The Obstinate and the Fickle

Admonition 19. The obstinate and the fickle are to be admonished differently. The obstinate are to be told that they think more of themselves than they are, and that is why they do not agree to the counsels of others. The fickle, on the other hand, are to be given to understand that they rate and regard themselves too little, and so are turned aside from their own judgment from one moment to the next. The obstinate are to be told that unless they thought themselves better than the rest of men, they would never value the counsels of everyone below their own deliberation. The fickle are to be told that if they paid any attention to what they are, the breeze of changeableness would never turn them about through so many sides of inconstancy. To the obstinate it is said through Paul, “Do not be wise in your own opinion”; but the fickle, on the other hand, should hear this: “Let us not be carried about by every wind of doctrine.” Of the obstinate it is said through Solomon, “They will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes”; but of the fickle he writes again, “The heart of the foolish will be unlike.” For the heart of the wise is always like itself, because while it rests in good convictions, it steadily directs itself in good action. But the heart of the foolish is unlike, because while it shows itself changing from one thing to another, it never remains what it was. And since some vices, just as they produce others out of themselves, also spring from others themselves, it must by all means be understood that we wipe them away best by our reproofs when we dry them up at the very fountain of their bitterness. For obstinacy is born of pride, and fickleness of lightness of mind. [a]

The obstinate, therefore, are to be admonished to recognize the haughtiness of their thoughts and to work hard at overcoming themselves. Otherwise, while they scorn to be won over by the right advice of others outside themselves, they will be held captive to pride within themselves. They are to be admonished to observe wisely how the Son of Man, whose will is always one with the Father’s, gives us an example of subduing our own will when he says, “I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.” And to commend the grace of this virtue still more, he declared beforehand that he would keep it at the last judgment, saying, “I can do nothing of myself; as I hear, I judge.” With what conscience, then, can a man disdain to give way to the will of another, when the Son of God and of Man, coming to show forth the glory of his power, testifies that he does not judge of himself? [d]

But the fickle, on the other hand, are to be admonished to strengthen their minds with seriousness. For they dry up the seeds of changeableness in themselves only when they first cut off from their hearts the root of lightness; just as a strong building goes up when a solid place is first prepared on which to lay the foundation. Unless, then, lightness of mind is guarded against first, inconstancy of thought is never conquered. Paul declared himself free of this when he said, “Did I act with lightness? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, so that with me there should be yes and no?” It is as if he said plainly: The reason no breeze of changeableness moves me is that I do not give in to the vice of lightness. [e]