A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the…

6. The close of his Discourse, whereby he would prove the Truth of his Exposition of the verse foregoing from his Interpretation of this, is absurd; as that which would give countenance, unto an evident falsehood, from what is more evidently so.

Grotius adds little unto what Schlictingius offers in this case. Only he tells us that [Greek or Hebrew] is taken for those griefs which are commonly the punishment of sin; Rom. 6. 10. But it is a mistake: [Greek or Hebrew], in that place, signifies nothing but the Guilt of Sin, which Christ died to expiate and take away. He died once for sin, that is, he suffered once for sin. He says moreover, that profluvium mulierum is called [Greek or Hebrew] Levit. 12. 8. 15. 13. as also is the leprosy; chap. 14. 13. But herein also he is mistaken; both the one and the other subject unto those defiling Distempers, were appointed to offer a sin-offering for those sins, which those Defilements were tokens of, and the sin of Nature which they proceed from. Again he says, that Christ in his offering was freed from those infirmities and miseries, per mortem acceleratam. But his death was not hasted one moment until all was finished; nor did he offer for the hastening of his Death. And his ensuing words are most ambiguous; Christ offered, pro doloribus istis qui solent peccatorum poenae esse, & quos Christus occasione etiam peccatorum humani generis toleravit. If the sorrows intended were not true punishments of sin, they could not be offered for. And what sorrows Christ underwent so far as they were penal, he offered for them when he offered for the sins of the People, and not otherwise. But those which are called his own sins, must be every way distinct from the sins of the People, and have no Relation unto them; as the sins of the High Priests of old had not. Wherefore if by the occasion of the sins of men, he intend, that his Sufferings and Griefs were for the sins of men, then he offered for them when he offered for the sins of the People, when he bare our sins and sorrows, and had no need to offer distinctly for them as his own. And if it were a sorrow that was not for sin, it cannot be called Sin. Christs sufferings on the occasion of the sins of mankind, is well understood by those who are any way skilled in the Socinian Mysteries.