ly, without the term,
which is a Person.

Reply Obj. 2: The Nature is said to be incarnate, and to assume by
reason of the Person in Whom the union is terminated, as stated above
(AA. 1, 2), and not as it is common to the three Persons. Now "the
whole Divine Nature is" said to be "incarnate"; not that It is
incarnate in all the Persons, but inasmuch as nothing is wanting to
the perfection of the Divine Nature of the Person incarnate, as
Damascene explains there.

Reply Obj. 3: The assumption which takes place by the grace of
adoption is terminated in a certain participation of the Divine
Nature, by an assimilation to Its goodness, according to 2 Pet. 1:4:
"That you may be made partakers of the Divine Nature"; and hence this
assumption is common to the three Persons, in regard to the principle
and the term. But the assumption which is by the grace of union is
common on the part of the principle, but not on the part of the term,
as was said above.
_______________________

FIFTH ARTICLE [III, Q. 3, Art. 5]

Whether Each of the Divine Persons Could Have Assumed Human Nature?

Objection 1: It would seem that no other Divine Person could have
assumed human nature except the Person of the Son. For by this
assumption it has been brought about that God is the Son of Man. But
it was not becoming that either the Father or the Holy Ghost should
be said to be a Son; for this would tend to the confusion of the
Divine Persons. Therefore the Father and Holy Ghost could not have
assumed flesh.

Obj. 2: Further, by the Divine Incarnation men have come into
possession of the adoption of sons, according to Rom. 8:15: "For you
have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but the spirit
of adoption of sons." But sonship by adoption is a participated
likeness of natural sonship which does not belong to the Father nor
the Holy Ghost; hence it is said (Rom. 8:29): "For whom He foreknew
He also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His
Son." Therefore it seems that no other Person except the Person of
the Son could have become incarnate.

Obj. 3: Further, the Son is said to be sent and to be begotten by the
temporal nativity, inasmuch as He became incarnate. But it does not
belong to the Father to be sent, for He is innascible, as was said
above (I, Q. 32, A. 3; First Part, Q. 43, A. 4). Therefore at least
the Person of the Father cannot become incarnate.

_On the contrary,_ Whatever the Son can do, so can th