Christ the fountain of lifeChrist the fountaine of life

It was said of Moses, He was the meekest man upon earth, Numb. 12.3. Take Moses in his own case, and his carriage towards men, as they had respect to himself, and then he was a meek man, soon persuaded, yet the same Moses, when he saw the matter concerned the Cause of God, he is so stiff and unmoveable, as that he will not yield one jot, he will not leave an hoof behind, of all that appertained to the children of Israel, Exod. 10.26. He would not only have men, and women, and children go forth to serve the Lord, but their cattle and their stuff; He will not yield a little here, no not for the Kings pleasure sake. A man would much wonder that such a man, so meek and gentle, and so easy to be persuaded in his own cause, that yet when it comes to a matter of importance, and concerns God, he will not there yield, he is now inflexible, nothing can persuade him to give way to it, this is a combination of graces, that are not wont to be found in men thus mixed together, but it is found in the people of God, that live a sanctified, and holy life. I know not better what to instance in, then in the liquid Air; of all other things the most easiest to be pierced through; of it self it gives way to every creature, not the lest fly, or least stone cast into it, but it gives way to it of it self, yet if God say it shall be as a Firmament, between the waters above, and the waters below, it then stands like a wall of brass, and yields not; it will not suffer the water in the clouds to fall down, but if it do fall to ⟨p. 115⟩water the earth, it shall strain through the air as through a sieve, the clouds sometimes are so full that one would think they would burst through the air, and fall upon the earth, but God having set the air to be a Firmament, or expulson between the waters above, and the waters below, though of it self a very liquid thing, yet it stands like to a wall of brass; and truly so is it with a Christian spirit, though of himself he is as liquid as the air, you may easily pass through him, and go an end with him easily; he is easy to be entreated, very gentle, but take him now in any thing wherein God hath bid him keep his stand in his course, and there he stands like a wall of brass, that were never such high and great matters put upon him, ready to bear him down, he will not shrink, nor give any way at all;