More specifically in Chan’s examination of Isaac Ambrose he explores Bishop
Joseph Hall’s influence on the development of meditation in Ambrose. He devotes
seven pages to analyzing Ambrose’s pattern of piety in Looking Unto Jesus. Chan is
mistaken in his interpretation of Ambrose’s nine-fold way of looking at Jesus. Since
this figures more prominently in Ambrose’s development of meditation and
contemplation this will be examined in chapter 4. Further, my reading of Ambrose’s
method of meditation finds less dependency upon Ignatius than Chan. Additionally
Chan’s comments that Ambrose is the first to meditate on the humanity of Christ,
which clearly ignores the earlier example of Charles Herle will also be examined
more appropriately in chapter 4. Therefore, while there have been three dissertations
that have included Isaac Ambrose two have referred to him extremely briefly and
only one has examined him significantly but even in that study Ambrose was not the
central figure. Therefore, this present study is distinctive since there have not been
any dissertations that have focused specifically upon Ambrose, his theology or piety.
Since there has been no sustained study of Isaac Ambrose some may conclude
that this is reflective of his lack of importance in the seventeenth-century or for today.
However, that would be a mistake. There are at least two possible reasons for the
previous neglect of scholarly interest in Ambrose. First, he lived in Lancashire,
which was far from the theological and political hub of London. R.C. Richardson’s
research of Puritanism in this region reveals that “[o]f the 160 divines in the diocese
during this period, only twenty-four got into print.” Ambrose was one of those
twenty-four, however, “[o]nly four of the Puritan clergy of the diocese of Chester
preached before the House of Commons in the 1640s”^149 and Ambrose was not one of
(^149) Richardson, Puritanism in North (^) - West England, 150.