Here's another example. Say you're a sailor on a ship. Stay where you're assigned and do your job. If the captain orders you to climb the mast, don't refuse. If he tells you to run to the front of the ship, don't refuse. What ship captain would put up with you? He'd throw you overboard as dead weight — just getting in the way and setting a bad example for the other sailors. Life works the same way. Everyone's life is like being in a war. It's long and full of different challenges. You need to act like a soldier and follow every order from your commanding officer. Try to figure out what he wants before he even asks. But remember — this general is nothing like any human general. He's far stronger and has much better judgment.
Again, in a vessel if you go as a sailor, keep to one place and stick to it. And if you are ordered to climb the mast, refuse; if to run to the head of the ship, refuse; and what master of a ship will endure you? and will he not pitch you overboard as a useless thing, an impediment only and bad example to the other sailors? And so it is here also: every man's life is a kind of warfare, and it is long and diversified. You must observe the duty of a soldier and do every thing at the nod of the general; if it is possible, divining what his wishes are; for there is no resemblance between that general and this, neither in strength nor in superiority of character.