Religion

1. Observance consist of either religion or justice.

2. This division is made by God in substance in the parts of the decalogue, as explained by Christ, Matt. 22:37. The same division is made different words in Rom. 1:18, where all disobedience of men is separated into impiety and injustice, which would have no meaning unless all obedience were directed to piety and justice. This is even more plainly explained in Titus 2:12 where, of the three things propounded, righteousness and piety stand for the new obedience, and temperance for the manner or means of performance, which is a denial of worldly lusts.

3. The Christian life has the same division, more frequently expressed by holiness and righteousness, Luke 1:75; Eph. 4:24. And this is the meaning of the division between love for God and love for neighbor.

4. We use the words religion and justice because religion is a most general word including all the duties which we owe to God. Furthermore, it is most expressive because it sets forth the proper and distinct way in which they are owed to God, Acts 26:5; Jas. 1:26, 27. See also the frequent instances in the Letter to the Hebrews.

5. Religion is the observance whereby we do those things which directly pertain to God’s honor. Rom. 1:21, Although they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful.

6. Therefore, the word is rightly said by some to be derived from religare, binding fast, because in this part of observance we directly and immediately turn towards God to cleave and, as it were, be bound to Him.

7. Religion takes the first place in observance. First, obedience towards God must necessarily begin with God Himself and with those attitudes and deeds by which we are carried towards Him. 2 Cor. 8:5, They gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by the will of God. Second, justice towards men must be carried out by force and virtue of religion if it is to be true observance towards God. It would not be observance towards God unless it brought honor to God, and it would not bring honor to God unless it proceeded from a religious attitude. 1 Cor. 10:31, Do all to the glory of God. The phrase In the Lord or In the Name of the Lord, Col. 3:17, has this meaning. Also, As serving the Lord and not men, Col. 3:23. Third, religion commands the acts of justice and is not only the truly efficient but also the directing and ordering cause of them. Jas. 1:26, If any seems to be religious among you and does not restrain his tongue but deceives his own heart, that man’s religion is vain. Fourth, religion is in a way the end of all acts of justice in that they open the way to an act of religion as something greater.

8. Justice itself is, therefore, sometimes called religion in the Scriptures. Jas. 1:27, Religious worship, that is pure and spotless before God and the Father, is to visit the fatherless. Justice is not only an inseparable sign of true religion, but also something which must be done at the command of religion and have its beginning from it.

9. Thus the duties of religion are primary and the most important. Matt. 6:33; 22:38, First seek the kingdom of God. The first and great commandment.

10. As they are first in order, so they must be taken care of first, Matt. 6:33.

11. This is the meaning of the phrase about seeking God early in the morning, encountered everywhere in the Psalms.

12. Religious duties are of greatest moment and are to be cared for above all others. Matt. 10:37, He that loves father or mother above me is not worthy of me.

13. The duties of religion should, therefore, be performed with more intensity and dedication than the duties of justice, for the rule, Love with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind (Matt. 22:37), belongs properly to the former and not the latter.

14. This does not mean that all a man’s strength is not required in meeting and fulfilling the duties of the second table. But it does mean that such strength is required especially by the duties of religion, which look to God, and not by the duties which directly affect our neighbor. Indeed, a man may strain too much in love for his neighbor in the material act of loving, although this cannot be done in virtue and charity. But we can in no way love god with too much intensity.

15. If the duties of piety and justice cannot be performed together, in just and prudent balance, the duties of piety are to be preferred. Matt. 12:46-48; Luke 2:49, Behold my mother and my brethren. Why do you seek me? Do you not know that I must go about my Father’s business?

16. But a just balance is found when the greatest are given proportionally the most and the lesser the less.

17. God is better worshipped with inward affection than outward deed. But men need the outward deed more. An outward work of religion may, therefore, sometimes be omitted in order that a necessary work of justice and mercy may be done. Matt. 12:1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.

18. Religion is not violated in this way because religion itself commands the omission of an external work in order that a necessary one may be done.

19. The immediate object of religion towards which it is directed is God, and this is so sufficient that no duty of religion may be referred to any other object without gravest injury to God. Thus comes God’s title when He is described by the words “jealous” or “of a jealous kind.”

20. Religion is related to God through that divine excellency which shines forth in His sufficiency  and efficiency. This is not one attribute, but a perfection arising from all the attributes. Exod. 34:6-8, The Lord, the Lord, the strong God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and full of loving-kindness and truth. All the individual attributes of God have power to beget religion in us; and so in the Scriptures religion is sometimes referred to mercy. Ps. 130:4, With Thee is pardoning that Thou mayest be reverently worshiped. Sometimes to justice. Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29, Let us have grace by which we may so serve God with reverence and fear that we may be accepted by Him. For our God is a consuming fire. And so for all the other attributes.

21. Religion comes directly from the faith by which we believe in God as the sufficient and efficient cause of life.

22. In this way is to be understood the customary saying that religion looks to God as the first beginning and supreme Lord of life. The papists’ distinction is empty, when they declare that the acts of religion which look to God as the first beginning of life are to be performed only to god but that other acts of religion may be directed to creatures. There is no act of religion which does not belong to God as the first beginning of life.

23. The proper act of religion is to bestow honor upon god and is called worship and adoration, Exod. 12:25; John 4:23. It must bear a certain good towards God, otherwise it would not be observance towards Him. No intrinsic good can be added to God, but honor is an outward good – a testimony to the virtue of another which adds to his glory or esteem. This is all a creature can do for God.

24. Therefore, a true and worthy esteem of God and other acts manifesting esteem constitute, as it were, the first matter of religion. Every honest, human act making for the honor and glory of God may be the matter or material object of religion. It is one and the same act which as submission to commandment is called obedience and as honor to God is called religion and worship.

25. The proper way of honor or religious worship is to subject to another the soul itself, and the inward affections and acts of the will.

26. In his soul and its inward acts, man is not subject directly and in himself to any creature. But as soul is knit to body, so the inward act is knit to the outward as its necessary condition, and demands the duty of submission to the creature as a superior.

27. Honor is due to God not only because it is fitting in the sense that we say a thing is due when we give it out of generosity. It is also due because of the right of the one to whom it is given. So strict is this right that, so far as our debt is concerned, it is more than just, although for service rendered it is much less than just.

28. All worship which by its nature or condition, or by law and common custom, or by the mind and doctrine of the giver renders religious honor to another besides the true God at least to that degree fashions a new and false God for itself.

29. He who does not give religious worship to God is profane, and he who gives it to another besides the true God is an idolater, Acts 10; Rev. 19:10; 22:8.

30. Greatest care must be use in divine worship. Among the Latins, therefore, the word religion is sometimes used metaphorically for any anxious care, even in things not sacred. Thus it appears that the heathen by the light of nature recognized that the care of religion is to be placed above all things.

31. Because the fear of conscience belongs to worship of religion, any scruple of conscience is commonly called religious. Hence we may gather that nature itself dictates that the conscience of man first and most properly looks to religion.
32. What gives the church its general standing as it professes a right manner of worshiping God is rightly called the Christian religion because the church comes by its standing and profession by virtue and by the fact of this religion.
33. Those things designated to religious use by special institution, or the instruments of religion, are also rightly called "religious" because of their status or establishment.
34. The peculiar manner of living which monks have chosen in order to exercise a would-be perfection is usually called "religion" by the papists, and such monks are called "religious" - but this is without reason and does wrong to other Christians.
35. He that is not religious is not a Christian.
36. The true religion is only one.

William Ames (1576-1633)

The Marrow of Theology, pp. 236-240