typically limiting himself to sight and sound. Toon’s assessment of Baxter that
“[w]hile he does not go as far as Ignatius Loyola, who invites people to use all their
five senses (including taste and smell) to imagine the heavenly city, Baxter certainly
is uninhibited in commending the use of imagination controlled by the images and
pictures of Holy Scripture” is correct for Ambrose as well.^124 Additionally,
Ambrose’s negative impression of Ignatius mentioned earlier in this chapter must be
recalled. Further, the more subdued principles of Granada appear far more influential
on Ambrose than Ignatius. While Granada also encouraged the use of all five senses,
his examples lack the striking vividness of Ignatius.^125 Further, Granada also
recognizes the potential danger of imagination especially for novices and beginners
and cautions his readers not to overuse imagination because it can “weary the
head.”^126
Therefore, while Ambrose made frequent use of imagination and pushed the
boundaries perhaps much farther than most Puritans, there is still a gap between
himself and Ignatius of Loyola.^127 This is perhaps more stark in Baxter who asserts,
“I would not have thee, as the papists, draw them in pictures, nor use such ways to
represent them. This, as it is a course forbidden by God, so it would but seduce and
draw down thy heart; but get the liveliest picture of them in thy mind that possibly
thou canst; meditate of them as if thou wert all the while beholding them ... till thou
canst say, Methinks I see a glimpse of the glory.”^128 The Second Commandment
(^124) Toon, From Mind to Heart (^) , 99. cf. Beeke, “Purit (^) an Practice of Meditation,” 77.
(^125) Granada, Prayer and Meditation, 250.
(^126) Granada, Spiritual Doctrine, 117.
(^127) Ambrose’s Looking Unto Jesus was seen as a strong witness to the Puritan use of
the imagination during the eighteenth-century Scottish controversy regarding mental
images. La Shell, “Imagination and Idol,” 316. (^128) Baxter, Saints’ Everlasting Rest, 320.