Commenting on the writings of Reformed theologian William Ames (1576-1633) and how one can have assurance of their salvation in such a system, R.T. Kendall noted:
Faith is an act of
the will and repentance is an act of the will, but we know that we have faith
only when we can reflect on the fact we have repented. In Ames’s system, then,
faith is a misnomer. By faith he can only mean repentance. Assurance is not of
the essence of faith, but repentance is. For if repentance as a disposition precedes
faith and if repentance as forsaking sin follows faith (and shows that we have
faith), when does faith by itself truly get into the morphology of conversion?
It appears then that
we can only know that faith has occurred, and that by our works. We can only know
our election by having faith; we can only know our faith by having works. It
seems that Ames makes faith as secretive as election itself; both remain hidden
until there are works that one can see.
The whole order
therefore of this consolation, whereby we may be certain of salvation, is as
followeth: in such a Syllogism (wherein both will and understanding have their
parts) whereof the proposition stands in the assent of the understanding, and
makes up a dogmatical Faith. The assumption is not principally in the
compounding understanding, but n the single apprehension and will, so as to
make it true and of force to infer the certainty in the conclusion; which the
heart doth by this act of affiance, that being the property of justifying
Faith, and this existing in the heart. The conclusion is also principally &
ultimately in the single apprehension and will, or in the heart, by the grace
of hope; and both it, and the experimental reflexion joyn’d with it (which is
in the understanding, and the other also, by this reflexion) are the effects of
the experimental knowledge and reflexion of our understanding, in the
assumption upon the true existence of the single term in the heart or will,
which bears the whole burthen of the assurance. (Svbstance, 55f)
The ‘whole burthen of
the assurance’ is grounded in our works. Indeed, ‘And endeavour to abound in vertue,
and to do good workes, is the only
meanes to make our calling and election sure’ (Peter, 164). For good
works are ‘the causes of that knowledge which we have of our calling and election’
(Ibid., 165).
For the knowledge and
assurance of these things depends upon the reflex act of our understanding,
whereby we see in our selves the markes and signes of effectuall calling, and
consequently of eternall election. Hence this assurance increaseth and
decreaseth in us, according as our endeavour to abound in vertues, and so do good
workes is greater or lesser. (Ibid.)
However, Ames,
like Hooker, does not intend that assurance comes easily. ‘What ought a man
to do’, Ames asks, ‘that he may be translated our of a state of sin, in to the
stage of grace?’ (Conscience, ii. 8). He answers in seven propositions:
(1) a man must ‘seriously looke into the Law of God, and make an examination of
his life’. (2) There must follow a ‘conviction of Conscience’, (3) a despair of
saving ourselves, and (4) a true humiliation of heart. But the latter comes
only by (5) ‘a distinct consideration of some particular sins’, if not (6) ‘by
the sight of some one sin’. This humiliation (7) is ‘helped forward oft times
by some heavy affliction’ (Conscience, ii.8-9). (R.T. Kendall, Calvin
and English Calvinism to 1649 [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979], 160-62)