The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
William Ames
English
Philosopher
About the author
The starting point of sanctification is the filthiness, corruption, or stain of sin.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#Sin
#Corruption
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,
English
Philosopher
#Scripture
#Present
#Meaning
#Separation
Nothing exists from eternity but God, and God is not the matter or a part of any creature, but only the maker.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Nothing
#Eternity
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,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Christ
#Blessings
#Participation
Sanctification is the real change in man from the sordidness of sin to the purity of God's image.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Man
#Change
#Sin
#Purity
The efficiency of God may be understood as either creation or providence.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
#May
#Creation
#Providence
#Efficiency
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,
English
Philosopher
#God
#First
#Act
#Religion
#Yield
The good pleasure of God is an act of the divine will freely and effectively determining all things.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Will
#Act
#Pleasure
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,
English
Philosopher
#Now
#Fitness
#Perfection
#Goodness
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.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#Nature
#Son
#Father
#Property
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.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Will
The will of God is single and totally one in Him.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Will
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.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Will
#Church
#Direction
The attributes of God tell us what He is and who He is.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
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,
English
Philosopher
#God
#First
#Exercise
#Nature
#Efficiency
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,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Man
#First
#Idea
Hence the end of the world should be awaited with all longing by all believers.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#World
#End
#Longing
Hearing the word is the devout receiving of the will of God.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Will
#Word
#Hearing
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,
English
Philosopher
#Love
#God
#Hope
#Faith
#Act
#Word
#Religion
#Spiritual
#Hearing
#Prayer
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,
English
Philosopher
#Will
#Duty
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,
English
Philosopher
#God
#May
#Faith
#Virtue
#Faithfulness
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,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Nature
In contentment and joy are found the height and perfection of all love towards our neighbor.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#Love
#Perfection
#Joy
#Contentment
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,
English
Philosopher
#Action
#Creation
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,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Will
#Grace
#Man
#First
#Soul
#Body
#Obedience
The world has not been in existence from eternity nor could it have been according to the present dispensation and ordering of things.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#World
#Present
#Eternity
#Existence
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.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Today
#Faith
#Help
#Church
This subsistence, or manner of being of God is his one essence so far as it has personal properties.
William Ames,
English
Philosopher
#God
#Being