Miscellanies 7.16.100

Just as in war the soldier must not leave the post his general has assigned him, so one must not leave the post given by the Word, whom we have received as ruler of knowledge and of life. But most people have not even examined this: whether one must follow someone, and whom, and how. For as the Word is, so too should the believer's life be, so as to be able “to follow God,” who from the beginning “brings all things to their end by a straight path.” And when someone transgresses the Word, and through it God, then, if he became weak because some impression fell upon him suddenly, he must keep rational impressions ready at hand; but if he has been overcome by a habit that had already taken hold and has become “common,” as Scripture says, the habit must be stopped entirely and the soul trained to resist it; and if conflicting doctrines seem to drag some people along, these must be removed, and one must go to the “peacemakers” of doctrines, who with the divine Scriptures charm away the fears of the timid among the inexperienced, making the truth clear through the harmony of the covenants. But, it seems, we lean toward what is well thought of, even if it is contrary to the truth, rather than toward the truth; for the truth is austere and grave. And since there are three dispositions of the soul, ignorance, conceit, and understanding, the gentiles are in ignorance, the true church in understanding, and those of the heresies in conceit.