This language was not unique to him. Simon Chan comments that among Puritan
pastors “a few possessed that rare balance of “[a] Boanerges: A Son of Thunder in
preaching the Law” and a “Barnabas, a Son of Sweet Consolation” in preaching “the
exceeding Riches of Divine Grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.”^138 The best approach for
tracing this in Ambrose is through reviewing his practice of spiritual guidance.
Parishioners and ministers alike struggled with various “cases of conscience” or
concerns of the heart that could cover practically any aspect of life. Ambrose
includes a rich and varied collection illustrative of his spiritual counsel that sought to
build upon and reflect Jesus’ own ministry in the gospels. He provided such spiritual
guidance to individuals who experienced doubt in their spiritual condition, spiritual
desertion, troubled conscience, sickness, and approaching death. On certain
occasions he spoke the needed words of conviction while more frequently he sought
to woo broken people back to the love of God.
These themes broaden in the experience recorded from March 3, 1647.
Ambrose reports, “Mr. B. a godly Minister in the North, being troubled in
Conscience, came to me, and desired some Spiritual advice: After acknowledgement
of my unfitness and weakness, I directed, as the Lord enabled.” Five days later these
two men gathered with others for a private day of humiliation. Ambrose continues,
“the terror of Conscience had so worn out his Spirit, and wasted his body, that he was
not able (as he said) to perform: yet desiring him to depend on God, and to cast
himself on him for ability; he prayed with such fervency, humility and brokenness of
(^138) Chan, “Puritan Meditative Tradition,” (^) 151. Samuel Clarke described his father as
“a Boanerges to the wicked but a Barnabas to the humble and broken in spirit.”
Haller, Rise of Puritanism, 102, cf. 110. cf. Wakefield, Puritan Devotion, 112;
Watkins, Puritan Experience, 9; Heywood, Narrative of John Angier, 35; and Tom
Webster, (^138) Ambrose, Godly ClergyLooking Unto Jesus, 6, 101. (^) , 746.