some of the more familiar names that reflect the contemplative-mystical piety include
Joseph Hall^113 , John Preston^114 , Robert Bolton^115 , Thomas Shepard^116 , and John
Flavel.^117
Literature Review Related to Isaac Ambrose
Isaac Ambrose has attracted only sporadic rather than systematic attention
from scholars thereby making this thesis distinct. I will first examine published
material specifically related to Ambrose and then dissertations. Robert Halley (1796-
1876), a nonconformist divine, is perhaps best remembered today for his religious
history of Lancashire.^118 Halley was the first scholar to give any serious recognition
to Ambrose and his broad sweeping treatment of Lancashire history provides a
valuable context for understanding the religious setting of the seventeenth-century in
which Ambrose lived. He summarizes the details of Ambrose’s life and ministry,
including a few selections from Ambrose’s diary preserved in Media that explores the
growth of the soul in sanctification through the use of spiritual practices. As a result
of Ambrose’s spiritual practices from his annual month-long May retreats in the
woods, Halley asserts that Ambrose was the “most meditative Puritan of
Lancashire.”^119 Additionally he includes his assessment that “Isaac Ambrose is better
known as a practical writer than any other.”^120 What is lacking in Halley is any
Cotton Mather see Lovelace, American Pietism of Cotton Mather, esp. 110-97 and
Hambrick (^113) Stoeffler, -Stowe, Rise of Evangelical PietismPractice of Piety, esp. 278, 83--5 and Chan, 87. (^) Spiritual Theology, 99-100.
(^114) Wakefield, “Mysticism and Puritan Type,” 40 and Nuttall, “Puritan and Quaker
Mysticism,” 520. 115
116 Rupp, “Devotion of Rapture,” 120-1.^
117 McGiffert, God’s Plot, esp. 26-9.^
118 Yuille, Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety, 85-94.^
119 Halley, Lancashire: Puritanism and Nonconformity.^
120 Halley, Halley, Lancashire: Puritanism and NonconformityLancashire: Puritanism and Nonconformity, 2:195., 2:202, cf. 194.^