Benedictus Aretius (1505-1574) on the Death of Christ

Aretius:

1) Benedict Aretius has similar expressions on1 Tim. ii. “Christ,” says he, “died for all, yet notwithstanding all do not embrace the benefit of his death, because by their own wickedness, and the corruption of their nature, they despise the offered grace.

Source: John Davenant, Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 338.

2) Observe then that, to whom the fruit of Christ’s death belongs, then in what that deliverance consists. That deliverance belongs to all who were subject to bondage in thsn life. Now we were all [subject], therefore this deliverance belongs to all. The deliverance also is said to be general or pertaining to all because it pertains to the whole human race, although all do not know or acknowledge the benefit, nor accept it with a grateful mind. Thus it comes to pass that this deliverance is efficacious only in the faithful—Ad Heb ii.

Source: “The Atonement of Christ,” in  Biblical Notes and Queries, (Edinburgh: George Adam Young & Co., 1869), 278-279.

Notes:  Richard Muller in his recent 2008 Mid-America lectures, Varieties of Hypothetical Universalist, has identified Aretius as a non-Amyraldian hypothetical universalist.

It must be kept in mind that very few of Aretius’ works have been translated into English and so we must now rely on secondary sources.

Biographical material:

Benedictus Aretius (1505-1574); studied at Strasburg and Marburg; served as professor of logic at Marburg and, beginning in 1564, as Wolfgang Musculus’ successor as professor of theology in Bern. His major dogmatic work was Examin theologicum (1557) and SS. theolgiae problemata, seu loci comunes (1573). Richard Muller,  Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics 1:42 [first edition].

Some titles by Aretius, demonstrating his influence:

Sermones tres de coena Domini.

In d. Mosis Pentateuchum, hoc est, priscam dei legem, Benedicti Aretii theologi Bernesnis commentarii breues ac dilucidi

Commentarii in Evangelivm Matthaei

Commentarii in euangelium Domini Nostri Iesv Christi secundum Marcum

Commentarii in evangelium Domini Nostri Iesu Christi secundùm Lucam

Commentarii in qvatvor Evangelistas : a Benedicto Aretio Bernensi … conscripti.

Commentarii in sacram Actuum Apostolicorum historiam : facili & perspicua methodo conscripti

Commentarii in Epistolam D. Pauli ad Romanos : facili et perspicua methodo conscripti

Commentarii in epistola D. Pauli ad Galatas

Commentarii in secundam epistolam D. Pauli ad Corinthios

Commentarii in Epistolas D. Pauli ad Philippenses, Colossenses et in utramque ad Thessal.

Commentarii in epistolas Pauli ad Timoth., ad Titum et ad Philem. … cum indice rerum memorabilium.

Commentarij in euangelium … secundum Ioannem

Erasmus Sarcerius (1501-1559) on God’s General Love

Sarcerius:

The effects of
God. Rom. 1.

The effects and works of God be these: to create and maintain that he has created.

For the power and divinity of God (says Paul) is everlasting. Now, the power and devinity of God to be everlasting, is nought else, but that God creates, governs and maintains his creatures everlastingly [Ac. 17, Psalm. 146] In him (as it is said in the Acts) we live and move, and we have our being. He gives (says the prophet) escam omni carni, meat to every creature. Also his effects be: To love his creatures because he maintains them. To be merciful, patient, pitiful. To bear his humbles suiters[?], for (Prope est deus inuo cantibus eun) God is at hand to them that call upon him. To forgive sins, for only God by himself is righteous.

Erasmus Sarcerius, Common Places of Scripture (Imprinted at London by Nycolas Hill for Abraham Vele, dwelling in Pauls church yarde at the signe of the Lambe, 1553),  folio 2. [Some spelling modernized, marginal references cited inline; verse and folio notation modernized; and, underlining mine.]

[Note: Erasmus Sarcerius is not to be confused with Desiderius Erasmus.]

He is Risen

A. C. De Jong On What Constitutes a True Offer, by way of Herman Hoeksema

De Jong:

Hoeksema has always maintained that there are four indispensable elements which constitute the idea of offer. First of all, the term contains the idea of an honest and sincere desire on the part of the offerer to give something. Without such an earnest will and desire on the part of him who makes the offer, the offer would not be honest or upright. Second, there is included in the idea of offer the fact that the offerer possesses that which he extends to some person(s). In the event of acceptation the offerer must be in a position to impart that which is offered. Third, the offerer reveals by his offer the desire that it be accepted. This means that God “de ernstige begeerte openbaart, dat alle menschen zullen zalig worden, ieder, hoofd voor haofd on ziel voar ziel.”  Four, the one who offers something does so either unconditionally, or upon the condition that he is aware that the recipients of the offer are able to fulfill the condition. This would imply that God knows that all men are able to accept the offer of grace. If anyone of these elements is eliminated from the concept, the idea of offer is no longer retained. It is apparent that so conceived the idea of a gospel offer would deny such Biblical truths as unconditional election, limited atonement, total depravity and irresistible grace.

A.C. de Jong, The Well-Meant Gospel Offer: The Views of H. Hoeksema and K Schilder, (Franeker: T. Wever, 1954), 43.  [C.f., de Jong on the offer.]

A nice picture of Jacob Kimedoncius