Dutch humanist seeing grand times before us (7)
I believe the answer is:
erasmus
'dutch humanist' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'grand times before us' is the wordplay.
'grand' becomes 'M' (synonyms).
'times' becomes 'eras' (era is a kind of time).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'm' after 'eras' is 'erasm'.
'erasm'+'us'='ERASMUS'
'seeing' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for erasmus that I've seen before include "Fifteenth to sixteenth century Dutch humanist, use arms (anag.)" , "Dutch philosopher" , "Was this Dutch Renaissance man a strange masseur?" , "Learned person" , "Problems are mounting for famous Dutchman" .)