BREVILOQUIUM
OF SAINT BONAVENTURE
PROLOGUE
I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you according to the riches of his glory the power to be strengthened through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts: rooted and grounded in charity, that you may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth, length, height, and depth: and to know also the charity of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
The great teacher of the nations and preacher of truth, filled with the divine Spirit as a chosen and sanctified vessel, in this word discloses the origin, progress, and state of sacred Scripture, which is called theology: intimating that the origin of Scripture is to be understood according to the influence of the most blessed Trinity, its progress, however, according to the requirement of human capacity, and its state or fruit, according to the superabundance of the most overflowing felicity.
For the origin is not through human investigation, but through divine revelation, which flows from the Father of lights, from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth is named, from whom through his Son, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit flows into us, and through the Holy Spirit, dividing and distributing gifts to each one as he wills, faith is given, and through faith Christ dwells in our hearts. This is the knowledge of Jesus Christ, from which originally flows the firmness and understanding of all sacred Scripture. Whence it is also impossible that anyone should enter into knowing it unless he first has the faith of Christ infused in him, as the lamp and gate and also foundation of all Scripture. For faith itself is the basis of all supernatural illuminations as long as we are pilgrims from the Lord, both the foundation that stabilizes, the lamp that directs, and the gate that introduces; and according to its measure the wisdom divinely given to us must also be measured, lest anyone be wise beyond what is fitting to be wise, but unto sobriety, and to each one as God has divided the measure of faith. Therefore through the mediation of this faith, the knowledge of sacred Scripture is given to us according to the influence of the blessed Trinity, just as the Apostle expressly intimates in the first part of the authority previously introduced.
The progress of Sacred Scripture, moreover, is not confined to the laws of reasoning, definitions, and divisions according to the manner of other sciences, nor is it confined to a part of the universe; but rather, since it proceeds according to supernatural light to give man the wayfarer sufficient knowledge of things, as is expedient for salvation, partly through plain words and partly through mystical ones, it describes the containment of the entire universe as in a certain summary, in which its breadth is observed; it describes its course, in which its length is observed; it describes the excellence of those who are finally to be saved, in which its sublimity is observed; it describes the misery of those who are to be damned, in which the depth consists not only of the universe itself, but also of the divine judgment.
And thus it describes the whole universe, insofar as it is expedient to have knowledge of it for salvation, according to its breadth, length, height, and depth, having also these four in its own progress, as will be declared later; because the condition of human capacity so required, which is naturally apt to grasp great and many things magnificently and in manifold ways, as a certain most noble mirror, in which the universality of worldly things is naturally apt to be described not only naturally but also supernaturally; so that the progress of Sacred Scripture may be understood according to the exigency of human capacity.
The end-state, however, or fruit of Sacred Scripture is not just anything, but the fullness of eternal happiness. For this is the Scripture in which are the words of eternal life, which was therefore written not only that we might believe, but also that we might possess eternal life, in which indeed we shall see, we shall love, and our desires shall be universally fulfilled; and when these are fulfilled, we shall then truly know the charity that surpasses knowledge, and thus we shall be filled unto all the fullness of God. To which fullness indeed the divine Scripture strives to lead us, according to the truth of the aforementioned apostolic statement. Therefore, with this end and with this intention, Sacred Scripture is to be searched out, taught, and also heard.
And so that we may arrive at this fruit and goal by a right progress through the way of the right journey of the Scriptures, we must begin from the beginning, that is, that with pure faith we approach the Father of lights, bending the knees of our heart, so that He Himself through His Son in the Holy Spirit may give us true knowledge of Jesus Christ and with that knowledge love of Him, so that thus knowing and loving Him, and as it were established in faith and rooted in charity, we may come to know the breadth, length, height, and depth of Sacred Scripture itself, and through this knowledge arrive at the most complete knowledge and surpassing love of the most blessed Trinity, toward which the desires of the Saints tend, in which is the end-state and fulfillment of all truth and goodness.
With the end of this sacred Scripture desired and intended, and with its origin both believed and invoked, we must now consider its progression with respect to its breadth, length, height, and depth, according to the way and order of the apostolic teaching.
Now its breadth consists in the multitude of its parts, its length in the description of times and ages, its height in the description of hierarchies arranged in gradual order, and its depth in the multitude of mystical senses and meanings.
§ 1. On the breadth of sacred Scripture.
If, therefore, we wish to contemplate the breadth of sacred Scripture, at first glance it presents itself to us as Scripture divided into two testaments, namely the Old and the New.
Now the Old presents itself with a multitude of books. For it has legal, historical, sapiential, and prophetical books, such that the first are five, the second ten, the third five, and the fourth are six, and thus in total twenty-six.
The New Testament likewise has books corresponding to these according to a fourfold form. For to the legal books correspond the Evangelical books, to the historical, the Acts of the Apostles, to the sapiential, the Epistles of the Apostles and especially of Paul, and to the prophetical corresponds the book of the Apocalypse: so that there is a wondrous conformity between the Old and New Testaments, not only in the content of their meanings, but also in the fourfold structure of their parts. — As a figure and sign of this, Ezekiel saw wheels with four faces and a wheel within a wheel, because the Old is in the New, and conversely: and in the legal and evangelical books there is the face of a lion on account of the excellence of authority; in the historical books there is the face of an ox on account of the examples of virtue; in the sapiential books there is the face of a man on account of sagacious prudence; in the prophetical books there is the face of an eagle on account of keen understanding.
Now sacred Scripture is rightly divided into the Old and New Testaments, and not into the theoretical and the practical, as philosophy is: because, since Scripture is properly founded upon the knowledge of faith, which is a virtue and the foundation of morals and justice and of the whole upright life, the knowledge of things or of what is to be believed cannot in it be separated from the knowledge of morals. But it is otherwise with philosophy, which treats not only of the truth of morals, but also of truth considered by bare speculation. Since, therefore, sacred Scripture is a knowledge that moves toward the good and calls back from evil — and this is through fear and love — it is therefore divided into two testaments, whose "brief difference is fear and love."
And because one can be moved toward the good and recalled from evil in a fourfold manner, namely through the precepts of the most powerful majesty, or through the teachings of the most wise truth, or through the examples and benefits of the most innocent goodness, or from all of these gathered together into one: therefore both in the New and in the Old Testament the books containing Sacred Scripture have been handed down in a fourfold form according to their correspondence to the four things set forth. For the legal books move through the precepts of the most omnipotent majesty; the historical, through the examples of the most innocent goodness; the sapiential, through the teachings of the most provident truth; the prophetical move through the aggregation of all the aforementioned, as manifestly appears in them. Whence they are, as it were, a recollection of the entire force of legal wisdom and doctrine.
Sacred Scripture is therefore like a very broad river, which from the confluence of many waters grows ever greater the farther it runs. For when first in Scripture there were the legal books, afterward there came upon them the water of wisdom of the historical books, and thirdly there was added the teaching of the most wise Solomon, after which came also the teaching of the holy Prophets, and at last the evangelical teaching was revealed, brought forth through the mouth of the flesh of Christ, written down by the Evangelists, spread abroad by the holy Apostles — with the addition also of those teachings which the Holy Spirit, coming upon them, taught us through them: so that, having been taught all truth through the Holy Spirit according to the divine promise, they might give to the Church of Christ the doctrine of all saving truth, and by bringing Sacred Scripture to completion might extend the knowledge of truth.
§ 2. On the Length of Sacred Scripture.
This Sacred Scripture also has length, which consists in the description of both times and ages, namely from the beginning of the world to the day of judgment. It describes the world as running through three times, namely through the time of the law of nature, the written law, and the law of grace, and in these three times it distinguishes seven ages. Of which the first is from Adam to Noah, the second from Noah to Abraham, the third from Abraham to David, the fourth from David to the exile to Babylon, the fifth from the exile to Christ, the sixth from Christ to the end of the world, the seventh runs alongside the sixth, beginning from the rest of Christ in the tomb up to the universal resurrection, when the eighth age of the resurrection will begin.
And thus Scripture is most long, because in its treatment it begins from the beginning of the world and of time at the start of Genesis, and extends to the end of the world and of time, namely at the end of Revelation.
Now rightly the whole of time, which runs its course according to a threefold law, namely the law implanted within, the law given from without, and the law infused from above, runs through seven ages and is consummated at the end of the sixth; so that the course of the world may correspond to its origin, and the course of the greater world may correspond to the course of life of the lesser world, namely man, for whose sake it was made. For the first age of the world, in which the formation of the world itself took place, the fall of the demons and the confirmation of the Angels, rightly corresponds to the first day, on which light was made and was distinguished from darkness. - The second, in which through the ark and the flood the good were saved and the wicked destroyed, corresponds to the second day, on which through the firmament the separation of waters from waters was made. - The third, in which Abraham was called, and the synagogue was begun, which was to bear fruit and generate offspring for the worship of God, corresponds to the third day, on which the earth appeared and brought forth green plants. - The fourth, in which the kingdom and the priesthood flourished, because King David expanded the divine worship, corresponds to the fourth day, on which the formation of the luminaries and stars was made.
The fifth, in which those in exile lived among many peoples and were afflicted, corresponds to the fifth day, on which the formation of fish from the waters was made.
The sixth age, in which Christ was born in human form, who is truly the image of God, corresponds to the sixth day, on which the first man was formed.