One of my favorite Puritan books is a systematic theology by William Ames.

Ames was born in November of 1576 and he died in November of 1633.

Ames was a Cambridge man.

He was at Christ's college, and while he was there, he came under the influence of William Perkins.

Aims got caught up in some politics at Cambridge, and was a bit too vocal and he found himself on the outs with the vice chancellor of the university.

And so he was politely asked to leave.

Bishop, surrounding England, blocked his appointment to very politely asked to leave.

Bishop, around England, blocked his appointment to various parishes.

And so he, like so many of the Puritans during this time, went to Holland.

And he was there for the controversy of Jacobus Arminius and he was there in Holland at the Synodov Dored in the 1610s.

And he also wrote a book. Well he he wrote many books, actually, but we're going to consider just one, his systematic theology.

For Ames and for the Puritans in general, theology was not the dry bone stuff for academics.

We get a clue to how he thinks about theology by his title.

He called his book, The Merrow of theology. The Latin is medulla tealogia.

Theology is not dry bones.

Far from it.

Theology is the life-giving substance.

It's marrow. So we have to Theology is the life-giving substance.

It's marrow.

So we have to appreciate his title,

the marrow of theology.

We also get a clue from how he thinks about theology from the opening two pages of his book

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