William Ames was an English Protestant divine, philosopher, and controversialist. He spent much time in the Netherlands, and is noted for his involvement in the controversy between the Calvinists and the Arminians.
Ames was born at Ipswich, and was brought up by a maternal uncle, Robert Snelling of Boxford. He was educated at the local grammar school and from 1594 at Christ’s College, Cambridge. He was considerably influenced by his tutor at Christ’s, William Perkins, and by his successor Paul Bayne. Ames graduated BA in 1598 and MA in 1601, and was chosen for a fellowship in Christ’s College.
His works, which the Biographia Britannica testifies were known over Europe, were collected at Amsterdam in five volumes. Only a small proportion was translated into English. Ames’ thought was particularly influential in New England. (via Wikipedia)
Take a look at a few of his great quotes:
On God:
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.
Nothing exists from eternity but God, and God is not the matter or a part of any creature, but only the maker.
The efficiency of God may be understood as either creation or providence.
The good pleasure of God is an act of the divine will freely and effectively determining all things.
This subsistence, or manner of being of God is his one essence so far as it has personal properties.
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.
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.
The counsel of God is, as it were, his deliberation over the best manner of accomplishing anything already approved by the understanding and the will.
An idea in man is first impressed upon him and afterwards expressed in things, but in God it is only expressed, not impressed, because it does not come from anywhere else.
Although the whole man partakes of this grace, it is first and most appropriately in the soul and later progresses to the body, inasmuch as the body of the man is capable of the same obedience to the will of God as the soul.
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.
This subsistence, or manner of being of God is his one essence so far as it has personal properties.
On Nature:
For this is our most perfect duty and yet least known to us by nature. Whatever we conceive or will should be joined with the good of our neighbor.
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.
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.
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.
On Love:
In contentment and joy are found the height and perfection of all love towards our neighbor.
From faith, hope, and love, the virtues of religion referring to God, there arises a double act which bears on the spiritual communion exercised between God and us; the hearing of the word and prayer.