Next, Ambrose examines the two types of meditation in greater detail.
Following the normal Puritan pattern occasional or sudden meditations are taken up
first and always dealt with more succinctly. Ambrose reminds his reader that since
the subject matter for this type of meditation comes from daily life and a person’s
awareness of God’s providence the possibilities are endless. To illustrate he mentions
a person first awaking at a new day, the sight of the morning sky, noticing the grass,
flowers, or garden, and any or all events of the day. This is followed by a brief
summary of how the various occupations of magistrate, minister, tradesman, farmer,
and soldier can practice occasional meditation during their daily work.^19 This is a
very significant reminder of the Puritan understanding that meditation was the work
of all God’s people and not reserved for ministers alone. Hall pointedly criticizes
monks who hide in their cloisters and are confined to their cells, and while they
practice contemplation they eschew the active life.^20 Likewise Calamy asserts that
meditation is required of young men, kings and nobles, soldiers, learned men, and
women.^21 An important component of sudden meditation is ejaculatory or arrow
prayers. In Redeeming the Time, Ambrose contends that while God sometimes calls a
person “extraordinarily to such spiritual duties all day long” individuals are not to
neglect their “particular calling, with which I may either mingle some actings of
grace, or ejaculatory duties, as suddenly to look up to heaven, and to behold the face
(^) Arte of Divine Meditation (^) , 49, 57, 62; Downame, (^) Guide to Godlynesse, 541; White,
Method of Divine Meditation, 18; Calamy, Art of Divine Meditation, 1, 76; and
Ranew, 19 Solitude Improved, 343.
20 Ambrose, Media (1657), 219-21. cf. Ambrose, Redeeming the Time, 17-9.^
Joseph Hall, Arte of Divine Meditation, 4. White also stresses that meditation is not
just for ministers. (^21) Calamy, Art of Divine MeditationMethod of Divine Meditation, 4-5. , 11.