When God created man, he breathed into him something divine, as it were a hot and bright spark added to reason, which lit up the mind and showed him the difference between right and wrong. This is called conscience, which is the law of his nature. This is compared to the well which Jacob dug, as the Fathers say, and which the Philistines filled up. That is, to this law of the conscience adhered the patriarchs and all the holy men of old before the written law, and they were pleasing to God. But when this law was buried and trodden underfoot by men through the onset of sin, we needed a written law, we needed the holy prophets, we needed the instructions of our Master, Jesus Christ, to reveal it and raise it up again or, if we obey it, to allow it to shine and illuminate us.
Dorotheos of Gaza, Discourses and Sayings
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