Chapter 3 (49): 1. On Ambrose'S Assertion That Christ Doubted By Human Dispo-
Distinction XVI | 71 Chapter 3 (49)
1. ON AMBROSE'S ASSERTION THAT CHRIST DOUBTED BY HUMAN DISPO-
SITION. Yet we are troubled not a little by the words of Ambrose, in which he seems to say that Christ, according to his human disposition, doubted the Father's power; he says, in On the Trinity, book 3: "Whom does he doubt? Himself, or the Father? Surely, by his human disposition, he doubts him to whom he says: Let this pass.' For God does not doubt the Father, nor is he fearful of death. The Prophet also does not doubt, who asserts that nothing is impossible with God.' Will you treat God as if he were a man? The Prophet does not doubt, and you believe the Son doubts? And so it is as man that he doubts, and as man that he speaks."
These words seem to suggest that Christ doubted not insofar as he was God or Son of God, but by his human disposition insofar as he is man.—
IN WHAT SENSE THE STATEMENT IS TO BE TAKEN. The statement may be taken not in the sense that he himself doubted, but that he took on the manner of a doubter and seemed to men to doubt.
2. WORDS OF HILARY EXPRESSING A VIEW VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE
ABOVE. Neither are we to pass over Hilary's assertion that Christ prayed not for himself, but for his own [disciples], when he said: Let this cup pass from me, etc.,* just as it was not for himself, but for his own [disciples] that he feared; nor was it the case that he wished to avoid his own passion, but that the cup of the passion should pass from his own [disciples]. Hilary says: "If his passion was to glorify him, as Jesus said when
Judas went out: Now is the Son of Man glorified, how could fear of it have made him sad? Unless perhaps he was so irrational that he feared to suffer the death which, in his suffering it, was to glorify him? But perhaps he may be thought to have feared to the point of praying that the cup might pass him by, saying: Father, let this cup pass from me.® But how could he, because of fear of suffering, pray for the removal from himself of that which, in his zeal for God's dispensation, he was hastening to fulfil?' It is not fitting that he should be unwilling to suffer that which he was willing to suffer; and since you acknowledge that he was willing to suffer, it would have been more reverent to confess this to be the case than to rush out into impious folly by asserting that he prayed to avoid suffering, whom you acknowledge to be willing to suffer."* "And so it is
'Mk. 14, 36; Lk. 22, 42.
*Cf. Job 10, 13; Dan. 4, 6.
>Ambrose, De fide, bk 2 c5 nn43 and 42.
'Mt. 26, 39.
In 13-31; Mt. 26, 39.
Cf toy | «OM RPA 'Hilary, De Trinitate, bk 10 nn29-30.