d to be a medium, does not stand for the essence of
the soul, which is common to all the powers, but for the lower
powers, which are common to every soul.
_______________________

THIRD ARTICLE [III, Q. 6, Art. 3]

Whether the Soul Was Assumed Before the Flesh by the Son of God?

Objection 1: It would seem that the soul of Christ was assumed before
the flesh by the Word. For the Son of God assumed flesh through the
medium of the soul, as was said above (A. 1). Now the medium is
reached before the end. Therefore the Son of God assumed the soul
before the body.

Obj. 2: Further, the soul of Christ is nobler than the angels,
according to Ps. 96:8: "Adore Him, all you His angels." But the
angels were created in the beginning, as was said above (I, Q. 46, A.
3). Therefore the soul of Christ also (was created in the beginning).
But it was not created before it was assumed, for Damascene says (De
Fide Orth. iii, 2, 3, 9), that "neither the soul nor the body of
Christ ever had any hypostasis save the hypostasis of the Word."
Therefore it would seem that the soul was assumed before the flesh,
which was conceived in the womb of the Virgin.

Obj. 3: Further, it is written (John 1:14): "We saw Him [Vulg.: 'His
glory'] full of grace and truth," and it is added afterwards that "of
His fulness we have all received" (John 1:16), i.e. all the faithful
of all time, as Chrysostom expounds it (Hom. xiii in Joan.). Now this
could not have been unless the soul of Christ had all fulness of
grace and truth before all the saints, who were from the beginning of
the world, for the cause is not subsequent to the effect. Hence since
the fulness of grace and truth was in the soul of Christ from union
with the Word, according to what is written in the same place: "We
saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only-begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth," it would seem in consequence that
from the beginning of the world the soul of Christ was assumed by the
Word of God.

_On the contrary,_ Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iv, 6): "The
intellect was not, as some untruthfully say, united to the true God,
and henceforth called Christ, before the Incarnation which was of the
Virgin."

_I answer that,_ Origen (Peri Archon i, 7, 8; ii, 8) maintained that
all souls, amongst which he placed Christ's soul, were created in the
beginning. But this is not fitting, if we suppose that it was first
of all created, but not at once joined to the Word,