This book brings to publication all of the famous hymn-writer Charles Wesley's sermon material. Included are four substantial introductory chapters which place Charles Wesley's preaching in the context of early Methodism and the eighteenth century more generally. Annotations on the texts themselves are substantially text-critical and include discussion of Charles's use of Byrom's shorthand, the script in which a significant portion of the material is written. Other notes include an attempt to trace Charles's use of sources, specifically the Bible, the Homilies, and the Book of Common Prayer.

Kenneth Newport is a graduate of the University of Oxford where he studied under E.P. Sanders. After teaching for three years in Hong Kong, he returned to the UK in 1991 and taught at the University of St Andrews and then at the University of Manchester. While at Manchester he was appointed Research Fellow at the John Rylands Research Institute where he has conducted extensive research into the Methodist Archives, which are on permanent deposit at the John Rylands University Library. In 1999 he was appointed Reader in Christian Thought at Liverpool Hope University College, where he currently teaches and conducts research. He is an ordained Anglican minister. He lives in Bury, Lancashire with his wife Rose-Marie and three children.