DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9552#0198
I 68 SECOND APPEAL
Vide Luke, ch. xxiv. vers. 26 and 27 : " Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory ?
And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, he ex"
pounded unto them in all the scriptures the things cons
cerning himself." But we are unhappily at a loss to dis-
cover any other design in each of these events, which
happened to Jesus before his ascent to heaven. I am
therefore sorry that I must plead my inability to make a
satisfactory reply to the question of the Editor, " Had
ever Jesus transgressed his heavenly Father's will, that
he underwent such afflictions ?" I can only say, that we
find in the Scriptures that several other Prophets in
common with Jesus suffered great afflictions, and some
even death, as predicted. But I know not whether those
afflictions were the consequences of the sins committed
by them or by their parents, or whether these distresses
were experienced by them through some divine purpose
unknown to us ; as some scriptural authorities shew
beyond doubt, that man may be made liable to suffering
for some secret divine purpose, without his or his parents
having perpetrated any remarkable crime. [John, ch. ix
ver. 3 : " Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned
nor his parents ; but that the works of God should be
made manifest in him.") The latter alternative (namely
that the righteous Prophets suffered afflictions and even
death«f?r some divine purpose, known thoroughly to God
alone) seems more consistent with the contents of the
sacred writings, such as follow : Mark, ch. xii. vers. 1—9 :
u And he began to speak unto them by parables. A cer-
tain man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it,
and digged a place for the wine fat, and built a tower, and
let it out to husbandmen', and went into a far country-
Vide Luke, ch. xxiv. vers. 26 and 27 : " Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory ?
And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, he ex"
pounded unto them in all the scriptures the things cons
cerning himself." But we are unhappily at a loss to dis-
cover any other design in each of these events, which
happened to Jesus before his ascent to heaven. I am
therefore sorry that I must plead my inability to make a
satisfactory reply to the question of the Editor, " Had
ever Jesus transgressed his heavenly Father's will, that
he underwent such afflictions ?" I can only say, that we
find in the Scriptures that several other Prophets in
common with Jesus suffered great afflictions, and some
even death, as predicted. But I know not whether those
afflictions were the consequences of the sins committed
by them or by their parents, or whether these distresses
were experienced by them through some divine purpose
unknown to us ; as some scriptural authorities shew
beyond doubt, that man may be made liable to suffering
for some secret divine purpose, without his or his parents
having perpetrated any remarkable crime. [John, ch. ix
ver. 3 : " Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned
nor his parents ; but that the works of God should be
made manifest in him.") The latter alternative (namely
that the righteous Prophets suffered afflictions and even
death«f?r some divine purpose, known thoroughly to God
alone) seems more consistent with the contents of the
sacred writings, such as follow : Mark, ch. xii. vers. 1—9 :
u And he began to speak unto them by parables. A cer-
tain man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it,
and digged a place for the wine fat, and built a tower, and
let it out to husbandmen', and went into a far country-