As one of the first in the Reformed tradition to make the covenant,  and the unconditional covenant, so central and important in his theology, Ames stands as an important figure in the history of covenant theology. 

Born in 1576 in a town 70 miles northeast of London, William Ames grew up in a Puritan household.  After his parents died before he was fully grown, his uncle looked after him and helped him gain entrance into Cambridge which at that time was a Puritan stronghold. Cambridge was allowed to choose twelve preachers per year ungoverned by the bishop. Non-conformists were mainly chosen; hence, at Cambridge, Ames was exposed to many of the great Puritan preachers and teachers. The chief of them was William Perkins who became Ames’ influential tutor and friend.[1]  However, Ames was not a puppet of his mentor. For example, while still a supralapsarian like Perkins, Ames notably moved his discussion of predestination to the “soteriology” section of his work, whereas Perkins famously put predestination front and center in his Golden Chain of Salvation.[2] For this, some scholars have termed Ames a soft supralapsarian.

While Cambridge chose twelve of its own preachers, the state church did interfere in the choosing of professors. When the school’s heads invited the freshly graduated Ames to become a fellow at Christ’s College, Archbishop Bancroft intervened.  Denied the lectern for his strong nonconformist beliefs, Ames accepted the pulpit. Before long, however, he was hounded even there for his beliefs regarding the purity of worship. Facing imprisonment or worse, Ames fled to Holland in 1610. Once there, Ames wasted no time picking up his pen in defense of Calvinism against the rising threat of Arminianism in the Netherlands and did battle with the leading proponents of the Remonstrant party, Jan Uitenbogaert, Simon Episcopius, and Nicolaas Grevinchoven. In fact, Ames became renowned for his polemical ability. One theologian cried about him, “Other theologians have slain their thousands, Ames his ten thousands!”[3]

Though he was a refugee in a foreign country and could not be an official delegate to the Synod of Dordt (1618-1619), the Reformed churches in the Netherlands ensured that the man who had so gallantly defended the orthodox faith would have a place in that august assembly. They made him the private secretary to the president of the Synod, Johannes Bogerman, and paid him a daily stipend for his work.[4] A few years after the great synod, Ames was given a teaching position at the University of Franeker where he wrote much against the Roman Catholic goliath, Bellarmine. In 1632, he left the lecturn to return to the pulpit again, this time willingly, taking a call to a church of Englishmen in Rotterdam. There he wrote his most famous work, The Marrow of Theology, a course of concise teachings for sons of merchants who had donated money enabling poor youths to enter the ministry.[5]

The Marrow noticeably stands out on the book shelf for its size. With a title including, The Essence of Theology, it is surprisingly over 350 pages—not something a modern publisher would likely commission for today’s youth! But the lengthy book should not give anyone pause; it reads wonderfully for anyone with an interest in spiritual matters.

Opening the Marrow, the first thing one encounters is the chart at the beginning of the book, an indication of the Ramist influence upon Ames. Ramus was a French Reformed philosopher who thought that Aristotle and his categories needed to be overthrown in the methodology of instruction for the church. He also believed the church needed to emphasize practical and accessible instruction without losing sound doctrine explained with careful logic.[6] Part of the method Ramus put forward to accomplish this was a dialectical way of explaining a topic. Every topic was to be divided into two. Each of the two divisions would then lead to another topic of two parts. A chart resembling a backwards tournament bracket resulted. Ames, following the Ramist method, provides such a chart and follows the chart’s outline through the book. Ramism took hold at Cambridge in the 1570’s.[7] Perkins was a Ramist, and Ames learned it while he was a student at Cambridge. He became an avid follower of the method, also sharing Ramus’ desire to teach God’s people in a clear, doctrinal, accessible way that had practical impact on their life with God.

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