contemplation.”^165 Second, beyond the wisdom of paying attention to a person’s
individual temperament Ambrose declares, “prosperity is the fittest season for
heavenly contemplation, the less troubles lies upon our estate, the more liberty we
have to think of heavenly things.”^166 While that may be true, Ambrose and his fellow
nonconformists often found themselves at the opposite end of prosperity for pursuing
their spiritual practices. Moreover, the broader context for this statement is the Life
of Faith section and in the Saints Suffering section in which he asserts “[l]et us by
faith realize the glorious things of heaven to us.”^167 This comment regarding
prosperity sounds very elitist and suggests that a wealthy person has a distinct
advantage over the poor laborer. However, elsewhere when Ambrose is speaking
about the wisdom of relationships within the Christian community counsels that one
should not neglect the insights of obscure people because “heavenly mindednesse
may be now and then found out and discovered in plain people, that have plain
carriage and plain speech.”^168 Finally, while the benefits of contemplation and
heavenly-mindedness will be explored later in this chapter clearly the “foretaste of the
sweetnesse, glory and eternity” of heaven is one of them.
Contemplation in Looking Unto Jesus
Ambrose confesses his motivation for writing Looking Unto Jesus was
gratitude for recovering from a serious illness in 1653.^169 This serves as a good
reminder that gratitude and love are strongly connected with contemplation.
Structurally Looking Unto Jesus is based upon the life of Christ divided into nine
(^165) Ambrose, Media (^) (1657), 217. (^)
(^166) Ambrose, Media (1657), 285.
(^167) Ambrose, Media (1657), 550, cf. 285.
(^168169) Ambrose, Media (1657), 337.
Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus, To the Reader, [1].