Chapter 1 (4): 1. Why He Took The Whole Human Nature, And What Is Understood
6 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
Father or the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless it was the Trinity which worked this taking on of flesh, as Augustine says in the book On Faith to Peter:
"We were reconciled through the Son alone according to the flesh, but not to the Son alone according to divinity. For the Trinity reconciled us to itself by that same Trinity making the Word alone flesh."* And so the Trinity worked the taking on of flesh, but on the Word, not on the Father or the Holy Spirit. For if the Father had worked the taking on of flesh on himself, and the Son on himself, or the Father on the Son, and the Son on the Father, then the work of both would be divided and would no longer be the same.—AUGUSTINE, IN BOOK | OF ON THE TRINITY. But just as the unity of substance of the three is inseparable and undivided, as Augustine says in the book On the Trinity, so also is their operation: "and yet Catholic authors did not teach that this same Trinity was born of the Virgin, and was crucified and buried, but only the Son; nor that the same Trinity descended over Jesus in the form of a dove, but only the Holy Spirit;* nor that the same Trinity said from heaven: You are my Son, but only the Father's voice was addressed to the Son. And yet Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, as they are inseparable, so they also work inseparably. This is my faith because it is the Catholic faith."°—And so, although the Son alone took on flesh, yet he worked that same incarnation with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
DISTINCTION II
Chapter 1 (4)
1. WHY HE TOOK THE WHOLE HUMAN NATURE, AND WHAT IS UNDERSTOOD
BY THE TERM HUMANITY OR HUMAN NATURE. And because the whole human nature was corrupted in man by sin, he took it whole, that is, soul and flesh, so that he might sanctify and make it whole-—JEROME. Jerome teaches clearly that by the term human nature or humanity are to be understood soul and flesh; in the Exposition of the Catholic Faith, he says:
"We confess that the one person of the Son is in Christ in such a way as to say that there are two perfect and whole substances, that is, of the divinity and of the humanity, [the latter of] which is comprised of the soul and the body." See, he openly shows that soul and body are understood by the term humanity, and the Son of God is understood to have taken
'Rather, Fulgentius, De fide ad Petrum, c2 n23.
"Ciibkese 2) of Bee ose °Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 13 c4 n7.
'That is, Pelagius, Libellus fidei ad Innocentium Papam, n4.
Distinction II | 7 on these two when we read that he took on human form, or humanity, or human nature.
2. HE TOUCHES UPON THE ERROR OF SOME WHO UNDERSTAND HUMAN-
ITY IMPROPERLY. And so they are in error who contend that, whenever Christ's humanity is recalled, it is not the substance that is understood by the term humanity, but some property by which he is called a man.— JOHN
OF DAMASCUS. For John of Damascus says: "It is truly to be understood that the terms divinity and humanity are representative of the substances, namely of the natures."
3. For with regard to Christ nature is not taken in the same way as it is when we say that the nature of all men is one. The same John clearly shows this, ascribing a different reason for using this word when human nature is said to be in Christ, and when the nature of all men is said to be one. For he says: "When we say that the naturé of men is one, it is to be understood that we say this without considering the relationship of soul and body. For it is impossible to say that" the Lord's "body and soul, when mutually compared, are of one nature. But because there are many human persons, and they all take the same kind of nature—for all are composed of body and soul, and all share the nature of the soul and possess the substance of the body—we call the common form of the several and different persons one nature, namely of every person having two natures and completely existing in two natures, namely of soul and body.
In the Lord Jesus Christ, however, it is not a matter of accepting a common form. For another such was never made, nor is made now, nor ever will be made. But Christ, constituted from divinity and humanity, in his divinity and humanity, is both perfect God and perfect man."
4. And so God took on the whole human nature, that is, soul and flesh, and the properties and accidents of both; he did not take flesh without soul, nor soul without reason, as the heretics would have it,* but flesh and soul with the senses pertaining to them.—Hence John of Damascus says:
"The Word of God took on all things which he had planted in our nature, namely body and intellectual soul, and their properties. For he in his wholeness took on me in my wholeness so that he should graciously grant salvation to all of me. For whatever is not capable of being taken on is incurable."
John of Damascus, De fide orthodoxa, bk 3 c4.
*Ibid., bk 3 c3.
4Cf. Gennadius, Liber seu diffinitio ecclesiasticorum dogmatum, ¢2.
'John of Damascus, De fide orthodoxa, bk 3 c6.