Dist. 23
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/2/d/23/q/bon-sent-II-d23-littera
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### DISTINCTION XXIII.

#### Chapter I.

#### *Why God permitted man to be tempted, whom He knew would fall.*

Moreover it is wont to be asked, “why God permitted man to be tempted, whom He foreknew was to be deceived. — But it would not be praiseworthy for man, if he could therefore live well because no one was urging him to live ill, since by nature he had the power and in his power had the willing not to consent to one urging him, with God helping;” “and it is more glorious not to consent than not to be able to be tempted.” — Some are moved also, saying: “Why did God create those whom He foreknew would be evil? — Because He foresaw what good He was to make out of their evils. For He so made them that He should leave to them whence they might do something; and if they did something culpably, they should find Him operating laudably concerning Himself. Of themselves they have an evil will, from Him a good nature and a just punishment.” “In vain therefore is it said that God ought not to create those whom He foreknew would be evil; for He knew that they would profit the good and would justly be punished for their evil will:” — They add also, “He ought to make such a man as would by no means will to sin. — We grant indeed that the better nature is one which would by no means will to sin. Let them also grant that the nature is not evil which was so made that it could not sin, if it willed; and that it was justly punished, since it sinned by will, not by necessity. Since therefore this is good, that is better, why would He not make both, so that He might be the more abundantly praised concerning each? For the one is in the holy Angels, the other in men.” — Likewise they say: “If God willed it, those too would be good. — And this indeed we grant; but He willed better, that what they willed they should be, and the good indeed not unprofitably, but the evil not unpunished.” — Likewise they say: “God could turn their will into good, because He is omnipotent. — He could indeed. Why did He not do it? Because He did not will to. Why did He not will to? He Himself knows. We ought not to be wiser than is fitting.”

#### Chapter II.

#### *What man was according to the soul before sin.*

“And indeed according to the soul man was rational, having discernment of good and evil. He is supposed also, not unfittingly, to have received as soon as he was made the knowledge of created things and the cognition of truth, which befitted his first perfection, and not to have advanced to it by study or any discipline over an interval of time, but to have received it divinely from the beginning of his condition.”

#### Chapter III.

#### *On the threefold knowledge of man before the fall.*

“And the first man was before the fall endowed with a threefold cognition, namely of the things made for his sake, and of the Creator, and of himself.” “That man received cognition of things is evident, since not the Creator Himself nor any Angel, but man imposed names on all living creatures, so that it might be shown that man himself had knowledge of each. For the things which had been created for his sake and were to be ruled and disposed by him — of all these God granted him both knowledge and left him providence and care, because, as the Apostle says, *God hath no care for oxen*. Of these and the other animals God left to man care and providence, that they might be subjected to his dominion and governed by his reason; that he might know how to provide necessaries for those from which he ought to receive benefit. But this knowledge man did not lose by sinning, just as neither that one by which the necessaries of the flesh are provided; and therefore in Scripture man is not instructed about such things, but about the knowledge of the soul, which he lost by sinning.” “The first man is believed also to have had cognition of the Creator. For he knew by whom he had been created, not in that mode of knowing by which He is perceived from hearing alone, in the way in which He is sought as absent by believers, but by a certain interior breathing, by which he contemplated the presence of God; yet not so excellently as the Saints shall see after this life, nor so *in an enigma* as we see in this life.” “Further, the same man seems to have received such cognition of himself that he was not ignorant both of what he owed to his superior and what to an equal and to an inferior. He understood also his condition and order, namely of what sort he had been made, and how he ought to walk, what to do, what to beware of. If he had not had knowledge of these things, he would not be guilty of transgression nor would he have known himself.”

#### Chapter IV.

#### *Whether man was foreknowing of the things which were to befall him.*

“But if it be asked whether man had knowledge of the things which were going to befall him, that is, whether he foreknew his own ruin; and likewise, whether he foreknew the goods which he would have had, if he had persisted in obedience; it can be answered that the things to be done were enjoined upon him rather than the future things revealed. For he received knowledge and a precept of the things which were to be done, but he did not have foreknowledge of the things which were to come.” Man therefore was not foreknowing of his own fall, just as we have said also of the Angel; which Augustine asserts on Genesis, using the reason which we set down above. — “Let this suffice to have said concerning the knowledge of man, so far as pertains to the first state.”

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