ollowed that the Son of God "took
an animal with the form of a human body," which, again, is against
the Divine truth, which cannot suffer any fictitious untruth.

Reply Obj. 1: Where a thing is by its presence, its image is not
required to supply the place of the thing, as where the emperor is
the soldiers do not pay homage to his image. Yet the image of a thing
is required together with its presence, that it may be perfected by
the presence of the thing, just as the image in the wax is perfected
by the impression of the seal, and as the image of man is reflected
in the mirror by his presence. Hence in order to perfect the human
mind it was necessary that the Word should unite it to Himself.

Reply Obj. 2: The greater light dims the lesser light of another
luminous body; but it does not dim, rather it perfects the light of
the body illuminated--at the presence of the sun the light of the
stars is put out, but the light of the air is perfected. Now the
intellect or mind of man is, as it were, a light lit up by the light
of the Divine Word; and hence by the presence of the Word the mind of
man is perfected rather than overshadowed.

Reply Obj. 3: Although the intellective power is not the act of a
body, nevertheless the essence of the human soul, which is the form
of the body, requires that it should be more noble, in order that it
may have the power of understanding; and hence it is necessary that a
better disposed body should correspond to it.
_______________________

QUESTION 6

OF THE ORDER OF ASSUMPTION
(In Six Articles)

We must now consider the order of the foregoing assumption, and under
this head there are six points of inquiry:

(1) Whether the Son of God assumed flesh through the medium of the
soul?

(2) Whether He assumed the soul through the medium of the spirit or
mind?

(3) Whether the soul was assumed previous to the flesh?

(4) Whether the flesh of Christ was assumed by the Word previous to
being united to the soul?

(5) Whether the whole human nature was assumed through the medium of
the parts?

(6) Whether it was assumed through the medium of grace?
_______________________

FIRST ARTICLE [III, Q. 6, Art. 1]

Whether the Son of God Assumed Flesh Through the Medium of the Soul?

Objection 1: It would seem that the Son of God did not assume flesh
through the medium of the soul. For the mode in which the Son of God
is united to human nature and its parts, is more perfect than the
mod