William Ames Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“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.”

“In the exercise of God's efficiency, the decree of God comes first. This manner of working is the most perfect of all and notably agrees with the divine nature.”

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

“The relative property of the Son is to be begotten, that is, so to proceed from the Father as to be a participant of the same essence and perfectly carry on the Father's nature.”

“The world has not been in existence from eternity nor could it have been according to the present dispensation and ordering of things.”

“Active creation is conceived as a transitive action in which there is always presupposed an object about which the agent is concerned; it is virtually but not formally transitive because it makes, not presupposes, an object.”

“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 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.”