M. Le Clerc, after examining this judgment, speaks thus of Grotius[523]:  “If you desire to know what is chiefly valuable in Grotius’s Notes on the Old Testament, and not to be found elsewhere, it is first his explanation of an infinite number of passages of Scripture by the assistance of Pagan antiquity.  Secondly, an admirable knowledge of the different manners of speaking used in Scripture, which he so happily compares with one another, that no interpreter ancient or modern has thrown so much light on them; and in fine, an extraordinary penetration in discovering the true sense of the prophecies.”

M. Fabricius[524] tells us, that one thing which highly recommends Grotius’s Commentary on the New Testament is the design, which he happily executed, of proving the truth of the Christian Religion by the Scripture itself.

Before we conclude this article we must take notice that it has been pretended by some learned men, who otherwise do him justice, that Grotius is frequently mistaken in his quotations from the Rabbis, because he took them at second-hand.  Esdras Edzardi, well skilled in these matters, made a small collection of his mistakes, which he shewed to Morhof[525].

FOOTNOTES: 

[504] Ep. 1520. p. 689.

[505] Ep. 639. p. 948.

[506] Ep. 640. p. 949.

[507] Ep. 648. p. 952.

[508] Ep. 859. p. 377. & 964. p. 432.

[509] Ep. 1056. p. 476.

[510] Ep. 1056. p. 476.

[511] Ep. 1256. p. 570. & 1315. p. 596.

[512] Ep. 503. p. 884.

[513] Ep. 507. p. 884.

[514] Ep. 465. p. 886.

[515] Ep. 476. p. 890.

[516] Ep. 481. p. 891.

[517] Ep. 1531. p. 693.

[518] Ep. 1534. p. 694.

[519] Ep. 570. p. 928.

[520] Ep. 720. p. 970.

[521] Ep. 740. p. 976.

[522] Ep. 1253. p. 553.

[523] Sentimens des Theolog. p. 388.

[524] Delect.  Argum. c. 2. p. 40.

[525] Polihistor. t. 3. l. 5. p. 54.  Vind.  Grot. 463.

XII.  This deep study of the Holy Scriptures led Grotius to examine a question which made much noise at that time.  Some Protestant Synods had ventured to decide that the Pope was Antichrist; and this extravagance, gravely delivered by the Ministers, was regarded by the zealous Schismatics as a fundamental truth.  Grotius undertook to overturn such an absurd opinion, that stirred up an irreconcileable enmity between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants, and of consequence was a very great obstacle to their reunion, which was the sole object of his desires.  He entered therefore upon the consideration of the passages of Scripture relating to Antichrist, and employed his Sundays in it[526].