"Thomas Weales's 'The Christian Orator Delineated' (1778) and the early reception of Sterne's 'Sermons'"

Are Laurence Sterne's 'Sermons' conventional examples of eighteenth-century homiletic writing, or do they display some of the same eccentricity as is found in Sterne's fiction? This has become a central question in current debates surrounding the status of Sterne's 'Sermons'. This article approaches the issue by considering the early reception of the 'Sermons', in the process bringing to light the little-known responses of Thomas Weales. The article uses early responses to suggest that while the sermons may be theologically conventional, there are stylistic innovations which modern criticism has tended to overlook or downplay.