Judge. I would wish you to read the common prayer at your peril. You will not say, “From all sedition and privy conspiracy; from all false doctrines, heresy, and schism. Good Lord, deliver us!”
Clerk. Call Mr Meech.
Meech. Here.
Clerk. Does Mr Wesley read the common prayer yet.
Meech. May it please your lordship, he never did, nor he never will.
Judge. Friend, how do you know that? He may bethink himself.
Meech. He never did; he never will.
Solicitor. We will, when we see the new book, either read it, or leave our place at Bartholomew tide.
Judge. Are you not bound to read the old book till then? Let us see the act.
The act was handed to the judge, and while he was reading it, another cause was called; and John Wesley was bound over to the next assizes. He came joyfully home, and preached each Lord’s-day, till August 17, 1662, when he delivered his farewell sermon to a weeping audience, from Acts xx. 32; “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and the word of his grace.”