Patristic A.D. 407
“He not only soothed His disciples, by this declaration of punishment against His enemies, but convinced them that it was voluntarily that He suffered, Thinkest thou that I cannot pray to my Father, &c. Because He had shewn many qualities of human infirmity, He would have seemed to say what was incredible, if He had said that He had power to destroy them, therefore He says, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father?”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Matthew, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 26:51-54
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1841) ↗