31. The purpose of the tenth book is one in
harmony with the faith. For since, in the folly which passes with
them for wisdom, the heretics have twisted some of the circumstances
and utterances of the Passion into an insolent contradiction of the
Divine nature and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, I am compelled to
prove that this is a blasphemous misinterpretation, and that these
things were put on record by the Lord Himself as evidences of His true
and absolute majesty. In their parody of the faith they deceive
themselves with words such as, My soul is sorrowful even unto
death St. Matt. xxvi. 38.. He, they
think, must be far removed from the blissful and passionless life of
God, over Whose soul brooded this crushing fear of an impending woe,
Who under the pressure of suffering even humbled Himself to pray,
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from
Me Ib.
39., and assuredly bore the appearance of
fearing to endure the trials from which He prayed for release; Whose
whole nature was so overwhelmed by agony that in those moments on the
Cross He cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me Ib.
xxvii. 46.? forced by the bitterness of His pain to
complain that He was forsaken: Who, destitute of the
Father’s help, gave up the ghost with the words, Father, into
Thy hands I commend My Spirit St. Luke xxiii. 46.. The
fear, they say, which beset Him at the moment of expiring made Him
entrust His Spirit to the care of God the Father: the very
hopelessness of His own condition forced Him to commit His Soul to the
keeping of Another.