Governing bodies, family and society: the rhetoric of the passions in the sermons of Samuel Wesley

Abstract

In 1719, and again in 1725, the Reverend Samuel Wesley preached a sermon on Galatians 6:1. It exhorted forgiveness for sinners “lest thou also be tempted” and was apparently delivered at a service of public shaming. This paper examines Wesley’s sermon within the context of his support for the Societies for the Reformation of Manners. It argues that Wesley employs a rhetoric of shame to admonish both the sinner who is the subject of the sermon, but also the parish community which had tolerated her immorality in its midst, thus rendering it complicit. The Reformation of Manners movement required informants to report vice to the authorities, and Wesley’s parishioners had fallen short in this respect. Yet Wesley’s stance as a moral reformer was not unproblematic. On the second occasion of preaching the sermon, his daughter had eloped and, abandoned by her lover, had recently returned to an unforgiving family. The sermon’s exhortations to forgiveness were apparently not heeded by Wesley himself, compromising his status as an exemplar to his flock.