Quotes from William Ames

Doctrine is a Theological Axiom, either consisting in the express word of Scripture, or flowing from them by immediate consequence.

Joy is that delight which is perceived from the conjunction, and communion of the chief good.

The will of God is eternal because He does not begin to will what He did not will before, nor cease to will what He willed before.

Faith is the virtue by which, clinging-to the faithfulness of God, we lean upon him, so that we may obtain what he gives to us.

The will of God is single and totally one in Him.

The good pleasure of God is an act of the divine will freely and effectively determining all things.

The virtue of contentment is the acquiescence of the mind in the lot God has given

Hearing the word is the devout receiving of the will of God.

Nothing exists from eternity but God, and God is not the matter or a part of any creature, but only the maker.

Everyone who understands the nature of God rightly necessarily knows that God is to be believed and hoped in, that he is to be loved and called upon, and to be heard in all things.

Participation in the blessings of the union with Christ comes when the faithful have all the things needed to live well and blessedly to God.

This subsistence, or manner of being of God is his one essence so far as it has personal properties.

Theology is the doctrine or teaching of living to God.

The efficiency of God may be understood as either creation or providence.

The first act of religion, therefore, concerns those things which are communicated to us from God. The other concerns those things which we yield to God.

The attributes of God tell us what He is and who He is.

The inward offer is a kind of spiritual enlightenment, whereby the promises are presented to the hearts of men, as it were, by an inward word.

Therefore, the church is not absolutely necessary as an object of faith, not even for us today, for then Abraham and the other prophets would not have given assent to those things which were revealed to them from God without any intervening help of the church.

The ordinary ministry is that which receives all of its direction from the will of God revealed in the Scriptures and from those means which God has appointed in the church for its continual edification.

Hence the end of the world should be awaited with all longing by all believers.

In contentment and joy are found the height and perfection of all love towards our neighbor.

Sanctification is the real change in man from the sordidness of sin to the purity of God's image.

Sanctification is not to be understood here as a separation from ordinary use or consecration to some special use, although this meaning is often present in Scripture, sometimes referring to outward and sometimes to inward or effectual separation.

The goodness of a thing created is the perfection of its fitness for the use which it serves. Now that use is either particular or universal.