Using justification as the tie that binds the golden chain of salvation together, the seventeenth-century theologian William Ames here reconciles the ordo salutis with the historia salutis (The Marrow of Theology, trans. and ed. by John D. Eusden, from the 3rd Latin edition of 1629 [Boston: Pilgrim, 1968; repr. Durham, NC: Labyrinth, 1983], 156):
The judgment was, first, conceived in the mind of God in a decree of justification (Gal. 3:8).
Second, it was pronounced in Christ our head as he rose from the dead (2 Cor. 5:19).
Third, it is pronounced in actuality upon that first relationship which is created when faith is born (Rom. 8:1).
Fourth, it is expressly pronounced by the Spirit of God witnessing to our spirits our reconciliation with God (Rom. 5:5).... This testimony of the Spirit is not properly justification itself, but rather an actual perceiving of what has been given before as if in a reflected act of faith.
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