anger, reconciled himself to his adversary, and immediately God spake peace to his
conscience.”^105 Apparently Ambrose took seriously the Pauline admonition of not
letting the sun go down on your anger. In fact, this verse from Ephesians 4:31 was
one of the marginal texts adjoined to this event.
The world constituted the third temptation and Ambrose recognized that this
included “covetousness, cares, evil company.”^106 He later enlarged this to comprise
on one the hand “pleasure, honours, riches” and on the other hand “[t]hreats,
Miseries, afflictions, Poverty, Ignominy.”^107 Living in Lancashire during the
seventeenth-century, in particular during the decade of the 1640s when the country
was often ravaged by the Civil War, strained the already meager resources of many.
Finances were typically inadequate for ministers. Ambrose bluntly confesses on
March 27, 1647, “[a] poor soul being mightily insnared with the world, and finding
by experience its vanity and vexation, he resolved against it.”^108 On the same date
Ambrose conveys the severity of this struggle when he discloses he was “exceedingly
troubled by the cares of this life.”^109 Later that same year on December 11, 1647
Ambrose records progress towards his goal, “[t]his day one observed GODS
goodness, in supplying fully all his Temporal wants: This he construed as earnest
both of Spiritual and Eternal favors and mercies in Christ.”^110 Ambrose’s response
reflects gratitude rather than greed. One of the qualities of gratitude is that it
(^105) Ambrose, Media (^) (1650), 108. (^)
(^106) Ambrose, Media (1657), 287.
(^107) Ambrose, War with Devils, 51, cf. 16 and Luttmer, “Persecutors, Tempters and the
Devil,” 44 108 - 5
Ambrose, Media (1657), 186. Earlier on February 27, 1645 Ambrose records that
he had received an augmentation to his salary and prays “Incline my heart unto thy
testimonies, and not to covetousness.” 109 Media (1650), 73.
110 Ambrose, Ambrose, MediaMedia (1657), 185. (1650), 105.^