I suppose it will not be thought necessary for me to proceed with the comparison instituted. The several books are in the hands of most students, and that the case is generally the same in the other places pleaded for the satisfaction of Christ, they may easily satisfy themselves. Only, because the apologist seems to put some differ- ence between his Annotations on the Revelation, as having " re- ceived their lineaments and colours from his own pencil," and those on the Epistles, which he had not so completed; as I have already manifested that in his annotations on that book he hath treacher- ously tampered with and corrupted the testimonies given to the deity of our blessed Saviour, so shall I give one instance from them also of his dealing no less unworthily with those that concern his satis- faction.
Socinus, in his second book against Covet, second part, and chap, xvii., gives us this account of these words of the Holy Ghost, Rev. i. 5, "Who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood:" " Jo-
A REVIEW OF THE ANNOTATIONS OF HUGO GROTIUS. 627
hannes in Apocalyp. cap. i. 5, alia metaphora seu translatione (quae nihil aliud est quam corapendiosa qusedam comparatio) uteus, dixit de Cliristo et ejus morte, 'Qui dilexit nos et lavit nos a peccatis in sanguine suo/ nam quemadmodum aqua abluuntur sordes corporis, sic sanguine Christi peccata, quae sordes animi sunt, absterguntur. Absterguntur, inquam, quia animus noster ab ipsis mundatur," etc. This interpretation is opposed and exploded by Grotins, De Satis- factione, cap. x. p. 208, 209 ; the substance of it being that Christ washed us from our sins by his death, in that he confirmed his doc- trine of repentance and newness of life thereby, by which we are turned from our sins, as he manifests in the close of his discourse. " Hoc sa^pius urgendum est,"" saith Socinus, " Jesum Christum ea ratione peccata nostra abstulisse, quod effecerit, ut a peccando desis- tamus." This interpretation of Socinus being re-enforced by Crel- lius, the place falls again under the consideration of Grotius in those Annotations on the Revelation; which, as the apologist tells us, " received their very lineaments and colours from his own pencil." There, then, he gives us this account thereof: " Kal Xovaavn /j/j.ag d'^rb ruiv aijjapri^v ^,u,uv kv ruj a7/xar/ avTou. Sanguine SUO, id est, morte tolerata, certos nos reddidit veritatis eorum quse docuerat, quae talia sunt, ut nihil sit aptius ad purgandos a vitiis animos. Humidse naturse, sub qua est et sanguis, proprium est lavare. Id vero per egre- giam dWriyopiav ad animam transfertur. Dicitur autem Christus suo sanguine nos lavasse, quia et ipse omnia prsestitit quse ad id re- quirebantur et apparet secutum in plurimis effectum." I desire the apologist to tell me Avhat he thinks of this piece, thus perfected, with all its lineaments and colours, by the pencil of that skilful man, and what beautiful aspect he supposeth it to have. Let the reader, to prevent farther trouble in perusing transcriptions of this kind, con- sider Rev. xiii. 8, p. 114; Heb. ix. 25 to the end, which he calls " an illustrious place," in the same page and forward; 1 John ii. 2, p. 140; Rom. V. 10, 11, p. 142, 143; Eph. ii. 16, p. 148, 149; Col. i. 20-22, Tit. ii. 14, p. 156; Heb. ix. 14, 15, p. 157, 158; Acts xx. 28, and many others, and compare them with the annotations on those places, and he will be farther enabled to judge of the defence made of the one by the instance of the other. I shall only desire that he who under- takes to give his judgment of this whole matter be somewhat ac- quainted with the state of the difference about this point of the doctrine of the gospel between the Socinians and us; that he do not take " auferre peccata" to be " ferre peccata;" "nostri causa" to be "nostra vice" and " nostro loco;" causa -^rpoTiyovfj^evri to be crpoxara^x- riKTi; "liberatio ajugo peccati" to be "redemptio a reatu peccati;" *' subire poenas simpliciter" to be "subire poenas nobis debitas;" to be xCrpov," and 2^'^, in respect of the event, to be so as to the pro- per nature of the thing ; " offerre seipsum in ccelo," to be as much as
628 A BEVIEW OF THE ANNOTATIONS OF HUGO GROTIXJS.
"offerre seipsum in cruce," as to tlie work itself; that so he be not mistaken to think that when the first are granted the latter are so also. For a close of the discourse relating to this head, a brief ac- count may be added why I said not positively that he had wrested all the places of Scripture giving testimony to the satisfaction of Christ to another sense, but that he had either done so or else con- cealed or obscured that sense in them.
Though I might give instances from one or two places in his Annotations on the Gospels giving occasion to this assertion, yet I shall insist only on some taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, where is the great and eminent seat of the doctrine of Christ's satis- faction. Although in his annotations on that epistle he doth openly corrupt the most clear testimonies given to this truth, yet there are some passages in them wherein he seems to dissent from the So- cinians. In his annotations on chap. v. 5 he hath these words: *' Jesus sacerdotale quid em munus suum aliquo modo erat auspica- tus; cum semet patri victimam offerret." That Christ was a priest Avhen he was on the earth was AvhoUy denied by Socinus, both in his book De Servatore, and in his epistle to Niemojevius, as I have showed elsewhere. Smalcius seems to be of the same judg- ment in the Racovian Catechism. Grotius says, " Sacerdotale munus erat aliquo modo auspicatus;'' yet herein he goes not beyond Crel- lius, who tells us, "Mortem Christus subiit duplici ratione, partira quidem ut foederis mediator seu sponsor, partim quidem ut sacerdos Deo ipsum oblaturus," De Cans. Mort. Christi, p. 6. And so Vol- kelius fully to the same purpose. " Partes,'' saith he, " muneris sacerdotis, hsec sunt potissimum ; mactatio victimge, in tabernaculum ad oblationem peragendam ingressio, et ex eodem egressio : ac mac- tatio quidem mortem Christi, violentam sanguinis profusionem con- tinet," De Relig. lib. iii. cap. xlvii, p. 145. And again: " Hinc colligi- tur solam Christi mortem nequaquam illam perfectara absolutamque ipsius oblationem (de qua in Epistola ad Hebrseos agitur) fuisse, sed principium et prseparationem quandam ipsius sacerdotii in coelo de- mum administrandi extitisse," ibid. So that nothing is obtained by Grotius' "Munus sacerdotale aliquo modo erat auspicatus," but what is granted by Crellius and Volkelius. But in the next words, "Cum semet offerret patri victimam," he seems to leave them : but he seems only so to do; for Volkelius acknowledgeth that he did slay the sacrifice in his death, though that was not his complete and perfect oblation, which is also afterward affirmed by Grotius, and Crellius expressly affirms the same. Nor doth he seem to intend a proper expiatory and satisfactory sacrifice in that expression ; for if he had, he would not have been guilty of such an dx.vpo^.oyla as to say, " Semet obtulit patri." Besides, though he doth acknowledge else- where that this "victima" was ^^^, and I'Trep aju^apnuv, yet he says