Whether the Nature Abstracted from the Personality Can Assume?
Objection 1: It would seem that if we abstract the Personality by our
mind, the Nature cannot assume. For it was said above (A. 1) that it
belongs to the Nature to assume by reason of the Person. But what
belongs to one by reason of another cannot belong to it if the other
is removed; as a body, which is visible by reason of color, without
color cannot be seen. Hence if the Personality be mentally
abstracted, the Nature cannot assume.
Obj. 2: Further, assumption implies the term of union, as was said
above (A. 1). But the union cannot take place in the nature, but only
in the Person. Therefore, if the Personality be abstracted, the
Divine Nature cannot assume.
Obj. 3: Further, it has been said above (I, Q. 40, A. 3) that in the
Godhead if the Personality is abstracted, nothing remains. But the
one who assumes is something. Therefore, if the Personality is
abstracted, the Divine Nature cannot assume.
_On the contrary,_ In the Godhead Personality signifies a personal
property; and this is threefold, viz. Paternity, Filiation and
Procession, as was said above (I, Q. 30, A. 2). Now if we mentally
abstract these, there still remains the omnipotence of God, by which
the Incarnation was wrought, as the angel says (Luke 1:37): "No word
shall be impossible with God." Therefore it seems that if the
Personality be removed, the Divine Nature can still assume.
_I answer that,_ The intellect stands in two ways towards God. First,
to know God as He is, and in this manner it is impossible for the
intellect to circumscribe something in God and leave the rest, for
all that is in God is one, except the distinction of Persons; and as
regards these, if one is removed the other is taken away, since they
are distinguished by relations only which must be together at the
same time. Secondly, the intellect stands towards God, not indeed as
knowing God as He is, but in its own way, i.e. understanding
manifoldly and separately what in God is one: and in this way our
intellect can understand the Divine goodness and wisdom, and the
like, which are called essential attributes, without understanding
Paternity or Filiation, which are called Personalities. And hence if
we abstract Personality by our intellect, we may still understand the
Nature assuming.
Reply Obj. 1: Because in God _what is,_ and _whereby it is,_ are one,
if any one of the things which are attributed to God in the abstract
is considered in itself, abstracted from all else, it will still be
something subsisting, and consequently a Person, since it is an
intellectual nature. Hence just as we now say three Persons, on
account of holding three personal properties, so likewise if we
mentally exclude the personal properties there will still remain in
our thought the Divine Nature as subsisting and as a Person. And in
this way It may be understood to assume human nature by reason of Its
subsistence or Personality.
Reply Obj. 2: Even if the personal properties of the three Persons
are abstracted by our mind, nevertheless there will remain in our
thoughts the one Personality of God, as the Jews consider. And the
assumption can be terminated in It, as we now say it is terminated in
the Person of the Word.
Reply Obj. 3: If we mentally abstract the Personality, it is said
that nothing remains by way of resolution, i.e. as if the subject of
the relation and the relation itself were distinct because all we can
think of in God is considered as a subsisting suppositum. However,
some of the things predicated of God can be understood without
others, not by way of resolution, but by the way mentioned above.
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