This fourth benefit once again draws upon Ambrose’s May 20, 1641 seminal
retreat experience to learn more fully his understanding of ravishment and how it can
create a sense of joy and foretaste of the heavenly consummation of spiritual
marriage.^155 There he effusively declares, ” [t]his day the Lord cast one into a
spiritual, heavenly, ravishing love trance; he tasted the goodnesse of God, the very
sweetness of Christ, and was filled with the joyes of the Spirit above measure. O it
was a good day, a blessed fore-taste of Heaven, a love-token of Christ to the Soul.”^156
Clearly the spiritual practices of this retreat not only provided him with a future taste
of the joys of heaven, they also granted him a present experience of the same joys
through the Holy Spirit. Ambrose appended a series of verses that serve as an
expansion of his experience. Not surprisingly the dominant theme is joy and four out
of the five passages are directly related to the enjoyment of God.^157 His first reference
is Song of Songs 2:3, “I sate down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit
was sweet to my taste.” Next he cites 2 Corinthians 7:4, “I am filled with comfort, I
am exceedingly joyfull in all our tribulations.” Another verse is Acts 13:52, “And
they were filled with joy, and with the holy Ghost.” The fourth reference of 1 Peter
1:8 also reinforced the theme of joy, “[w]hom having not seen, ye love, in whom,
though now ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable, and full of
glory.”
Enjoying God was a significant theme in Ambrose’s lengthy meditation that
was intended to stir up believers with the expectation of eternity in heaven. As he
(^155) On the Puritan enjoyment of God see Gwyn (^) - Thomas, “Puritan Doctrine of Joy,”
119 - 40 and Yuille, Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety, 85-94. For spiritual enjoyment
within Dutch Pietism see de Reuver, 156 Sweet Communion, 190-1, 216-21, 227-8, 240-1.
157 Ambrose, Media (1657), 183.^
come and enjoy the benefits of heaven. The remaining passage is Rv 22:17, 20 and extends the heavenly invitation to