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.
William Ames

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.
William Ames

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.
William Ames

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.
William Ames

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.
William Ames

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.
William Ames

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.
William Ames

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

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

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


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.
William Ames

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

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.
William Ames

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.
William Ames

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

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

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

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.
William Ames

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

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.
William Ames