Hilary was
undoubtedly influenced more than he knew by the Latin words pati
and dolere, the one purely objective, the other
subjective. By a line of thought which recalls that of Mozley
concerning Miracles he refuses to argue from our experience to that of
Christ. That He suffered, in the sense of having wounds and death
inflicted upon Him, is a fact; that He was conscious of suffering is an
inference, a supposition (putatur dolere quia patitur, Tr. in
Ps. cxxxviii. 3, fallitur ergo humanæ æstimationis
opinio putans hunc dolere quod patitur, Trin. x. 47),
and one which we are not entitled to make. In fact, the passage
last cited states that He has no natura dolendi; so also x. 23,
35, and cf. Tr. in Ps. liii. 12. Or as Hilary puts it,
Trin. x. 24, He is subject to the naturæ passionum
not to their iniuriæ.