A Second DEFENCE Of the Learned HVGO GROTIVS OR A vindication of the Digression concerning him from some fresh EXCEPTIONS By H. Hammond D. D. LONDON Printed by J. Flesher for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivy lane 1655. A DEFENCE OF THE Learned HVGO GROTIVS 1. WHat hath newly been suggested in an Epistle Dedicatorie to the Oxford-heads by way of Reply to my Digression about the Learned Hugo Grotius will receive punctual answer within the compasse of very few leaves But for the Readers thrift and ease I shall first set down the words wherein the suggestion is delivered 2. From thence whence in the thoughts of some I am most likely to suffer as to my own Resolves I am most secure It is in meddling with Grotius his Annotations and calling into quaestion what hath been delivered by such a Gyant in all kinds of literature Since my ingagement in this business and when I had well-nigh finished the vindication of the Texts of Scripture commonly pleaded for the Demonstration of the Deity of Christ from the exceptions put into their Testimonies by the Racovian Catechisme I had the sight of Dr. H's Apologie for him in his vindication of his dissertations about Episcopacy from my occasional Animadversions published in the Preface of my Book of the Perseverance of the Saints Of that whole Treatise I shall elsewhere give an account My Defensative as to my dealing with Grotius his Annotations is suited to what the Doctor pleads in his behalfe which occasions this mention thereof This very Pious Learned Judicious man he tells us hath fallen under some harsh censures of late especially upon the account of Socinianisme and Popery That is not as though he would reconcile those extremes but being in Doctrinals a Socinian he yet closed in many things with the Romane interest as I no way doubt but Thousands of the same perswasions with the Socinians as to the person and offices of Christ do live in the outward Communion of that Church as they call it to this day of which supposal I am not without considerable grounds and eminent instances for its confirmation This I say is their charge upon him For his being a Socinian he tells us Three things are made use of to beget a jealousie in the minds of men of his inclinations that way 1. Some parcells of a Letter of his to Crellius 2. Some Relations of what passed from him at his Death 3. Some passages in his Annotations It is this last alone wherein I am concerned And what I have to speake to them I desire may be measured and weighed by what I do promise It is not that I do entertaine in my self any hard thoughts or that I would beget in others any evill surmises of the Eternal condition of that man that I speak what I do What am I that I should judge another mans servant He is fallen to his own Master I am very slow to judge of mens Acceptation with God by the Apprehension of their understandings This onely I know that be men of what Religion soever that is professed in the world if they are Drunkards Proud Boasters c. Hypocrites haters of good men persecutors and revilers of them yea if they be not regenerate and born of God united to the head Christ Jesus by the same spirit that is in him they shall never see God But for the passages in his Annotations the substance of the Doctors plea is that the passages intimated are in his posthuma that he intended not to publish them that they might be of things he observed but thought farther to consider and an instance is given in that of Col. 1. 16. which he interprets contrarie to what he urged it for Joh. 1. 1 2 3. But granting what is affirmed as to matter of fact about his Collections though the Preface to the last part of his Annotations will not allow it to be true I must needs abide in my dissatisfaction to these Annotations and of my resolves in these thoughts give the Doctor this account Of the Socinian Religion there are two main Parts the first is Photinianisme the latter Pelagianisme The first concerning the person the other the Grace of Christ Let us take an eminent instance out of either of these heads Out of the first their denying Christ to be God by Nature Out of the latter their denyall of his satisfaction For the first I must needs tell the Apologist that of all the Texts of the New Testament and Old whereby the Deity of Christ is usually confirmed and where it is evidently testified unto He hath not left any more then one that I have observed if one speaking any thing clearly to that purpose I say if one for that he speaks not home to the business in hand on Joh. 1. I shall elsewhere give an account perhaps some one or two more may be interpreted according to the Analogie of that I speake not of his Annotations on the Epistles but on the whole Bible throughout wherein his expositions given do for the most part fall in with those of the Socinians and oftentimes consist in the very words of Socinus and Smalcius and alwaies do the same things with them as to any notice of the Deity of Christ in them So that I marvell the Learned Doctor should fix upon one particular instance as though that one place alone were corrupted by him when there is not one or but one that is not wrested perverted and corrupted to the same purpose For the full conviction of the truth hereof I refer the Reader to the insuing considerations of his interpretations of the places themselves The condition of these famous Annotations as to the satisfaction of Christ is the same not one Text of the whole Scripture wherein Testimonie is given to that sacred truth which is not wrested to another sense or at least the Doctrine in it concealed and obscured by them I do not speak this with the least intention to cast upon him the reproach of a Socinian I judge not his Person his Books are published to be considered and judged Erasmus I know made way for him in most of his Expositions about the Deity of Christ but what repute he hath thereby obtained among all that honor the Eternal Godhead of the son of God let Bellarmine on the one hand and Beza on the other evince And as I will by no means maintain or urge against Grotius any of the miscarriages in Religion which the Answerer of my Animadversions undertakes to vindicate him from Nor do I desire to fight with the Dust and Ashes of men yet what I have said is if not necessary to return to the Apologist yet of tendency I hope to the satisfaction of others who may inquire after the reason of my calling the Annotations of the learned man to an Account in this Discourse shall any one take liberty to pluck down the Pillars of our Faith and weaken the grounds of
him when they find such Aphorismes as these comprehending so many sorts of sinners which shall never see God made use of to conclude a discourse which purposely treated of that person and cannot discern with what proprietie they could be directed to that place if they did not relate to him 7. Fiftly when he saith that the Praeface to the last part of Grotius's Annotations will not allow that to be true which I said of his Posthuma viz. that they had not been formed by him or fitted for the publick c. I answer that that Preface of the Publisher if it be supposed to have set down the whole truth hath yet nothing contrarie to what I said It saith the Opus integrum was by the Author committed and earnestly commended to the faithfull care of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} But what was the Opus integrum not that last part or volume of Annotations thus completed and so made Integrum intire by his own hand though for as much as concerned the Apocalypse I think it had received from his own pencil by occasion of the contests he met with about his tract De Antichristo the very lineaments and colors wherein it appears but Opus integrum the whole volume or volumes which contained all his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} adversaria on the New Testament which it seems were thus committed to a friends hands or else they had never come to ours And this is perfectly consonant to what I said and I suppose exemplyfied and evidenced concerning those Annotations 8. Sixtly when he saith that H. Grotius hath not left any more then one text of the New and Old Testament whereby the Deity of Christ is usually confirmed and where it is evidently testified to I refer him briefely to one place in his Annotations on S. John's Gospel which alone will be able to discover what weight there is in this affirmation There having by way of Preface observed that S. John did more expressely then any other of the Evangelists and more early in the very first words of his writing set down the divine nature of Christ ipso initio Dei nomen ei assignandum existimans in the very beginning of his Gospel assigning him the name of God accordingly in his explication of the first verse he makes the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} In the beginning was an expression of Christ's eternity applying to it the place in the Proverbs concerning wisedome c. 8. 22 23 24 25 26. 27. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was when there was no depths I was brought forth when there were no fountains abounding with water before the mountains were setled before the hills was I brought forth while as yet he had not made the earth nor the field nor the highest part of the dust of the world when he prepared the heavens I was there and in his notes on the Old Testament Prov. 8. 27. he expressely refers to this Joh. 1. 1. and by so doing manifestly defines that eternal wisdome to be Christ and on this occasion he brings the most expresse affirmations of the antients Justine and Athenagoras the former affirming Christ's praeexistence before the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and p. 851. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he was God before the worlds the latter his eternity and that from the beginning God being an eternal mind {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Then out of the old Testament from the Chaldee Paraphrast he brings several places where God is interpreted by God and his word making and founding the heavens and earth Isa. 45. 12. and 48. 13. and according and consenting thereto 2 Pet. 3. 5. which again are so many more evidences set down by him of Christs eternal deity and then on v. 3. to testifie that all things were created by this eternal word he appeals to the place which before I produced from him Col. 1. 16. by him were all things created 9. This I hope without farther search may suffice to prove that he hath left more then one text of the Old and New Testament speaking home and clearly to this purpose For what can be more clear and home then this that Christ was God before the world was whereas Socinians make the beginning Joh. 1. 1. to be the beginning of the Gospel and that by him the whole world was created 10. In a word If one text acknowledged to assert Christs eternal divinity will not suffice to conclude him no Socinian in that point who was not so Atheistical as to doubt of the truth and authority of that one place and so cannot be doubted to believe what from one place if there had been no more he did believe 2 If six verses in the Proverbs two in Isaiah one in S. Peter one in S. Paul added to many in the beginning of S. John will not yet amount to above one text or lastly If that one may be doubted of also which is by him interpreted to affirme Christ eternally subsistent with God before the creation of the world and that the whole world was created by him I shall despaire of ever being a successefull Advocate for any man 11. And then how still he that affirmed positively that he hath not left more then one and presently addes his doubting of this one not more then one if one and after not one or but one can first inlarge the catalogue that perhaps some one or two more may be interpreted according to the analogie of that one and then presently contract it again that his Expositions alwaies do the same things with Socinus and Smalcius who it is certain do not permit that one to be understood of Christs eternal divinity and yet at length professe that he speaks not with the least intention to cast on him the reproach of a Socinian or to urge against him any of those miscarriages in Religion which the Answerer of his Animadversions undertakes to vindicate him from and Socinianisme was one of them acknowledging that Erasmus made way for him in most of his Expositions about the Deity of Christ which is to make him an Erasmian rather then a Socinian and after that still adhere that his attempt is sacrilegious even to pluck down the pillars of our Faith concerning the person and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ how I say he can reconcile all these contrary appearances I have not the skill and therefore shall not have the curiosity to divine or conjecture 12. Seventhly when he marvels the Doctor should fix upon one particular instance as though that one place onely were corrupted by him I answer that he misinterprets my words and misrepresents my designe and aime in producing that particular instance It was not to give example what place of Scriptures those notes had corrupted or
misinterpreted but to evidence that those Annotations under his name agreed not with his sense of which as this was one eminent and pertinent instance interpreting this place Col. 1. 16. after his death to the Socinians mind which in his lifetime he had interpreted expressely against it and as one instance thus explicite is as concluding to this matter as many more could be so elsewhere I have added many instances more to the same purpose which I shall not here collect unseasonably 13. What places in the Old Testament wherein the Deity of Christ is evidently testified to are corrupted wrested or perverted by this learned man H. Gr. I professe not to divine nor shall it seems come to the full conviction of the truth thereof without reading over this whole which is a great volume where their confutation lyes scattered and is not as I discern put together in any part of the work save onely in the title page and to this larger travaile my prospect doth not invite me having already by what I have recited from Grotius's notes on Joh. 1. compared with this Authors suggestions a competent {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} what I am to expect from any farther inquiry In lieu hereof I shall onely adde these two suppletory considerations 1. That the word of God being all and every part of it equally of undoubted truth that doctrine which is founded expressely on five places of divine writ must by all Christians be acknowledged to be as irrefragably confirmed as a hundred expresse places would be conceived to confirme it 2. That this charge of disarming the Church of her defences against the adversaries of the faith by diverting those places of Scripture which have formerly been used to assert the great mysteries of Salvation to other and inferior ends though it be a very popular one and that which is most apt to divolve an odium on him which shall be represented guilty of it and may therefore probably be chosen as the field of declamation against Grotius by any that can gladly expatiate on that subject yet will it upon inquiry be found in some degree if not equally chargeable on the learnedst and most valued of the Reformers particularly upon Mr. Calvin himself who hath been as bitterly and unjustly accused and reviled on this account witness the book entitled Calvino-Turcismus as ever Erasmus was by Bellarmine or Beza or as probably Grotius can be 14. 8thly For the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ and the interpretation of those Scriptures that belong to it I cannot imagine any surer measure can be taken of Grotius's sense then by that perspicuous and judicious treatise which he hath written purposely on that subject against Socinus himself and which I believe will be found a surer Antidote against that poyson among considering men then hath been mixed by any other the most skilful hand since that controversie hath been agitated in this last age more especially the places of Scripture are by him there vindicated from the perversions of Socinus and a great cumulus of texts brought forth to testifie to the doctrine of Satisfaction which I shall not recite that I may leave on the Reader an ingagement to survey the book and commit the judgement to his own eyes 15. Onely because I have heard the signal place Isa. 53. taken notice of by some as that wherein his Annotations are most suspected I shall there fasten a while From 1 Pet. 2. 24. having inferred that Christ so bare our sins that he freed us from the punishment of them and so that we are healed by his stripes he at length urges as parallel to this Isa. 53. 11. my righteous servant shall justify many and shall bear their iniquities {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} iniquity saith he signifying the punishment of iniquity 2 Kin. 7. 9. and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to bear the bearing of punishment and thence concluding Desertè ergo hic dicitur Christus laturus poenas eorum qui justificantur It is therefore here distinctly said that Christ shall bear the punishments of those who are justified and according to this specimen he gives the mystical sense of that whole chapter and refutes the Socinian arts of evading it and at last from v. 12. concludes the punishments which Christ indured for our sins to be the foundation and merit of his dividing the spoile and interceding decere enim ut is qui peccata multorum tulerit jus habeat pro iis intercedendi for it was fit that he that bare the sins of many should have the right of interceding for them and ' much more to the same purpose defining positively against all the adversaries {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that Peccata ferre patiendo at que ita ut inde liberentur alii aliud indicare non potest quà m poenae alienae susceptionem to bear sins by suffering and so that others may be freed by that means cannot signifie any thing else but the undergoings of other mens punishment annexing Isa. 53. 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all and refuting all the evasions that wete there interposed by Socinus 16. And when to this and the many pages more which are there subjoyned for the vindicating that one chapter and the several expresse testimonies therein I shall adde two things more for preventing all possible mistake or jelousie of his after-change in this matter I shall have no motive farther to inlarge this consideration 17. First the Annotations of that Learned man on the Old Testamen published a little before his death are very brief and especially respect the first and literal interpretation As in the Prophets where there is one immediate completion of each Prophecy among the Jewes of or neer that time wherein it was written another more remote and ultimate concerning Christ or the times of the Gospel this might be exemplified in several instances applyed by the New Testament to Christ having had before a literal completion Out of Aegypt have I called my sonne and many the like there generally his care is to set down most distinctly the first or literal sense as that is terminated in the immediate completion and this I suppose because it was most neglected by other interpreters who were more copious in rendring the mystical notation And accordingly on Isa. 53. conceiving the Jewes usage of the Prophet Jeremie and Gods regard to him to be literally predicted there he interprets every verse of that chapter to that sense which was not so easily discoverable or vulgarly taken notice of omitting to inlarge on that other more sublime completion in Christ which the New Testament had so clearely exprest all Commentators enlarged on and himself in the tract de satisfact. so evidently set down and vindicated that all that was needfull to be added was easily said by him by way of introduction to that whole chapter in