Isaac Ambrose was,
on the passing of the Act, vicar of Garstang. Although his practical
and devotional works were very popular among the early Nonconformists,
few memorials of his life have been preserved. All who have read his
devout meditations, his sweet experiences, or his fervent prayers, must
unite in the regret and the wish expressed by Mr. Hunter in his preface
to the ' Life of Oliver Heywood :''Mr. Ambrose earnestly recommended the
keeping of diaries, as eminently serviceable to those who made it a
principal object of their lives to establish themselves in all the
thoughts and ways of piety, and in the book which he entitled "Media,"
he gives a specimen of what, in his opinion, such diaries ought to be,
by extracts from his own. With such specimens before us, we cannot but
lament that the carelessness of later times should have suffered such a
curious and valuable document to perish, for perished it is feared it
is. There is a pathos and beauty in some of the passages which he has
selected, as when he speaks of his occasional retirement to the sweet
woods of Widdicre, which make one wish for more.'
This reference is to the tenth section of the
fourth chapter of the 'Media,' in which Ambrose gives 'some example of a
daily register of a poor unworthy servant of Christ.' The date of the
year is not given, but the month of the extracts was May, in which it
was his annual custom to retire to a little hut in a wood, and in entire seclusion to spend most of his time in
meditation and prayer. There originated the meditations which long after
his death refreshed and comforted the Puritans of Lancashire.
As the 'specimen' may
interest others as it did Mr. Hunter, and as it affords a pleasing
illustration of the most meditative Puritan of Lancashire, I give it at
length:—
'May 13. I retired to a
solitary and silent place to practise especially the secret duties of a
Christian. My ground is that of Cant. vii. 11, 12: "Come, my beloved,
let us go forth into the field, &c, there will I give thee my
loves." The bridegroom of our souls (said Bernard) is bashful, and more
frequently visits his bride in the solitary places.
'May 14. In a pleasant
wood, and sweet walks in it, the Lord moved and enabled me to begin the
exercise of secret duties: and after the prolegomena, or duties in
general, I fell on that duty of watchfulness: the Lord then gave me to
observe my former negligence, and to make some resolutions. I found the
Lord sweet to me in the conclusion of the duty. Allelujah.
'May 15. I fell on the
duty of self-trial, and in the morning confessed my sins before and
since conversion, wherein the Lord sweetly melted my heart. In the
evening I perused my diary for the last year, wherein are many passages
of mercies from God, and troubles for sin, &c.
'May 16. In the morning I
went through the duty of experiences, and felt some stirrings of God's
Spirit in my soul. In the evening I fell on the duty of evidences,
when I acted faith, and found my evidences clear. Oh how sweet was my God!
'May 17. This day in the
morning I meditated on the love of Christ, wherein Christ appeared, and
melted my heart in many sweet passages. In the evening I meditated on
eternity of hell, and on eternity of heaven, wherein the Lord both
melted, and cheered, and warmed, and refreshed my soul. Surely the
touches of God's Spirit are as sensible as any outward touches.
Allelujah.
'May 19. In the former
part of this day, I exercised the life of faith, when the Lord
strengthened me to act faith on several promises, both temporal,
spiritual, and eternal; I had then sweet, refreshing, and encouraging
impressions on my soul against all the fearful, sinful, and doubtful
dreams I had the night or two before dreamed. In the evening I
considered the duty of prayer, observed some workings of God's Spirit in
my perusing the rules, and afterwards in the practice of this duty.
Blessed be God!
'May 20. In the morning I
fell on reading the word, perused the directions, and then searched into
the common places and uses of my corruptions in nature and practice; of
my comforts against the burthens of my daily infirmities; of
establishing my heart against the fear of falling away ; of directions
in my calling; of comforts against outward crosses; of my privileges in
Christ above all the wicked in the world: in every of these Christ
appeared in some measure suitably to my soul. In the evening I proceeded
in the common places and uses of sweet passages that melted my heart;
of sensible comforts, and of places hard to be understood: in the first
my heart was sweetly melted, in the second cheered; in the
conclusion the Lord struck me with a reverence of His majesty and
presence, filled my soul with spiritual refreshings, enlarged my heart
with praises of Him, and desires to live unto Him, who hath given me in
this time of love so many visits, and kisses of His mouth. Allelujah.
'May 22. Occasionally,
though not in course, I fell on some parts of the duty of self-denial:
the Lord in mercy wrought in my soul some suitableness to that spiritual
gospel-duty; Lord, keep this fire up in a flame still. Oh it is a
sweet, but a very hard lesson.
'May 31. I practised (as
the Lord enabled) the duty of saints' sufferings; into which condition
as I was cast, so the Lord gave me to see my sin and to bewail it, and
to pray for the contrary, grace and God's favour. The Lord was sweet to
me in the preparations to, but especially in the improving of,
sufferings. Now the Spirit left in my soul a sweet scent and savour
behind it. Amen. Amen.'
Through the loss of his diary, I can collect only a
very imperfect biography of Isaac Ambrose. From his 'Media,' under the
head of 'Experiences,' a few incidents of his life may be gleaned, and
elsewhere a very few more.
According to Anthony Wood, he was ' a minister's
son descending from those of the name living at Lowick, and they from
the Ambroses of Ambrose Hall in Lancashire.' If this be true, of which I
am very doubtful, it would be interesting to know how, as the Ambroses
of Lowick were among the most persistent Catholics of Lancashire, Isaac
or his father, the minister, became a Protestant. Although there are in
his writings many references to
the Papists, he makes no allusion to his conversion from popery, or to
any Catholic relatives or associations. There is, however, no reason to
doubt that he was a minister's son, and a native of Lancashire. He
entered at Brasenose, Oxon, in 1621, in the seventeenth year of his age.
Having taken a degree in arts and obtained orders, he served 'a little
cure' in Derbyshire. This 'little cure,' like many others in that
county, seems to have been very little indeed, for while serving it he
was refreshed by some charitable relief of the Earl of Bedford. By the
influence of that nobleman, as Wood tells us, he was appointed one of
the king's itinerant preachers in Lancashire. Having served for a time a
curacy in Garstang, he was selected by that patroness of godly
ministers, Lady Margaret Hoghton, to occupy the important position of
Vicar of Preston.*
* 'I speak my own loss. She was pleased to cast her affections upon me, unworthiest of all my Master's messengers. In her lifetime she preferred me to this place. The Lord made her the first wheel of His providence in bringing me hither, and it was some trouble to her that I left this pastoral charge before she left the world.'—Sermon preached at Preston, at the funeral of Lady Margaret Hoghton, by Isaac Ambrose.
* 'I speak my own loss. She was pleased to cast her affections upon me, unworthiest of all my Master's messengers. In her lifetime she preferred me to this place. The Lord made her the first wheel of His providence in bringing me hither, and it was some trouble to her that I left this pastoral charge before she left the world.'—Sermon preached at Preston, at the funeral of Lady Margaret Hoghton, by Isaac Ambrose.
Wood says 'he received the appointment to Preston
in 1648,' but it must have been received earlier, as in the Ordinance
for the establishment of the presbyterian classes, dated October 1646,
he is included in the seventh classis as minister of Preston, and in a
certificate dated May 18, 1647, he calls himself minister of God's word
in the church of Preston.
