Westminster Conference Paper 3 (Puritan pastor)

Schwanda notes how Ambrose “stresses that the minister’s time is not his own and he needs to use it for the benefit of his people.” Ambrose wrote

I hear them (the congregation) crying after me, To your closet, and there pray for us that we perish not; study for us, that we may learn of you how to walk in his paths: for if we perish, and you will not give warning, then must our blood be required at your hands. (1)

That awareness and responsibility, says Schwanda, was a strong motivation for him to make annual retreats.

It is important to notice, more obviously, the time he gave to counselling others. M M Knappen says “conferences with fellow Christians on spiritual matters were a very important part of the Puritan’s spiritual life” (2) He is a typical Puritan in this respect. Schwanda highlights his statement about exhorting sinners to come to Christ

I would be sometimes a Boanerges, and sometimes a Barnabas; a son of thunder to rouse hard hearts and a son of consolation to cheer up drooping spirits. (3)

Examples of his pastoral advice come out in diary entries. On March 3, 1647, a minister seeks help from him. “After acknowledgement of my unfitness and weakness, I directed, as the Lord enabled.” Five days later the two gathered with others for a private day of humiliation. He says that

the terror of conscience had so worn out his spirit and wasted his body that he was not able (as he said) to perform: yet desiring him to depend on God and to cast himself on him for ability, he prayed with such fervency, humility and brokenness of heart that he opened the fountains of all eyes about him and caused a flood of tears in my chamber. I never saw the like day. All the glory to God.

On March 29 the minister expressed his gratitude and wrote that progress had been made. Ambrose responded “O our Father, hallowed be thy name in this and all things.”

When one of his books was used to convert a minister, he wrote

I was told … that Mr B ... in Glasgow ... lighting by providence on my book of the First and Last things, it was a means ... of his conversion; at this time he was ordained minister ... and reported to be a holy and able man. Glory and praise to thee, O my Lord and my God.

He was a spiritual guide to others

March 1, 1647. This day Mistress C sent for me, expressing that my sermons of eternity had struck her with fear and trembling and that she was troubled in conscience and desired to be informed in God's ways. I advised her and prayed with her; many a tear came from her. The Lord by his Spirit work in her a thorough and saving conversion.

Media says “Christians should not triumph over them that are on the ground, and thrown down by a temptation, but rather they should sit by them on the same flat and mourn with them and for them, and feel some of their weight.” He was there in such a capacity when R M drew to his end and “proclaimed God’s goodness and sweetness and mercy, which were his last words” giving up the ghost as they prayed.

With the Barnabas examples, Schwanda gives a Boanerges one.

November 29, 1647. This night I was told that Mistress E D was upon my prayer the last fast troubled in conscience; and that since she had much talked of me and desired to see me, but her companion concealing it, she now apprehended the time was past and utterly despaired. I sent for her and at her first entrance into my chamber, she cried, O that face! I dare not look on it! Shall such a lost creature as I look upon thee? - Had I seen thee yesternight, I might have been saved; but now I am lost, time is past; - O terrors of the Lord are upon me, etc. Yet after she was pleased to hear me pray and then I advised her to search out her sin - to submit to the Lord, to wonder at God's mercy, that yet she lived and was on this side hell.

Schwanda notes that this meeting took place in his study and wonders if the Barnabas in him prompted him “to visit the person in his or her own familiar setting, while the more challenging practice of being a Boanerges was conducted in the minister’s chamber where he had more authority and advantage”. The final outcome is unknown but Ambrose adds

She spake sensibly, acknowledging God to be righteous, that she deserved the state she was in yet promised to yield and to be quiet under God's hand, and to search out her sins: so for that time we parted.

He did not see her again but heard she had suffered a deep depression and was taken by a friend to Ireland. (4)

1. Schwanda 119

2. M M Knappen, Seeking A Settled Heart 16th Century Diary of Puritan Richard Rogers 26

3. Looking unto Jesus 1832 ed 458

4. Schwanda 138, 139, 140