Dist. 11, Art. 1, Q. 2
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/3/d/11/q/bon-sent-III-d11-a1-q2
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### Question II. *Whether Christ's predestination is an exemplary form in relation to our predestination.*

Secondly it is asked whether Christ's predestination is an exemplary form in relation to our predestination. And that it is so, it seems.

1. To the Romans, chapter eight: *Whom he predestined to be made conformable to the image of his Son*; but that to which a thing ought to be conformed and configured is its exemplar: therefore if we are predestined to be conformed to Christ, it seems that his predestination is the exemplary ground of our predestination.

2. Likewise, Augustine, *On the Predestination of the Saints*: "The most splendid light of our predestination is Jesus Christ"; but *light* has the character of distinguishing and making known: if therefore this belongs to an exemplary form, it seems that Christ's predestination is the exemplar of our predestination and the ground of recognizing it.

3. Likewise, the life of Christ and his manner of living was the norm and exemplar of holy living for the very members of Christ; but as conduct stands to conduct, so predestination stands to predestination: therefore if his life was the rule and exemplar of ours, by parity of reasoning his predestination [was] of our predestination.

4. Likewise, Christ's generation was the exemplary ground of every emanation, since "in the Word, which God begot, he disposed all things": therefore by parity of reasoning his predestination was the exemplary ground of every predestination.

**On the contrary:** 1. Upon that text of Job, chapter thirty-eight: *Dost thou know the order of heaven* etc.; the Gloss: "To know the order of heaven is to see the hidden dispositions of the supernal dispositions": therefore in predestinations and dispositions there is order and distinction: therefore each predestined person has his own proper predestination, distinct from the predestination of Christ: and if Christ is predestined by one ground, and others by another, therefore it is not the exemplar of the predestination of others.

2. Likewise, predestination itself is nothing other than the foreseeing or disposition pertaining to the exemplar; if therefore that which belongs to the exemplar is not an exemplar, then nothing belonging to predestination is an exemplar: therefore Christ's predestination is not the exemplar of our predestination.

3. Likewise, of things that are simultaneous, the one is not the ground of exemplifying the other; but all predestinations were simultaneously and from eternity in the divine mind: therefore Christ's predestination could in no way be an exemplary form.

4. Likewise, if Christ's predestination is the exemplar of our predestination, then either by reason of the *principal signified* or by reason of the *connoted*. If by reason of the *principal signified*, since that is God or the divine essence, the divine essence will be the exemplified, and the same will be the exemplar of itself. If by reason of the *connoted*; on the contrary: the exemplar precedes the exemplified, it does not follow; but many had final grace, which is an effect of predestination, before Christ received grace: therefore it does not seem that Christ's predestination was the exemplary form of anyone else's predestination.

### Conclusion.

> Christ's predestination, as regards the connoted and the exterior exemplar, can be called the exemplar of our predestination, not in relation to the supreme artificer, but in relation to us.

**I respond:** It must be said that one may speak of the predestination of Christ and ours in two ways: either as to the *principal signified*, or as to the

*connoted*. If we speak as to the *principal signified*, which indeed is the divine essence; then no predestination has its exemplar from another, since all are one, namely the divine essence. — But if we speak as to the *connoted*, which indeed is grace and glory; then it must be distinguished that the exemplar is twofold: one *interior* in the mind of the artificer, as the account by which the artificer produces his works; another *exterior*, looking to which one who is ignorant of the art is in some way regulated; just as those mechanical artificers have certain exterior forms, according to which they direct their works, as is evident in those who make shoes.

If therefore in the *first* way we speak of Christ's predestination by reason of the *connoted*, even so Christ's predestination is not the exemplar of our predestination. For God did not predestine us by looking to anything *other than himself*, but he foresaw each thing *in himself* and *disposed* it according to its *proper ground*. — But if we speak of the exemplar in the *second* way, then Christ's predestination is the exemplar of our predestination, an exemplar, I say, that is directive not in relation to the supreme artificer, but in relation to us, both in the things to be believed and in the things to be awaited and also in the things to be done. For then the *grace* of God is rightly in us, when we are made conformable to Christ; and our *bodies* too are destined through grace to be such, of which kind Christ showed by his resurrection, according to what the Saints say; and we ourselves, if we wish to arrive at the ultimate term of predestination, must look *to the author of faith and its consummator*, who *gave an example, that as he himself did, we also might do*. For as Peter says in the first [letter], chapter two, *Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example*. And to this extent Augustine says that he is "the most splendid light of our predestination," as though God says to each one of us: *Look and make according to the exemplar that was shown to thee on the mountain*, that is, in Christ, of whom all those furnishings of the Old Testament were signs. — And in this sense it can be conceded that Christ's predestination is the exemplary form of our predestination.

1. To that, therefore, which is objected on the contrary, that they are distinct and ordered; it must be said that from that text it is held that among predestinations on the side of the connoted there is *distinction*, yet in such a way that *order* is not lacking. And therefore, although the effect of our predestination is distinct from the effect of Christ's predestination; it can nevertheless have an order toward it, according to which there is direction and regulation, and through this a certain ground of exemplifying.

2. To that which is objected, that predestination itself is an exemplar; it must be said that this is true by reason of the *principal signified*; and as to this it must well be conceded that one predestination is not the exemplar of another, but by reason of the *connoted* it is the exemplified; and nothing prevents something from being in one way exemplified and in another way an exemplar. Just as a book first made by an artificer is an exemplar with respect to the books thereafter to be made, but it was exemplified from the art existing in the mind; so too it must be understood in the effect of predestination.

3. To that which is objected, that predestinations are simultaneous; the response is already evident. For this is true as to the *principal signified*, but as to the *connoted* it does not hold the truth; and therefore nothing prevents that on that side an exemplarity should be found.

4. To that which is objected, that the exemplar precedes the exemplified; it must be said that although Christ, properly speaking, did not give a form and example by his life except to those who followed, nevertheless under certain veils of figures he gave to those who preceded what he gives to us openly; and when they were exercised spiritually and faithfully by holy and spiritual men, through this they were conformed to Christ in life, whom, even though they did not yet see in the flesh, they nevertheless saw by faith, according to that text of John, chapter eight: *Abraham rejoiced that he might see my day, he saw it and was glad*; and thus, although he did not precede in actuality, he nevertheless preceded by prefiguration and by belief. And that suffices for some kind of exemplary character. — Moreover, even if as to grace he did not precede, nevertheless as to glory he did precede; and by reason of this, Christ's predestination has the character of exemplarity in relation to all. For he is *the firstborn among many brethren, holding the primacy in all things*.