spiritual struggle was a sign of God’s saving grace; the torment of temptation, the
affliction of conscience born of an awareness of one’s sins, and the consciousness of
being unworthy of salvation were all symptoms of a soul engaged in ‘warfare’ not
wallowing in ‘security’, a cause for hope not despair.”^69 Some scholars have drawn
attention to the heightened sense of anxiety and despair that marked certain Puritans.
While Paul Seaver admits that Nehemiah Wallington’s case was more severe and
extreme than most, he does indicate that Wallington was often suicidal.^70 Thomas
Shepard’s experience, while less intense, was still often consumed with spiritual
anxiety regarding his assurance, and in “the final analysis, Shepard simply does not
get off the treadmill.”^71 John Bunyan records a similar pilgrimage of doubt, despair,
and fear that he had committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit in his
autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Hambrick-Stowe offers a
more balanced assessment and acknowledges “anxiety was a motivating force in the
daily devotional practice of New Englanders throughout their lives” but that “Puritan
anxiety was not spiritually crippling” and “led to an ever-deepening relationship with
the God of salvation.”^72 While Ambrose recognizes that one of the tools employed by
the devil is despair, he does not seem overly troubled by it in comparison with
Shepard, Wallington, Bunyan, and others.^73 Nor does he seem to battle with
melancholy as many Puritans did. Struggles often tend to be personalized and attack
the individual at the place of greatest vulnerability. Ambrose understood this and
counsels his readers, that the “evils that arise from the Devil, are temptations of
(^69) Luttmer, “Persecutors, Tempters and the Devil,” 67. (^)
(^70) Seaver, Wallington’s World, 16, 21-25, 31, 76.
(^71) Tipson, “Routinized Piety of Shepard’s Diary,” 74-5. See also McGiffert, God’s
Plot 72 , 19-26 for a helpful treatment of anxiety and assurance within the Puritans.
(^73) Ambrose, Hambrick-War with DevilsStowe, Practice of Piety, 178-86., 20, 284, 89, cf. 286 - 7.^