increases freedom and encourages Ambrose to lovingly gaze upon Jesus. Even his
greatest interior struggle with pride seems to have brought renewed intimacy with
Jesus.
Interpersonal Dimension
The third dimension elucidates the ways in which Ambrose experienced God
through his one-on-one relationships with other individuals. His diary includes
numerous examples of how he sought to lead others to experience God more deeply.
This sensitivity and concern among Puritan ministers earned them the title physicians
of the soul.^122 Haller providers a helpful summary of this form of pastoral care,
“[t]heir function was to probe the conscience of the down-hearted sinner, to name and
cure the malady of his soul, and then to send him out strengthened and emboldened
for the continuance of his lifelong battle with the world and the devil.”^123 While the
soul physician’s primary concern was to assist the other person in experiencing God
Ambrose’s diary reveals that God often challenged him through others as well. Once
again it is clear that the Puritans did not exist in a vacuum. Their practice of caring
for souls both recognized and interacted with the long history of spiritual direction.^124
Casuistry, or cases of conscience, was a cornerstone of the Puritan physician of the
soul and developed through both resistance to and reform of the large reservoir of
(^122) See for example, Haller, (^) Rise of Puritanism (^) , 26-48.
(^123) Haller, Rise of Puritanism, 27. For a detailed summary of the themes and methods
used in this ministry of soul care see Lewis, 124 Genius of Puritanism, 63- 13 5.
McNeill, History of Cure of Souls, 192-269. cf. Keller, “Puritan Resources for
Biblical Counseling,” 11-44 and Bozeman, Precisianist Strain, esp. 72-3, 129-136,
(^140) Puritan so-143, 162ul care by making it synonymous with the term minister. -3. Bozeman tends to diminish the specific nature and function of