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The Marrow of Sacred Divinity

The Marrow of Sacred Divinitie, Drawne out of the Holy Scriptures and the Interpreters thereof, and brought into Method

1639·Early Modern English·386 pages PDF (52.9MB) Source

An English translation of William Ames's Medulla Theologica (1627), printed at London by Edward Griffin for Henry Overton in 1639. The work presents Reformed theology in two books: Book 1 on Faith (the knowledge of God and salvation) and Book 2 on Observance (the practice of obedience to God). Ames composed the original Latin as a compact systematic theology for students at Franeker, and it became one of the most widely used Reformed textbooks of the seventeenth century, influential in both English Puritanism and New England Congregationalism. This edition includes a table of hard words explained and synoptic diagram-tables summarizing each chapter.

Author

William Ames

William Ames

Gulielmus Amesius

1576–1633

Readings

Of Justice and Charity toward our Neighbour

Book II, Chapter 16 of Ames's Marrow of Sacred Divinity treats justice and charity as the two principal virtues governing human relations. Ames defines justice as conformity to the second table of the Decalogue, distinguishing its distributive, commutative, and corrective forms, and differentiating justice strictly taken from equity and charity. He discusses the nature of obligation in contracts, the basis of restitution, and concludes by examining how ill will and unjust discord can culminate in schism when directed against fellow believers.

William Ames William Ames·1627·Early Modern English·Book II, Chapter XVI·p. 296–306