So long as Ambrose continued at Preston he was favoured with the warm friendship of the Hoghton family, their ancestral woods and the tower near Blackburn affording him sequestered places for those devout meditations and "experiences" that give such a charm to his diary, portions of which are quoted in his "Prima Media" and "Ultima" (1650, 1659). The immense auditory of his sermon ("Redeeming the Time") at the funeral of Lady Hoghton was long a living tradition all over the county. On account of the feeling engendered by the civil war Ambrose left his great church of Preston in 1654, and became minister of Garstang, whence, however, in 1662 he was ejected along two thousand ministers who refused to conform (see Great Ejection). His after years were passed among old friends and in quiet meditation at Preston. He died of apoplexy about 20 January 1664.