Whether It Is Befitting to the Divine Nature to Assume?
Objection 1: It would seem that it is not befitting to the Divine
Nature to assume. Because, as was said above (A. 1), to assume is to
take to oneself. But the Divine Nature did not take to Itself human
nature, for the union did not take place in the nature, as was said
above (Q. 2, AA. 1, 3). Hence it is not befitting to the Divine
Nature to assume human nature.
Obj. 2: Further, the Divine Nature is common to the three Persons.
If, therefore, it is befitting to the Divine Nature to assume, it
consequently is befitting to the three Persons; and thus the Father
assumed human nature even as the Son, which is erroneous.
Obj. 3: Further, to assume is to act. But to act befits a person, not
a nature, which is rather taken to be the principle by which the
agent acts. Therefore to assume is not befitting to the nature.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine (Fulgentius) says (De Fide ad Petrum
ii): "That nature which remains eternally begotten of the Father"
(i.e. which is received from the Father by eternal generation) "took
our nature free of sin from His Mother."
_I answer that,_ As was said above (A. 1), in the word assumption two
things are signified--to wit, the principle and the term of the
action. Now to be the principle of the assumption belongs to the
Divine Nature in itself, because the assumption took place by Its
power; but to be the term of the assumption does not belong to the
Divine Nature in itself, but by reason of the Person in Whom It is
considered to be. Hence a Person is primarily and more properly said
to assume, but it may be said secondarily that the Nature assumed a
nature to Its Person. And after the same manner the Nature is also
said to be incarnate, not that it is changed to flesh, but that it
assumed the nature of flesh. Hence Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii,
6): "Following the blessed Athanasius and Cyril we say that the
Nature of God is incarnate."
Reply Obj. 1: "Oneself" is reciprocal, and points to the same
suppositum. But the Divine Nature is not a distinct suppositum from
the Person of the Word. Hence, inasmuch as the Divine Nature took
human nature to the Person of the Word, It is said to take it to
Itself. But although the Father takes human nature to the Person of
the Word, He did not thereby take it to Himself, for the suppositum
of the Father and the Son is not one, and hence it cannot properly be
said that the Father assumes human nature.
Reply Obj. 2: What is befitting to the Divine Nature in Itself is
befitting to the three Persons, as goodness, wisdom, and the like.
But to assume belongs to It by reason of the Person of the Word, as
was said above, and hence it is befitting to that Person alone.
Reply Obj. 3: As in God _what is_ and _whereby it is_ are the same,
so likewise in Him _what acts_ and _whereby it acts_ are the same,
since everything acts, inasmuch as it is a being. Hence the Divine
Nature is both that whereby God acts, and the very God Who acts.
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