1. Theology is the doctrine or teaching [doctrina] of living to God. John 6:68. The words of eternal life; Acts 5:20, The words of this life,; Rom. 6:11, Consider yourselves... alive to God.
2. It is called doctrine, not to separate it from understanding, knowledge, wisdom, art, or prudence - for these go with every exact discipline, and most of all with theology - but to mark it as a discipline which derives not from nature and human inquiry like others, but from divine and appointment. Isa. 51:4, Doctrine shall go forth from me; Matthew 21:25, From heaven... Why then did you not believe him?; John 9:29, We know that God has spoken to Moses; Gal. 1:11-12, The gospel... is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation; John 6:45.
3. The principle of other arts, since they are inborn in us, can be developed through sense perception, observation, experience, and induction, and so brought to perfection. But the basic principles of theology, though they may be advanced by study and industry, are not in us by nature. Matt. 16:17, Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.
4. Every art has its rules to which the work of the person practicing it corresponds. Since living is the noblest work of all, there cannot be any more proper study than the art of living.
5. Since the highest kind of life for a human being is that which approaches most closely the living and life-giving God, the nature of theological life is living to God.
6. Men live to God when they live in accord with the will of God, to the glory of God, and with God working in them. 1 Peter 4:2, 6, That he my live... by the will of God... according to God; Gal. 2:19-20, That I may live to God... Christ who lives in me; 2 Cor. 4:10, That the life of Jesus may be manifest in our bodies; Phil. 1:20, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
7. This life in essence remains one and the same from its beginning to eternity. John 3:36 and 5:24, He who believes in the Son has eternal life; 1 John 3:15, Eternal life abiding in him.
8. Although it is within the compass of this life to live both happily and well, living well, is more excellent than living happily. What chiefly and finally ought to be striven for is not happiness which has to do with our own pleasure, but goodness which looks to Gods glory. For this reason, theology is better defined as that good life whereby we live to God than as that happy life whereby we live to ourselves. The apostle therefore called it by synechdoche, The teaching which accords with godliness, 1 Tim. 6:3.
9. Furthermore, since this life is the spiritual work of the whole man, in which he is brought to enjoy God and to act according to His will, and since it certainly has to do with man's will, it follows that the first and proper subject of theology is the will. Prov. 4:23, From the heart come the acts of life; and 23:26, Give me your heart.
10. Now since this life so willed is truly and properly our most important practice, it is self-evident that theology is not a speculative discipline but a practical one - not only in the common respect that all disciplines have good practice, as their end, but in a special and peculiar manner compared with all others.
11. Nor is there anything in theology which does not refer to the final end or to the means related to that end - all of which refer directly to practice.
12. This practice of life is so perfectly reflected in theology that there is no precept of universal truth relevant to living well in domestic economy, morality, political life, or lawmaking which does not rightly pertain to theology.
13. Theology, therefore, is to us the ultimate and the noblest of all exact teaching arts. It is a guide and master plan for our highest end, sent in a special manner from God, treating of divine things, tending towards God, as well as theology.
William Ames (1576-1633)
The Marrow of Theology, pp. 77-78
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