The Sweet Dropper: Flash or Fountain

These desires, first of all, they were but flashes: for we never read that he [Balaam] had them long. They were mere flashes; as a sudden light, that rather blinds a man than shews him the way. So these enlightenings they are not constant. Wicked men ofttimes have sudden motions and flashes and desires. ‘Oh that I might die the death of the righteous. ‘Oh that I were in such [a] man’s estate. But it is but a sudden flash and lightning. They are like a torrent, a strong sudden stream, that comes suddenly and makes a noise, but it hath no spring to feed it. The desires of God’s children they are fed with a spring, they are constant; they are streams, and not flashes.  – Richard Sibbes, Balaam’s Wish