The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius: Containing a Copious and Circumstantial History of the Several Important and Honourable Negotiations in Which He Was Employed; together with a Critical Account of His WorksBurigny, M. de (Jean Lévesque)
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The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius: Containing a Copious and Circumstantial History of the Several Important and Honourable Negotiations in Which He Was Employed; together with a Critical Account of His Works
Burigny, M. de (Jean Lévesque)
Grotius, Hugo, 1583-1645
If even some mistakes have escaped him, of which the Socinians might
take advantage, these will not authorise us to accuse him of being a
favourer of that heresy. We know that never any carried a love to truth,
or an abhorrence of falsehood, farther than he did: now he always
expressed the greatest aversion to Socinianism: he writes to Gerard
Vossius[686], in 1613, that there was no body of any authority in the
republic, who held not Socinianism in abhorrence. He wrote against
Socinus the book entitled _A defence of the Catholic faith concerning
Christ's satisfaction against Faustus Socinus of Siena_, in which he
proves that there is nothing contrary to justice in Christ's suffering,
though innocent, for offenders; that even the Pagans believed that God
punished the crimes of the fathers on the sons; and that, in the early
ages of the world, the innocent children were often punished with the
guilty fathers. In fine, he shews that the opinion of Socinus is
repugnant to Scripture, which tells us that Christ's death has
reconciled us to God, according to the expressions of St. Paul, that he
died for us, and that by his death our sins are expiated.
He was very orthodox on the article of original sin; for, he says, the
only true opinion on this matter is that of the ancient Church, which is
well set forth by the Council of Trent.
The Socinians were far from thinking Grotius so favourable to them:
Ruarus writes to one of his friends, "You have reason to think, that
hitherto no body has written so learnedly against Socinus, as Grotius:
he was always much attached to the doctrine of Christ's divinity, even
in his earlier years." Grotius wrote to Walaeus[687], in 1611, "I do not
look upon the Samosatenians, and others, like them, as Christians, nor
even as heretics; for their doctrine is repugnant to the belief of all
ages, and all nations. They retain Christianity in name, but destroy it
in fact. I therefore make no great difference between them and the
Mahometans, who even do not revile Christ." M. Bossuet, tho' far from
being prejudiced in favour of Grotius, allows however that he did not
deny the divinity of Christ, nor the efficacy of his sacrifice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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