Reformed minister and theologian William Ames (1576–1633) instructs the reader about the goals and nature of true obedience to God. What follows is in full agreement with Canons of Dort, I.8, I.13, and V.13 (unsurprisingly, since Ames was secretary of Johannes Bogerman [1576–1637], the president of the Synod of Dort, during that synod).
27. The chief end [of obedience] is God’s glory; for we attend to God by obedience, upon whom we lean by Faith; otherwise obedience would not flow from Faith. Seeing also that Faith is our life, as it joins us to God in Christ, it is necessary that the actions of that same Faith, which are contained in obedience, should also be carried to God; that is, to his glory.
28. The lesser principal end is our own salvation and blessedness. Romans 6:22, Being made servants to God, you have your fruit in holiness, and the end, eternal life; Hebrews 12:2, For the joy that was set before him, he endured the Cross.
29. For although obedience performed only for fear of punishment or expectation of reward is rightly called mercenary, yet if any [believer] were secondarily stirred up to do his duty by looking at the reward, or for fear of punishment; this is not alien to the sons of God, nor does it in any part weaken their solid obedience.
30. But our obedience is not the principal or meritorious cause of eternal life. For we both receive the privilege of this life and also life itself, by grace, and as the gift of God for Christ’s sake, apprehended by Faith. Romans 6:23, The gift of God is eternal Life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But our obedience is in a certain manner the ministering, helping, and furthering cause toward the possession of this life, the right of which we had before; in this respect, it is called the way in which we walk to heaven (Eph 2:10).
31. But obedience furthers our life both in its own nature—because it is some degree of the life which itself is always tending toward perfection—and also by virtue of the promise of God, who has promised eternal life to those who walk in his precepts. Galatians 6:8, He that sows to the spirit, from the spirit shall reap eternal life.
32. For although all our obedience while we live here is imperfect and defiled with some mixture of sin (Galatians 5:17, the flesh lusts against the Spirit), yet in Christ it is so acceptable to God, that it is crowned with the greatest reward.
33. Therefore the promises made according to the obedience of the faithful are not legal [as of debt], but evangelical [as of grace]; although some call them mixed (Mat 6:3).
William Ames, The Marrow of Sacred Divinity
(London, Edward Griffin, 1639),
book 2, chapter 1, articles 27–33
