Additionally those who were ravished could not eat or sleep, Peter jumped overboard
and swam ashore to greet Jesus, and fainting and swooning overcame others.^116
Another category that can expand the understanding of the dynamics of
ravishment is that experience can be either metaphorical or visual. The majority of
cases are metaphoric but unlike the mental and physical comparison there are
significantly more that are visual. On the one hand, the metaphoric is demonstrated
when Ambrose refers to Patrick Forbes of Corse in his teaching on the third and
deepest power of Scripture in its operation on the human heart. Ambrose quotes
Forbes, declaring, “while the word not only ravisheth with admiration, and striketh
the conscience with terrour, but lastly filleth it with sweet peace and joy.”^117 Later in
the same work, within the context of the Holy Spirit’s illuminating power, Ambrose
refers to Robert Bolton’s General Directions for A Comfortable Walking with God
and declares, “[t]here is a testimony of the Spirit which sometimes the Spirit may
suggest and testifie to the sanctified conscience with secret still heart-ravishing
voyce... thou art the child of God.”^118 Conversely, Christ’s Transfiguration was an
overpowering visual experience for Peter, “now if ever, whiles he was upon earth,
was the beauty of Christ seen at height, Peter saw it, and was so ravished at the sight,
that he talked he knew not what.”^119 Yet another group who experienced the visual
dynamic of ravishment were the saints in glory who “now see the face of Christ.... O
this lovelinesse of Christ ravishes the souls of the glorified.”^120 Finally, Mary’s Easter
(^116) Ambrose, Communion with Angels (^) , 263 and Looking Unto Jesus, 769, 881.
(^117) Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus, 490.
(^118) Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus, 889.
(^119120) Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus, 459, cf. 213.
Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus, 481, cf. 908, 990.