatures, 20-24. — There is danger for the theologian in too great an investigation of natural things, 25. — Twelfth, from near at hand through the gifts of graces; the twofold knowledge, exterior and interior, 26. — Around these twelve mysteries there is both the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 27. — Epilogue on the time to come, when there will be no defence by reason, but by authority, 28.*

1. *The earth brought forth the green herb* and so on. It has been said that the vision of the understanding *instructed through Scripture* turns upon three things: upon the *spiritual understandings,* which are understood through the *gatherings of the waters;* upon the *sacramental figures,* through the *sprouting of the herbs and the trees;* upon the *manifold contemplations,* through the *multiplication of the seeds and the refreshment of the trees.* These contemplations consist in *considerations of the times succeeding one another,* which are certain seed-beds, and in the *correspondence* of the same; other contemplations consist in considerations of the *salutary refreshments;* because *not in bread alone doth man live*. A man ought to consider from what he is fed, namely from the utterance of Scripture; whence it is *the tree that beareth fruit.* For the *understanding* needs refreshment, and the *affection* needs it too.

2. First we must speak of the *refreshment of the understanding.* But, as the Apostle says, *the husbandman that laboureth must first partake of the fruits;* because the preacher must first be steeped and sweetened in himself, and afterwards set it before others. Yet many wish to be seen as prophets and to be heard as prophets; and their bread or food is tasteless and badly baked and cold, and they hold the people back and profit them little.

3. It is to be noted that, just as fruit delights the sight and the taste, yet delights the sight chiefly by its beauty and comeliness, but the taste by its sweetness and pleasantness; so also these contemplations refresh the *understanding* by their comeliness and the *affection* by their sweetness. — This Scripture intimates when it says: *And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning, wherein he placed man,* and so on. This was said by way of recapitulation after the seventh day, because that planting was made on the third day.

4. There follows: *And he brought forth every tree fair to behold and pleasant to eat of: the tree of life in the midst of paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,* that it might refresh the understanding by its comeliness and the affection by its sweetness. But the consummation lay in the *tree of life,* if the *tree of knowledge* were guarded against. The earth, therefore, is Scripture, which *brought forth every tree fair to behold* as to the *understanding,* and *pleasant to eat of* as to the *affection,* namely the manifold contemplations that *delight* and *refresh.* In the heavenly paradise there is no planting save of the eternal reasons; and although there is refreshment there from the predestinations of all the saints, yet most of all I shall rejoice over my own predestination; and this the Saviour intimates: *Rejoice, because your names are written*

*in heaven.* — Paul was able to speak of the *heavenly* paradise, who was caught up as far as the third heaven; we do not know it, but we speak of the *earthly* one.

5. Now the soul is a paradise, in which Scripture is planted, and it has wondrous sweetnesses and comelinesses. Whence in the Canticle: *A garden enclosed, my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, thy plants are a paradise.* The soul is a *garden,* in which are the sacramental mysteries and the spiritual understandings, where there springs up the *fountain of the spiritual outflowings;* but it is *enclosed* and a *fountain sealed,* because it does not lie open to the unclean, but to those of whom it is said: *The Lord knoweth who are his.* This garden the eternal wisdom loves and busies itself about; whence in Ecclesiasticus: *I came out as a stream of the river Doryx from paradise.* This garden he watered who plants all things; for the planting which he does not plant, that shall be rooted up. *Every plant,* he says, *which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.* There follows: *I said: I will water my garden of plants, and I will water abundantly the fruits of my meadow.* — And he waters it with blood, with which the book and all the people were sprinkled; he waters it also with the abundance of the Holy Spirit flowing from himself, which Scripture has, and which we find in Scripture. These, therefore, are the *trees fair to behold* and *pleasant to eat of* by reason of their fair and sweet fruits.

6. We must speak of the *refreshment of the understanding.* For just as the body without food loses its strength, its comeliness and its health; so the soul without the understanding of truth grows dark and becomes weak, deformed and unsettled in all things; it must therefore be refreshed. Hence it is that the wandering mind, having no food, runs about and is unsettled. Whence: *Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore is she become unstable*; and therefore, cast out of paradise, it wanders and *gives all its precious things for food to refresh the soul.* Whence this is a wretched suffering. On which account nothing is more wholesome than that the thoughts be fixed, lest they wander into evil. — Whence John Cassian came with many others to a certain holy Father and complained of the instability of his thoughts, and that in nothing could he steady his understanding. And he replied by asking whether they had ever composed verses, and whether they were then thinking of them. They answered that it was so far the case that they could scarcely think of anything else, indeed that they thought of them even while sleeping. He said that this was because of habit. Whence one must grow accustomed to some thing which, when it comes into the mind, is not evil.

7. And this is Scripture, where not one but many things are found in which there is spiritual delight; and so we shall not go out of the garden of paradise, but the soul is there as one *working and keeping* it, and makes for itself out of it a little garden, delightful in the mind. — In this science alone is there delight, not in the others. The Philosopher says that it is a great delight to know that the diameter is incommensurable with the side; let that delight be his; let him now eat it.

8. Now there goes out from Scripture a certain light or illumination into the understanding joined to the imagination, so that no way out lies open to the wise man, and this by looking to twelve things, namely *within, without, above; below, before, behind; to the right, to the left; from the opposite side, round about; from afar, from near at hand.*

9. Scripture illumines by its shoots *from within* through *inner sights;* for it sets forth noble spiritual sights, which are especially the roots of faith; *from without* through *outward examples,* of which the whole of Scripture is full. If you want an example of *patience,* look to Job and Tobias; if of *magnanimity,* look to David against Goliath, and Judas Machabeus; if an example of *faith,* Abraham and the glorious Virgin, whose faith surpassed the faith of Abraham. For Abraham believed that he could have a son from a barren old woman; but Mary believed that a Virgin should conceive of the Holy Spirit; nor would she have conceived, had she not believed. If an example of *charity,* see Moses, who said: *Either forgive them this trespass, or strike me out of the book that thou hast written.* If an example of *mercy,* in Ecclesiasticus: *These were men of mercy, whose godly deeds have not failed.* If of *justice, fortitude, prudence, cleanness,* of every honourable virtue it sets before you examples. Because virtue is concerned with particular operations, therefore an inwardly directing rule does not suffice unless there be a particular example; and therefore Scripture sets down both. Against anger it gave a rule: *A mild answer breaketh wrath*; see the example of Abigail, who broke the wrath of David.

10. Likewise, it illumines *from above* through the *divine promises;* for Scripture teaches concerning those things which are above. Whence

the Apostle: *We know that, if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven;* and: *In my Father's house there are many mansions,* says the Saviour; in the Psalms it is said: *The children of men shall hope under the covert of thy wings. They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure, for with thee is the fountain of life; and in thy light we shall see light;* and that word of the Apocalypse: *The Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall rule them and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life;* and in the Psalm: *At thy right hand are delights even to the end.* It sets before us, therefore, the *divine promises.*

11. Likewise, it illumines *from below* by setting forth the *torments of hell.* The Psalm: *He shall rain snares upon sinners; fire and brimstone and storms of winds shall be the portion of their cup;* the Apocalypse: *And their portion shall be in the pool of fire and brimstone. And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever.* These things Scripture sets forth from the beginning, where it is said that *darkness was upon the face of the deep,* right up to the end. — It sets forth, therefore, the *inner sights,* the *outward examples,* the *heavenly promises,* the *punishments of hell.*

12. If these do not suffice you, but you wish to go out and to seek the refreshment of the understanding elsewhere; it will still give you other trees, other fruits, in which you can be refreshed. It illumines *forwards* through the *directing precepts; backwards,* through the *strict judgments; to the right,* through the *severe consolations; to the left,* through the *sweet* or *kindly scourgings.* — For one must have a light before oneself. For *the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light*; this directs to heaven, whence: *If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,* to which are added the *counsels;* these Scripture sets before us everywhere. Whence in that Psalm: *Blessed are the undefiled,* and: *Set before me for a law the way of thy justifications, O Lord,* and so on, in every verse mention is made of the commandments, either under the name of *law,* or of *testimony,* or of *word,* or of some equivalent name. Whence also among the Hebrews all the verses of one group of eight begin with the same letter; which could not be kept among us, so that the twenty-two letters should answer to the twenty-two groups of eight; and each has eight verses. Whence also Augustine was troubled at so great a sameness; which nevertheless is great knowledge and wondrous variety. For Augustine himself once saw a most beautiful tree, having twenty-two branches, and each had eight little branches, and from them the sweetest drops fell like dew. And he understood that that tree was the Psalm: *Blessed are the undefiled in the way.* Whence the meditation of the law is in the highest degree necessary; the Psalm: *Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, but his will was in the law of the Lord. And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters.* In Ecclesiasticus: *In many of his works be not curious, but the things which he hath commanded thee, think on them always.*

13. Likewise, it illumines *backwards* through the *strict judgments.* For God has always made strict judgments upon the transgressions of the precepts, as upon Lucifer, upon Adam, upon his wife, upon Cain, upon the lustful, over whom the flood came, upon the proud, who built the tower among the Chanaanites, upon Israel. Likewise, the new testament is full of judgments. But the judgment is *behind,* the precept *before.* The judgment looks back to the precept; if you transgress, you will be punished; unless you follow the light that directs, the sword will strike you; the Psalm: *Except you will be converted, he hath brandished his sword, he hath bent his bow and made it ready, and in it he hath prepared the instruments of death, he hath made ready his arrows for them that burn. The bow* is the judgment of Scripture; *the hardness of the wood,* the old testament; *the string,* which bends the wood, the new testament; the lighter and heavier judgments, the *arrows.* The Psalm: *The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls; the testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones. The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves,* and so on.

14. Likewise, *to the right* it illumines through the *severe consolations.* Nor without cause are they called *severe consolations* and *kindly scourgings,* because *consolations* are dangerous. See Adam, Saul, Solomon, Jeroboam the idolater and the first angel, to all of whom temporal consolations and excellences were the occasion of ruin. But they are an occasion of ruin when they please; but when they do not please, a man does not thrust himself upon them. Whence Christ would not have temporal consolation, because *a thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand* and so on. A man ought rather to wish to be on that side on which fewer fall.

15. Likewise, *to the left* it illumines through the *kindly scourgings.* Whence the Lord permitted that Abel, the most just, be

slain. See Noah, who for a hundred years built the ark, and put there whatever he had; and the whole world derided him. — And he added here that the king of France could not make such a one today, if one considers it according to its measure of geometrical cubits. — So too of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who were pilgrims; and of Joseph, who could not be exalted unless the selling, the imprisonment and the humbling had gone before. See Moses, whom God was to set over the whole world, how he was humbled; *he fed the sheep* for forty years of a single *priest*. So too David: as long as he was in tribulation he was excellent and came to the kingdom through tribulations; and afterwards, when he was in prosperity, he committed many sins. So too Ezechias in sickness was exceedingly humble, but afterwards proud at the coming of the messengers of the Babylonians. See Elias in his poverty, who had nothing to eat except what the raven ministered to him and that poor widow; and yet he shut up heaven. See John the Baptist, who at seven years old entered the desert and there lay upon pebbles. So too of Christ and of the Apostles. So too Paul says: *They were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins,* and so on. Scourgings, therefore, are most sweet. Either, then, God scourges, or he does not. But *he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.* This has been proved through particular cases; therefore it ought to be inferred universally.

16. Furthermore Scripture also has trees for refreshing. And it illumines from those things which are *from the opposite side.* For it shows us infinite *battle-lines* against us, now through *seven leaders*, now one war, now many. That war is from that day on which *Michael and his Angels fought with the dragon.* And a threefold war hangs over us: the *domestic* war, the *civil* war and the *pitched* war. — The first is with the flesh, which has many battle-lines; this handmaid is always ready to open, like Eve. Whence: *From her that sleepeth in thy bosom, keep the doors of thy mouth*.

17. Likewise, the *civil* war is the temptation of the world. For *every creature is turned into a snare*, because the beauty of the creature draws men. Whence: *Vanity,* he says, *of vanities, and all is vanity. What hath a man more of all his labour, wherewith he laboureth under the sun?* That is done vainly and to no purpose of which nothing is left to a man at death, and therefore all is vanity; in the Psalm: *Turn away my eyes, that they may not behold vanity.*

18. Likewise, there is the *pitched* war, the hostile war with the demons, who by day and by night beset us, now by magnifying us, that we may presume, now through the consideration of knowledge, now through the consideration of holiness; now they make a man wrathful, and thus devilish and filled with the spirit of malice; and they make him fall into sadness and despair, and so of the rest. These things Scripture teaches us to flee. For what *science* teaches us to flee the contrary powers? None.

19. Likewise, it illumines *round about,* so that we need not flee, because on every side we have a defence. For we have the Lord himself and the Angels about us; whence in the Psalm: *Mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people.* Whence, when Eliseus' servant cried out on account of the robbers of Syria who wished to take him, Eliseus said: *Lord, open the eyes of this boy, and the Lord opened them. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Eliseus.* Jacob also, fearing his brother, saw Angels, whence he said: *These are the camps of God.* Whence the Psalm says: *The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?* And elsewhere: *If it had not been that the Lord was with us, let Israel now say,* and so on, to the end.

20. Likewise, it illumines *from afar* through the *signs of the figures;* and it makes figures out of all things. Now all things which are in the world are reduced to twelve, which Scripture uses, which are the *signs from afar:* the *heavenly* forms, the *elemental* natures, the *meteoric* natures, the *mineral* natures; the natures of *growing things, of swimming things, of flying things, of walking things;* the human *organs,* the human *powers,* human *works,* human *arts.*

21. The first, then, is the *heavenly form.* For Scripture uses all the heavens and the stars; the Psalm: *The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaimeth the work of his hands;* and Ecclesiasticus: *The firmament on high is his beauty, the beauty of heaven in the vision of glory.*

22. The *elemental* forms: fiery, airy, watery, earthy; Scripture uses them all. — The *meteoric* natures, as cloud, rain, dew, snow and so on; and the lights that appear in heaven, rivers, pools, all of which

it uses. — There are also *mineral* natures, as the seven principal metals and the precious stone, as the onyx stone; in Genesis we read: *There is found bdellium and the onyx stone;* and in the same place: *Where gold groweth; and the gold of that land is the best.* And in the Apocalypse, twelve precious stones. — There are also the natures of *growing things,* as of trees, herbs, plants, seeds; of the pot-herb, of grass and of the other things springing from the earth it treats.

23. There are also the natures of *swimming things,* as it treats of leviathan, of fishes, of whales. — There are the natures of *flying things,* as of the hawk; of the eagle, of the dove, of the sparrow; and it is a great mystery why only three kinds of flying things are set down in the sacrifice. It speaks also of the birds that shun the light and of those that love the light. — Likewise, of the *walking animal,* of the serpent, of the snake: *Flee from sin as from the face of a serpent*; how God permitted the temptation to be made through the serpent. Likewise, of foxes, of the she-goat, of swine, of the stag, of the fawn, of the bear, of oxen. Nor is it without mystery that also only three kinds of walking things were offered or sacrificed.

24. Likewise, the *natures of man,* whose parts Scripture treats of as transferred partly to God, partly to the Angels. Whence Dionysius shows what the human members signify in the Angels. — Likewise, the *vegetative* powers, the *sensitive, rational* powers and so on, all of which Scripture uses throughout. — Likewise, of *human works,* as the building of houses and of wells, agriculture, trade; and of all the *arts,* liberal and mechanical. The theologian uses them now as an arithmetician, now as an astrologer, now as a geometer; now you will see him a rhetorician, now a physician.

25. In this consideration there is danger, because it is dangerous to withdraw too far from the house of Scripture; for a boy never wants to withdraw far from home. So there is danger in the sciences, that men should so pour themselves out through the considerations of these sciences that afterwards they cannot return to the house of Scripture, and that they enter the house of Daedalus, so that they cannot get out. For it is better to hold the truth than the figure. If I were seeing your face and were to ask you to bring me a clear mirror, that I might see your face in it; that request would be foolish. So it is with the holy Scriptures and the figures of the other sciences.

26. Likewise, it illumines through the *gifts of graces from near at hand,* which supply all that industry does not have. For many have come as guests of knowledge, namely to our house and to our industry; but in these things industry ought to set a limit. Whence this Scripture illumines *from near at hand;* whence one need not go far for a thing which is close by. For Scripture describes the gifts of the Holy Spirit throughout; in John: *Jesus, being wearied with his journey, sat upon the well;* there follows: *Everyone that drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting.* — Whence a twofold water is noted; for there is described one knowledge, the *exterior,* of which he who drinks more thirsts more; another, the *interior,* of which: *He that believeth in me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now this he said of the Holy Spirit, whom they should receive who believed in him.* These are the *waters from the fountains of the Saviour,* namely the knowledges of the graces, refreshing souls.

27. Beside these mysteries there is the mystery of the *tree of life* and the mystery of the *tree of the knowledge of good and evil*. For he who seeks knowledge only tastes of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And this is signified in Isaias: *Forasmuch as this people hath cast away the waters of Siloe, that go with silence, and hath rather taken Rasin and the son of Romelia; therefore behold, the Lord will bring upon them the waters of the river, strong and many.* As Jerome says, the waters of Siloe run *with a great murmuring:* therefore it is plain that another sense is there. — The *waters running with silence* are sacred Scripture, which cannot be learned except in silence; and there illumination comes about. As a sign of this it was said to the blind man: *Go, wash in the pool of Siloe, which is interpreted Sent.* For these waters come by revelation. But one must first

anoint the eyes with clay made of spittle and dust; the *spittle* is wisdom; the *dust,* the flesh of Christ; the *clay,* faith concerning the mystery of the incarnation. — But those who seek *Rasin and the son of Romelia* are those who seek the exterior sciences. And therefore *the prince of the Assyrians shall rule over them*; the Lord willed it. And here it is to be noted that the children of Israel took by stealth the *silver vessels of Egypt*; but afterwards the Lord never willed that they should return there.

28. And he said: Believe me, that there will yet be a time when *vessels of gold* or *of silver* will avail nothing, that is, arguments; nor will there be defence by reason, but only by authority. Whence, as a sign of this, the Saviour, when he was tempted, did not defend himself by reason, but by authorities, and yet he would well have known how to do it by reasons. For he signified what his mystical body is to do in the tribulation to come.

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