Wesley Corpus

You that read this, do you apply it to yourself Do you examine yourself thereby Do not you stop your own growth in grace, if not by willful disobedience to this command; yet by a careless inattention to it, by not considering it, as the importance of it deserves If so, you defraud yourself of many blessings which you might enjoy. Or, are you of a better mind; of a more excellent spirit Is it your fixed resolution and your constant endeavour "to obey them that have the rule over you in the Lord;" to submit yourself as cheerfully to your spiritual as to your natural parents Do you ask, "Wherein should I submit to them" The answer has been given already: Not in things enjoined of God; not in things forbidden by him; but in things indifferent: In all that are not determined, one way or the other, by the oracles of God. It is true, this cannot be done, in some instances without a considerable degree of self-denial, when they advise you to refrain from something that is agreeable to flesh and blood. And it cannot be obeyed in other instances without taking up your cross; without suffering some pain or inconvenience that is not agreeable to flesh and blood. For that solemn declaration of our Lord has place here, as well as on a thousand other occasions: "Except a man deny himself, and take up his cross daily, he cannot be my disciple." But this will not affright you, if you resolve to be not only almost, but altogether, a Christian; if you determine to fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life.