John Wesley (1703-1791) was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Methodist movement that continues to this day.<br />Throughout his life, Wesley remained within the established Church of England, insisting that the Methodist movement lay well within its tradition. In his early ministry years, Wesley was barred from preaching in many parish churches and the Methodists were persecuted; he later became widely respected, and by the end of his life, was described as &quot;the best-loved man in England&quot;.<br />Preached at St. Mary&#39;s, Oxford, before the university, August 24, 1744, the Wesley&rsquo;s Sermon <i>Scriptural Christianity</i> was originally published in a separate pamphlet, accompanied by the following address &quot;to the reader&quot;, to which was affixed the author&#39;s signature: &laquo;It was not my design, when I wrote, ever to print the latter part of the following Sermon: But the false and scurrilous accounts of it which have been published constrain me to publish the whole, just as it was preached; that men of reason may judge for themselves&raquo;.