An accidental blog

"If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit." Abraham Kuyper Common Grace 1.1.

Friday 4 April 2014

British Calvinists: William Ames (1576-1633)

William Ames  (1576-1633) born at Ipswich and graduated in 1598 from Chrst's College, Cambridge. He was greatly influenced by William Perkins and Perkins' successor Paul Baynes. Ames refused to wear a surplice, this cost him the mastership of Christ's - it was awarded to Valentine Carey - and led to Ames being suspended from his ecclesiastical duties. In 1610 he translated William Bradshaw's English Puritanism from Latin into English. 

He then travelled with Robert Parker to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands he was involved with a number of disputes with the Arminians. He also promoted the autonomy of the local church congregation. He wrote against the catholicism of Robert Bellarmine, the Laudianism of the English church, and the separatism of John Robinson, a Leiden pastor. 

He taught theology form 1622-1632 at Franeker University. He was unable to join the Puritan migration to New England because of his ill health.  His The Marrow of Sacred Divinity (1643) was his most influential work.


Many of his writings are accessible from here: http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=113



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