Wood says: 'He was then a zealous man for carrying on the beloved cause, and acting against the orthodox clergy, when he was appointed an assistant to the commissioners for the ejecting of such as they called scandalous and ignorant ministers and schoolmasters.' Isaac Ambrose was not likely to trouble any minister or schoolmaster who was competent and willing to discharge the duties of his office. On the contrary, the following certificate, found among the Ffarington papers, shows his readiness to assist those of the opposite party who were involved in trouble:
'The humble certificate of Isaac Ambrose, minister of God's word in the church of Preston, showeth,
'That to his knowledge William Ffarington of Worden in the county of Lancaster was, before these unhappy times of war, a gentleman well affected to the Protestant religion, and a constant frequenter of our weekly lectures and other ordinances of religion. As also in the beginning of those times he was a man of peaceable disposition, bending all his counsels to the accommodation and quiet of the country; and in particular out of his love and respect for the ministry engaged himself for me (body for body and all his estate) when I was taken prisoner by the commissioners of array in the said county. Whereupon he procured my liberty, and in his own person he brought me home to my wife and children, withal offering me and mine all the kindnesses in his power. And since that time he was never a soldier. Nor in the time of our exile did I ever hear that he was active against the king and parliament. To this certificate at his desire in very equity I cannot but subscribe.—Isaac Ambrose.
'Preston: May 18, 1647.'*
Amidst the incivilities common on both sides during the civil war, it is pleasing to meet with such instances of mutual courtesy and kindness. As the squire, though a Royalist, was 'well affected to the Protestant religion,' Ambrose was well affected to him. Had he been a Papist, Ambrose, if we may judge from a passage in his 'Experiences,' would not have been so ready to recommend him for a lenient composition. In his ' Media' occurs the following entry under the head of ' Experiences' (section vi.):—
'1643. Feb. 6. Preston was taken by the parliamentary forces. Several Papists slain in it; some naturally of good disposition, and, therefore, many mourned their untimely death, but rejoiced in the accomplishment of the promise.
'Text. Rev. xvi. 6, 7. "They have shed the blood of saints, and thou hast given them blood to drink. . . Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgements."
'Rev. xviii. 20. "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her."'
'Rev. xviii. 20. "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her."'
Notwithstanding this strange' experience,' I am sure the 'naturally good disposition' of Isaac Ambrose would have saved even a Papist from death, if he had an opportunity.
So long as Ambrose continued in Preston he was favoured with the friendship of the Hoghton family, who were among his regular and admiring hearers. The beautiful woods of the tower provided him with sequestered places sacred to devout meditation,** while frequently within its hospitable walls he was refreshed by social intercourse with 'famous ministers.' Why he left his great congregation at Preston does not appear, but it is evident, from an extract already cited from his sermon preached at the funeral of Lady Margaret, that his leaving was not agreeable to the Hoghton family. On the occasion of his preaching that sermon, the interest excited was so intense, and the crowd so oppressive, that with great difficulty the funeral procession obtained an entrance into the church. The voice of the pathetic preacher was often interrupted and overcome by the lamentations of the people.
But Ambrose, for some good reason I doubt not, left Preston and became minister of Garstang. Elected during the Commonwealth in what was afterwards thought an irregular manner—that is, by the voice of the people—his name is not inserted in the approved lists of the Garstang vicars. But vicar he was legally as well as ostensibly, on the passing of the Act of Uniformity. He could conscientiously have complied with many of the requirements of the Act; he was willing to read the Book of Common Prayer; he was rebuked for his feebleness in making concessions by Dr. Cole, his successor at Preston; but in the hour of trial the feeble grew strong, and the strong man fainted. We have already seen how Cole conformed, and we now see how Ambrose was ejected.***
We know but little of the subsequent life of the Nonconformist. He spent his later years in meditation and quietude among his friends in Preston. A lover of nature as well as of God, like his namesake the patriarch, 'Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide.' He spent a great part of his time every summer in Widdicre wood, where, seldom seen by any, except on the Sabbath, he communed with his own heart and his God. The last time he was seen alive was by some friends from Garstang, of whom he is said to have taken leave with unusual affection and solemnity. Immediately after they left him he retired to his place of meditation, where he was found by an attendant in the moment of death. He departed in 1664 at the age of sixty-one.****
Of the Lancashire Nonconformists Isaac Ambrose is better known as a practical writer than any other. His book entitled 'Looking to Jesus' was at one time very popular with devout people in the north of England, and is still read by those who retain a relish for puritan divinity. Of the writers of his age and opinions, some who seem to me very inferior to him have been more highly recommended. Doddridge, in his account of nonconformist writers, does not notice him, although those who knew him would, I think, prefer him to Manton or Bates, whom Doddridge highly commends. He has been compared with Flavel, whom in some respects he resembles, but to whom in others he is very unlike. The great fault of Ambrose is found in the awkward arrangements and complicated divisions with which he wearies and perplexes his readers. Frequently he introduces materials remotely connected with his subject, and makes digressions of an intolerable length. Although more artificial (if it be artifice and not carelessness) in his method than Flavel, he is more easy, natural, and appropriate in his illustrations. More judicious than Flavel, he had a finer imagination and much more of true poetry. If not so sensitive, so plaintive, so ready to weep, as Flavel, there is in him deeper and more varied feeling, often restrained and often beautifully expressed. Flavel spiritualised the works of man's husbandry; Ambrose the works of God in nature. Flavel loved the garden and the corn-field; Ambrose the heath and the forest. Isaac loved to meditate in the evening in the quiet wood, and tell the people on Sunday morning what he had seen and felt in his lonely retreat. His meditations seem fragrant with the sweet hawthorn of Widdicre wood and the weeping birches of Darwen water. But at times he could leave his woods and streams, and present in their simple grandeur objects of infinite importance. Telling us to look to Jesus, how clearly and impressively he presents the Saviour alone in all the varied aspects of His character and changes of His life! Taking us to the palace of the high priest or the judgement hall of Pilate, he says, as few men ever said it, Ecce Homo! and Ecce Deus! and we see the man of sorrows and yet exclaim, ' My Lord and my God!' Many who have no love to puritan doctrine, nor sympathy with puritan experience, have appreciated with Joseph Hunter 'the pathos and beauty' of the writings of Isaac Ambrose.
* The object of this certificate was to obtain a favourable consideration for Mr. Ffarington on his compounding for his estates before the commissioners who met in Goldsmiths' Hall, London. How far it prevailed to induce the commissioners to treat the ' constant frequenter of weekly lectures' with lenity I cannot say, but his composition was fixed at £531. The list of Lancashire gentlemen assessed contains the names of one hundred and forty-six persons, of whom only seven were assessed at a larger sum. The head of the family to which Isaac Ambrose is said (though I think with little probability) to have belonged, William Ambrose of Lowick, was amerced £129.—Baines's Lancashire, vol. ii. p. 35. After the Restoration, when it was proposed to create a new order of knighthood, the estate of William Ffarington of Worden, proposed to be one of the 'knights of the royal oak,' was valued at £1000 a year.
** Every spring, while he was minister of Preston, he paid a visit of some days to the tower, and passed much of his time in the woods overhanging the stream, where he found, as he said, 'his best school of theology.' The Darwen was then the resort of salmon and trout, not as now of madder and indigo.
*** Calamy and Palmer refer to Cole as having subsequently conformed; but it is not certain that he was ever ejected. He favoured Ambrose with a commendatory letter which was appended to the treatise upon the Ministration of Angels. It is about as pedantic and pretentious a letter as was ever written even by a doctor in divinity. What worse can be said of it I know not. It is not surpassed in pedantry and pretence by any of Dr. Parr's letters.
**** Under the portrait prefixed to his collected works, he is said to have been fifty-nine in 1663. Calamy says, 'He died cet. 72;' but this is certainly a mistake.
Wood had, I suppose, some reason for calling him a minister's son. I find two vicars of Ormskirk named Ambrose, Richard and Henry: Richard died in 1612, and Henry succeeded in 1615. As the intervening vicar resigned in favour of the latter, I suspect the Earl of Derby, who was the patron, made the arrangement for the benefit of Henry. If it were so, he was probably a son of Richard, not of sufficient age on the death of his father to take the vicarage. As Isaac Ambrose was born in 1604, he might have been a son of Richard and a younger brother of Henry. Among the ejected ministers of Lancashire were Joshua Ambrose of West Derby, who afterwards conformed, and Nehemiah Ambrose of Kirkby. I know nothing of the parentage of either, although I cannot but think that Isaac, Joshua, and Nehemiah Ambrose were somehow related.
** Every spring, while he was minister of Preston, he paid a visit of some days to the tower, and passed much of his time in the woods overhanging the stream, where he found, as he said, 'his best school of theology.' The Darwen was then the resort of salmon and trout, not as now of madder and indigo.
*** Calamy and Palmer refer to Cole as having subsequently conformed; but it is not certain that he was ever ejected. He favoured Ambrose with a commendatory letter which was appended to the treatise upon the Ministration of Angels. It is about as pedantic and pretentious a letter as was ever written even by a doctor in divinity. What worse can be said of it I know not. It is not surpassed in pedantry and pretence by any of Dr. Parr's letters.
**** Under the portrait prefixed to his collected works, he is said to have been fifty-nine in 1663. Calamy says, 'He died cet. 72;' but this is certainly a mistake.
Wood had, I suppose, some reason for calling him a minister's son. I find two vicars of Ormskirk named Ambrose, Richard and Henry: Richard died in 1612, and Henry succeeded in 1615. As the intervening vicar resigned in favour of the latter, I suspect the Earl of Derby, who was the patron, made the arrangement for the benefit of Henry. If it were so, he was probably a son of Richard, not of sufficient age on the death of his father to take the vicarage. As Isaac Ambrose was born in 1604, he might have been a son of Richard and a younger brother of Henry. Among the ejected ministers of Lancashire were Joshua Ambrose of West Derby, who afterwards conformed, and Nehemiah Ambrose of Kirkby. I know nothing of the parentage of either, although I cannot but think that Isaac, Joshua, and Nehemiah Ambrose were somehow related.
