increases one’s ability to notice life and detect the origin of blessings and hence have
a more contemplative attitude towards life. Additionally it is likely that this
awareness of the proper use of resources enabled a transformation within him to later
write about the importance of looking off from the world so that you are able to look
on to Jesus.^111 He declares, “[t]he eye cannot look upwards and downwards, at once
in a direct line; we cannot seriously minde heaven and earth in one thought.”^112
Illness is another aspect of the temptations of the world. John Waite in his
introduction to Media refers to Ambrose’s weak health without any elaboration.^113
Ambrose includes a number of examples of his health in his diary. While fevers and
weakness were common ailments, on August 7, 1646 he records that he suffered from
a stitch in his side that troubled him throughout his sermon. His sickness grew
progressively worse and when the doctor was unable to ease his pain he wrote his
will. However, later he was able to declare, “[t]he Lord restored one to his health, out
of a dangerous disease, and he praised God for it in the public Assemblies.”^114 While
his last extant diary entry was in 1651, he suffered from a “sore sickness” in 1653 that
provided the inspiration for writing Looking Unto Jesus.^115 Ambrose’s experience
surrounding his health confirms Hambrick-Stowe’s observation that illness could
intensify personal devotion.^116 In a dream recorded on July 19, 1647 Ambrose
connects his awareness that his end might be near with an increased desire for
intimacy with Jesus:
(^111) Ambrose Looking Unto Jesus (^) , 6-20.
(^112) Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus, 10.
(^113) Ambrose, Media (1657), To the Reader (John Waite), [1].
(^114) Ambrose, Media (1650), 105.
(^115116) Ambrose, Looking unto Jesus, To the Reader, [1].
Hambrick-Stowe, Practice of Piety, 225. cf. Cohen, God’s Caress, 214-15.