Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
... By those who were competent to take the measure of Amyraldism — such as Rivetus, Maresius, and Spanheim — it was regarded as a subtle form of Arminianism, though its author and his followers declared their harmony with the Articles of the Synod of Dort. After a long discussion of this middle way by one synod after another, in 1637 and 1645, Amyraldus, by his protestations to the effect that he assented and consented to the Articles of Dort, succeeded in disarming further opposition, and in obtaining an acquittal from the charge of heterodoxy in 1649.
But it was the death-blow of French Protestantism. The majority of the theologians and pastors soon adopted his opinions. The French Protestant Church virtually ceased to be a witness for the doctrines of grace. A scholar of Amyraldus, Pajon, went farther than his master in minimizing the extent of natural corruption and the power of the Spirit in conversion. For the gracious operations of the Spirit, he, in fact, substituted the moral influence of the word, or moral suasion. After this, it was rather the Jansenists than the Protestants in France that gave any testimony to the doctrines of special grace. ...
For more, see George Smeaton on Amyraldianism.
But it was the death-blow of French Protestantism. The majority of the theologians and pastors soon adopted his opinions. The French Protestant Church virtually ceased to be a witness for the doctrines of grace. A scholar of Amyraldus, Pajon, went farther than his master in minimizing the extent of natural corruption and the power of the Spirit in conversion. For the gracious operations of the Spirit, he, in fact, substituted the moral influence of the word, or moral suasion. After this, it was rather the Jansenists than the Protestants in France that gave any testimony to the doctrines of special grace. ...
For more, see George Smeaton on Amyraldianism.
