follow Jesus, to an awareness of the future benefits of heaven. In the conforming to
Jesus section in relation to his gift of salvation to humanity during his earthly life
Ambrose writes:
O the sweet expressions, gracious conversation! Oh the glorious shine,
bleravishing demenour, winning deportment of Jesus Christ! and now I reflect ssed lustre of his divine soul! Oh the sweet countenance, sacred discourse,
upon my selfe, oh alas! Oh the total, wide, vast, utter difference, distance,
disproportion of mine thereform!....Ah my rudenesse, grosenesse, deformity,
odiousnesse, sleightnesse, contemptiblenesse... how clearly are these, and all
other my enormities discovered, discerned, made evident, and plaine by the
blessed and holy life of Jesus. 139
Therefore, the ravishing sight of Jesus reveals the huge chasm that separates him from
humanity and only heightens the awareness of a person’s utter rebellion and distance
from a holy God.
Occasionally Ambrose has Jesus speak the words of Canticles 4:9 and address
his Church:
Turne away thine eyes, for they have overcome me; thou hast ravished my
heart, my sister, my spouse, with one of thine eyesgalleries, and captivated with love to his people, so that his eye was ever upon : Christ was held in the
them, ...and is Christ so tender in his love towards us, that he ever minds us,
and shall our mindes be so loose to him? so fluttering, and fleeting? shall
there be no more care to binde our selves in cords of love to him, who hath
bound himself in such cords of love to us?”^140
While initially Jesus is ravished by his deep love for the Church that knowledge of his
love overwhelms the Church and creates in them a new awareness of the love they
must reciprocate to him. For Ambrose Scripture plays a central role in ravishing and
creating this new knowledge of God. It serves as a reminder of the Puritan devotion
to the reading and preaching of the Word. Additionally, ravishment can produce a
new awareness of God’s divine love. The specific context is of a person mediating on
139
(^140) Ambrose, Ambrose, Looking Unto JesusLooking Unto Jesus, 522., 28, cf. 504^ - 5 for greater expansion of this theme.