This night desiring God to sanctifie my sleep and dreams, that I sinned not in them: I dreamed, that after some troubles of life, my time limited was at an
end, and that I heard the very voyce of God calling me by name into his
glorious Kingdom; whither when I came, heavenly ornaments were put upon
me by the hand of God, and of Christ: My soul was exceedingly ravished.
The Lord grant I may make some use of this, to be more heavenly-minded, and
to breathe more after Christ.^117
This amazing experience transformed Ambrose’s desire to focus more consistently^
upon Christ and expand his meditation on heaven. Additionally his method of
processing this reveals the combination of an affective level experience of a dream
that was further deepened through the interpretive level to determine the best use of
this experience.
The Puritans realized that external events in life could often be a means to
awakening them to an inner awareness of truth. This discipline of applying a
theological truth in a practical way also illustrates the experimental piety of the
Puritans. Ambrose vividly illustrates this practice from his March 17, 1645 entry
with a fascinating parable on his sickness, “[a]fter some extreme torment, one voided
a Stone; and suddenly the Spirit of Christ injected this motion into his heart, That the
best cure for the stone in his heart, was to look on Christ, whose heart he pierced; and
to consider that Christ looks on him in every action, and therefore that he should still
carry as in his presence, that his heart should be stil on Gods eye.”^118 Ambrose
appropriately includes Ezekiel 11:19-20 which requests God to remove the prophet’s
heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. Ambrose’s personal response
parallels the advice he gave to a fellow minister who visited him for counsel during
sickness, and said, “sanctifie his sickness to his Spiritual advantage.”^119 It does
117
118 Ambrose, Media (1650), 76.^
119 Ambrose, Ambrose, MediaMedia (1650), 112. (1650), 76.