expected.”^139 Since Chan wrote his thesis before McGinn’s usage of a broader
definition for mysticism he can hardly be faulted for this. However, this does restrict
his ability to discover a fuller expression of the mystical element or what I am calling
the contemplative-mystical piety of Puritanism. One additional limitation that affects
Chan’s potential for locating the contemplative-mystical piety within Puritanism is his
neglect of some of the significant secondary literature that has explored this question.
This leads him to assert that Gordon Wakefield denied the possibility of Puritan
mysticism.^140 However, Wakefield later revised his assessment affirming, “we are not
wrong to speak of Mysticism” in relation to the Puritans.^141
Further, Chan locates two distinctive streams of Puritan piety, one that he calls
the ascetic stream that includes Joseph Hall, Richard Baxter, Thomas Hooker, and
Isaac Ambrose. These members are characterized by their intensity of spiritual
practices “in which heavenly meditation”^142 was the result and further they gave
“scant attention [to the Holy Spirit] in their exposition of the devotional life.^143 One
significant discrepancy is that while Hall was not known for his use of imagination
both Ambrose and Baxter were.^144 The other category of the enthusiast stream or
Spirit mystics includes Richard Sibbes, John Cotton, Francis Rous, and John Owen.
Chan delineates that the “meditative technique” for these Spirit mystics has “become
a duty stripped of much of its ascetical precision.” Further, “the intense feeling and
ecstatic language” so common among the ascetic stream is “conspicuously absent”^145
(^139) Chan, “Puritan Meditative Tradition,” 143, cf. 122. (^)
(^140) Chan, “Puritan Meditative Tradition,” 117-8.
(^141) Wakefield, “Mysticism and Its Puritan Types,” 44.
(^142) Chan, “Puritan Meditative Tradition,” 120.
(^143) Chan, “Puritan Meditative Tradition,” 188, cf. 191.
(^144145) Chan, “Puritan Meditative Tradition,” compare 182 with 186.
Chan, “Puritan Meditative Tradition,” 200.