36. But even now that we have proved what was the faith of the Apostle, the heretics think to meet it by the text, My soul is sorrowful even unto death639    St. Matt. xxvi. 38; St. Mark xiv. 34.. These words, they say, prove the consciousness of natural infirmity which made Christ begin to be sorrowful. Now, first, I appeal to common intelligence: what do we mean by sorrowful unto death? It cannot signify the same as ‘to be sorrowful because of death:’ for where there is sorrow because of death, it is the death that is the cause of the sadness. But a sadness even to death640    Usque ad mortem: up to, as far as death. The Latin gives more colour to this interpretation of Hilary than the English translation ‘even unto death.’ implies that death is the finish, not the cause, of the sadness. If then He was sorrowful even to death, not because of death, we must enquire, whence came His sadness? He was sorrowful, not for a certain time, or for a period which human ignorance could not determine, but even unto death. So far from His sadness being caused by His death, it was removed by it.

36. Tristem esse usque ad mortem quid.---Sed niti adversum apostolicae fidei demonstrationem haeretici videntur hoc dicto: Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem (Matth. XXVI, 38), ut professio ejus, qui se tristem ait, naturae infirmitatem, per cujus conscientiam tristis coeperit esse, testetur. Ac primum humanae intelligentiae sensum interrogo, quid sit 0372A tristem esse usque ad mortem. Non enim ejusdem significationis est, tristem esse propter mortem, et tristem esse usque ad mortem: quia ubi propter mortem tristitia est, illic ipsa mors causa tristitiae est; ubi vero tristitia usque ad mortem est, mors non jam tristitiae est causa, sed finis. Qui ergo non propter mortem, sed usque ad mortem tristis est, quaerendum est unde sit tristis. Tristis autem non incerto neque indefinito humanae ignorantiae tempore, sed usque ad mortem. Adeo autem non propter mortem suscepta tristitia est, ut sit destituta per mortem.