Wesley and the 1662 Communion Exhortations
In his 1784 Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America , one of the changes John Wesley made to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer involved the exhortations required before communion. Wesley eliminated them. As the exhortations demonstrate, the Lord’s Supper was serious business in 18th century England. It was serious business for Wesley, too, but in a different way. The communion service in the Book of Common Prayer begins with this rubric. So many as intend to be partakers of the holy Communion shall signify their names to the Curate at least some time the day before. If a Minister be persuaded that any person who presents himself to be a partaker of the holy Communion ought not to be admitted thereunto by reason of malicious and open contention with his neighbours, or other grave and open sin without repentance, he shall give an account of the same to the Ordinary of the place, and therein obey his order and direction, but so as not to refuse the Sa...