Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] He himself, too, at times shrank from violence — but for the same reason for which he had commanded the apostles to flee: namely, until he had fulfilled his teaching. Once that was accomplished, I will not even say he stood his ground — he did not so much as ask for help from the Father of the armies of angels, and rebuked even Peter's sword. [2] He himself, too, professed a soul sorrowful unto death and a weak flesh, so as to show you, first, that in himself there were truly both human substances, by their own proper marks — the anxiety of the soul and the frailty of the flesh — lest you interpret, as some now do, that Christ's flesh or soul was of some other kind; and second, that once these conditions of theirs were laid bare, you might know that they are worth nothing by themselves, apart from the spirit. [3] And so he puts first: "The spirit is willing," so that, taking account of the condition of each substance, you may understand that in you too there is both the courage of the spirit and the weakness of the flesh, and from this may know at once what to draw from which, and which to subordinate to which — the weak, obviously, to the strong — instead of doing what you do now: pleading the weakness of the flesh while quietly passing over the strength of the spirit. [4] He too asked the Father, if it could be, that the cup of his suffering might pass from him: ask too, but standing, as he did — only asking, and then adding the rest: "Yet not what I will, but what you will." But how will you ask this while fleeing, when you yourself grant yourself the very passing-over of the cup, doing not what the Father wills but what you will?
IX.