Isaac Ambrose Entered Glory 350 Years Ago

"Oh! how should all hearts be taken with this Christ? Christians! turn your eyes upon the Lord: 'Look, and look again unto Jesus.' Why stand ye gazing on the toys of this world, when such a Christ is offered to you in the gospel? Can the world die for you? Can the world reconcile you to the Father? Can the world advance you to the kingdom of heaven? As Christ is all in all, so let him be the full and complete subject of our desire, and hope, and faith, and love, and joy; let him be in your thoughts the first in the morning, and the last at night." -- Isaac Ambrose (Looking Unto Jesus, p. 715)

It was 350 years ago today that English Puritan (Presbyterian) Isaac Ambrose entered glory (1604 - January 20, 1664). He was a minister of the gospel, a writer, and, by the grace of God and by means of much spiritual meditation and contemplation, showed himself to be, in the words of Thomas Watson, "a true citizen of heaven; it is known what place he belongs to by his speech, habit, gesture. There is a kind of angelical brightness on him; he shines in holiness, as Moses' face shone when he had with God in the mount. He is still doing angels' work; his life is a very heaven upon earth." 

After a faithful ministry, he was ejected from his pulpit for nonconformity in 1662. "He spent his later years in meditation and quietude among his friends in Preston. A lover of nature as well as of God, like his namesake the patriarch, 'Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide.' [Gen. 24.63] He spent a great part of his time every summer in Widicre wood, where, seldom seen by any, except on the Sabbath, he communed with his own heart and his God. The last time he was seen alive was by some friends from Garstang, of whom he is said to have taken leave with unusual affection and solemnity. Immediately after they left him he retired to his place of meditation, where he was found by an attendant in the moment of death. He departed in 1664 at the age of sixty-one." (Robert Halley, Lancashire: Its Puritanism and Nonconformity, Vol. 2, p. 202) 

Of Ambrose, Dr. Edmund Calamy the Historian wrote, "He was holy in his life, happy in his death, and honoured by GOD,and all good men." 

"The writings of Isaac Ambrose breathe with the inspired pulse of a person who has experienced the love and joy of God. He urges his readers, '[l]abour so to know Christ, as to have a practical and experimental knowledge of Christ in his influences, and not meerly a notional [one]'" (Tom Schwanda, Soul-Recreation: The Contemplative-Mystical Piety of Puritanism, p. 81).

I write of him today because Ambrose taught me personally much of the nature of true Christian warfare; the beauty of the covenant of redemption; the value of meditation; the benefit of writing a spiritual diary (which he included extracts from in his devotional manual, Media, as an encouragement to others to take up this useful practice); the importance of all the means of grace, public and private; and the blessing of solitude when it is improved upon as a opportunity to communion with God, as well as the blessing of serving the Lord within the family and other spheres to which we are called. It is good to remember the godly man who points us to Christ, and Ambrose was indeed such a man. For those who are interested, I commend the following links as an introduction to his life and legacy.

Meet the Puritan Biography of Issac Ambrose by Joel Beeke and Randall J. Pederson

The Spiritual Discipline of Meditation: Reading the Scripture with Isaac Ambrose by Tom Schwanda

Puritan Isaac Ambrose

Peden's Notes on the Covenant of Redemption

Alexander Peden:

I recommend these views, thoughts and notes upon the Covenant of Redemption, as the extract of God's love, that in crosses and out of crosses ye may rejoice.

Be it known to all men, that, in the presence of the Ancient of Days, it was finally contracted, and unanimously agreed, betwixt these honourable and royal persons in the God-head, to wit, the great and infinite Lord of Heaven and earth, on the one side; and Jesus Christ, God-man, his eternal and undoubted heir, on the other side, in manner, form and effect, as follows; That forasmuch as the Lord Jesus Christ is content and obliges himself to become surety, and to fulfil the whole law; and that he shall suffer and become an offering for sin, and take the guiding [management] of all the children of God on him, and make them perfect in every good word and work; and that of his fulness they shall all receive grace for grace; and also present them, man, wife and bairns, on Heaven's floor, and lose none of them; and that he shall raise them up at the last day, and come in on Heaven's floor with all the bairns at his back: therefore, the noble Lord of Heaven and earth, on the other side, binds and obliges himself to Christ, to send all the Elect into the world, and to deliver them all fairly to Christ; and also to give him a body, flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone; and to carry Christ through in all his undertaking in that work, and to hold him by the hand: and also, let the Holy Ghost, who is our equal, go forth into the world, that he may be sharer in this great work, and also of the glory of this noble contrivance; and let him enlighten the minds of all those whom we have chosen out of the world, in the knowledge of our name; and to convince them of their lost state; and perswade and enable them to embrace and accept of his free love offer; and to support and comfort them in all their trials and tribulations, especially these for our name's sake; and to sanctifie them, soul and body, and make them fit for serving us, and dwelling with us, and singing forth the praises of the riches of our free grace in this noble contrivance, for ever and ever. Likewise, the same noble Lord of Heaven and earth doth fully covenant grace and glory, and all good things, to as many as shall be perswaded and enabled to accept and embrace you, as their Lord, King and God: and moreover, he allows the said Jesus Christ to make proclamations by his servants, to the world in his name, that all that will come and engage under his colours, he shall give them noble pay in hand for the present, and a rich inheritance for ever; with certification, that all those who will not accept of this offer, for the same cause, shall be guilty and eternally condemned from our presence, and tormented with these devils, whom we cast out from us, for their pride and rebellion, for the glory of our justice, through eternity.

In testimony whereof, he subscribes thir [these] presents, and is content the same be registrate in the Books of Holy Scripture, to be kept on record to future generations. Dated at the throne of Heaven, in the ancient records of eternity.

Counsel of Peace

Abraham Hellenbroek's catechism A Specimen of Divine Truths asks the question "What do you understand by the Counsel of Peace?" (Q. 22).

A. The eternal will of the Father to redeem the elect through Christ's suffering, and the will of the Son to offer Himself as the Surety for the elect.

In Nicholas Greendyk's exposition of the catechism, An Explanation of Rev. A. Hellenbroek's Catechism "A Specimen of Divine Truths," pp. 137-138, he first quotes from Herman Witsius' Economy of the Covenants to define this Counsel of Peace, or Covenant of Redemption as it is also called, the special covenant or transaction between Father and Son to effect the salvation of his people.

Herman Witsius, Economy of the Covenants, Vol. 1, pp. 165-166:

II. When I speak of the compact between the Father and the Son, I thereby understand the will of the Father, giving the Son to be the Head and Redeemer of the elect; and the will of the Son, presenting himself as a Sponsor or Surety for them; in all which the nature of a compact and agreement consists. The scriptures represent the Father, in the economy of our salvation, as demanding the obedience of the Son even unto death; and upon condition of that obedience, promising him in his turn that name which is above every name, even that he should be the head of the elect in glory: but the Son, as presenting himself to do the will of the Father, acquiescing in that promise, and in fine, requiring, by virtue of the compact, the kingdom and glory promised to him.

Then Greendyk goes on to quote Isaac Ambrose' intriguing exposition of Isaiah 49, which reveals in dialogue form this Counsel of Peace between Father and Son. I will quote a portion that extracted by Greendyk as well as a little more by Ambrose.

Isaac Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus, pp. 54-55:

The covenant concerning man's salvation is the last and main particular I instanced in: I dare not be too curious to insist on the order of nature, and the rather, because I believe the covenant betwixt God and Christ from everlasting, is interwoven with the decree, foreknowledge, and election above. So the apostle tells us, "He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world," Eph. 1:4. Mark that, in Christ. There was an eternal plot betwixt the Father and the Son; there was a bargain made (I speak it with reverence) betwixt God and Christ, there was a covenant betwixt the Lord and his Son Jesus Christ, for the salvation of the elect; and of this observe we especially in these following texts.

In Isaiah 49:1,2,3,4. The prophet seems to set it dialogue-ways; one expresseth it thus: First, Christ begins, and shows his commission, telling God how he had called him, and fitted him for the work of redemption, and he would know what reward he should have of him for so great an undertaking. "The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name, and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft, in his quiver hath he hid me," Isa. 49:1,2. Upon this, God answers him, and tells him what reward he should have for so great an undertaking; only at first he offers low, viz: only the elect people of Israel. And he said unto me, "Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified: Or, Israel it is in whom I will be glorified by thee," Isa. 49:3. Christ who stood now a making his bargain with him, thought these too few, and not worth so great a labor and work, because few of the Jews would come in, but would refuse him, and therefore he says, he should labor in vain, if this were all his recompense, "Then said I, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain," Isa. 49:4. And yet withal he tells God, that seeing his heart was so much in saving sinners, he would do it howsoever for these few, comforting himself with this, that his work or his reward was with the Lord. Upon this God comes off more freely, and opens his heart more largely to him, as meaning more amply to content him for his pains in dying. "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel," Isa. 49:6. That is not worth dying for, I value thy sufferings more than so, "I will also give thee for a light to the gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth." Methinks I imagine as if I heard God speak unto Christ from eternity, "See, here I have loved a remnant of mankind both of Jews and gentiles, with an everlasting love, I know they will sin and corrupt themselves, and so become enemies to me, and liable unto eternal death; now thou art a mighty person, able to do what I require of thee for them; if thou wilt take upon thee their nature and sins, and undertake to satisfy my justice and law, and make them a believing holy people, then I will pardon them, and adopt them in thee for my sons and daughters, and make them co-heirs with thee, of an incorruptible crown of life." And then Christ said, "Lo I come, to do thy will, O God," Heb. 10:7,9. Then Christ as it were, struck hands with God, to take upon him the nature and sin of man, and to do and suffer for him whatsoever God required of him. Certainly thus was the whole business of our salvation first transacted betwixt God the Father and Christ, before it was revealed to us. Hence we are said to be given unto Christ. "I have manifested thy name (saith Christ) unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me," John 17:6. This very giving implies, as if the Father in his eternity should have said to the Son, "These I take to be vessels of mercy, and these thou shalt bring unto me, for they will destroy themselves, but thou shalt save them out of their lost estate." And then the Son takes them at his Father's hand, and looking at his Father's will, "This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing," John 6:39. He thereupon takes care of each, he would not for a world any of them should be lost, which his Father hath given him, they are more dear than so.
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In Isaiah 42:1.6, this very covenant is expressly mentioned. Thus God speaks of Christ. "Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth: -- I will give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the gentiles," Isa. 53:11. Psalm 40:6. Yea, this covenant and agreement seems to be confirmed with an oath, in Heb. 7:28. And for this service Christ is required to "ask of God and he will give him the heathen for his inheritance," Psalm 2:8. Observe how the church of God is given to Christ, as a reward of that obedience which he showed in accepting of the office of a surety for us. This stipulation some make to be that counsel of peace spoken of by the prophet, "And the counsel of peace shall be betwixt them both," Zech. 6:13. (i.e.) between the Lord, "and the man whose name is the Branch," verse 12. And for this agreement it is that Christ is called the second Adam; for as with the first Adam God plighted a covenant concerning him and his posterity, so also he did indent with Christ and his seed concerning eternal life to be obtained by him.