characteristics of mystical experiences; tasting the goodness and sweetness of God,
being filled with the joy of the Spirit, receiving the kisses of God’s mouth and
experiencing the foretaste of ecstatic delight and ravishment of heaven. Ambrose
provides a column of texts that describe his experience as one of “great delight” and
sweetness (Cant. 2.3); “exceedingly joyfull in all our tribulation” (2 Cor. 7.4); and
“filled with joy, and with the holy Ghost” (Acts 13.52). Significantly he supplies
another category of biblical passages that he calls dispositions. Their purpose is in
“answering Gods mind in every particular Experience [that they] may be written in
our hearts, and brought forth in our life afterwards.”^85 In other words, these are the
specific results that Ambrose wants to experience and deepen. The first text is 1 Peter
1:8 and contrasts a faith that is unseen which transitions to one of seeing that is
refreshed with joy unspeakable and fullness of glory. The second passage from
Revelation 22:17, 20 records the interaction between the Spirit and Bride who hear
and thirst and cry out for Jesus to come quickly.
This was not the only occasion Ambrose referred to this experience. In the
first edition of Media he has styled this differently and provides additional significant
details of his dramatic encounter with the triune God; “[t]his day in the Evening the
Lord in his mercy poured into my soul the ravishing joy of his blessed Spirit. O how
sweet was the Lord unto me? I never felt such a lovely taste of Heaven before: I
believe this was the joyful sound, the Kisses of his mouth, the Sweetnesses of Christ,
the Joy of his Spirit, the new wine of his kingdom; it continued with me about two
days.”^86 Unlike his 1657 account Ambrose acknowledges the gift of God’s mercy in
declaring that this was the most “lovely taste of Heaven” he had experienced.
85
86 Ambrose, Ambrose, MediaMedia (1657), 181. (1650), 71.