Spiritual Marriage and - Durham e-Theses - Durham University

(Axel Boer) #1
Chapter 6
Resistance and Retrieval

The people seemed to have a renewed taste for those old pious and
experimental writers, Mr. Hooker, Shepard, Gurnal, William Guthrie, Joseph Allein, Isaac Ambrose, Dr. Owen, and others; ... The evangelical writings of
these deceased authors, as well as of others alive, both in England, Scotland,
and New England, were now read with singular pleasure; some of them
reprinted and in great numbers quickly bought and studied.^1

(^)
The last chapter examined the language of delight and enjoyment of God that
emerged from Isaac Ambrose’s writings on contemplation. The centrality of spiritual
marriage was the foundation from which a person could experience this divine
enjoyment with God. Ambrose employed the term ravishment ninety two times. The
ambiguous nature of this term was examined as well as the importance of desire and
eros. This desire and longing for God was inspired and deepened by the initial
experience of God’s love that had already been tasted on earth and that awaited full
eschatological fulfillment. A detailed exegesis of Ambrose’s use of ravishment
followed including the nature, dynamics, and effects on ravishment upon a person’s
soul.
This thesis has raised the question whether a contemplative-mystical piety
existed within the moderate stream of English Puritanism. More specifically it has
been focused on Isaac Ambrose to determine whether there is any evidence of a
contemplative-mystical theology and experience in his writings. However, there is
another crucial question that still requires attention, and that is whether the piety and
practices of Isaac Ambrose can be retrieved for the twenty-first century. Before that






























1
Great Awakening in America. Gillies, Historical Success of the Gospel , 2:170-1. This reference pertains to the

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