“Sinners At the Hands of an Angry God”
Jonathan Edward's sermon "Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God" is mainly about trying to get people to join a congregation. He uses a condemning tone in the beginning of the sermon telling the people they have nothing to hold on to and they can be dropped by god at any moment. As the sermon goes on he becomes merciful and tells them they still have a chance to make it to heaven. In the sermon he says if they choose Crist as their savior now that they will not be thrown into the fiery pits of hell. Edwards warns the people that they will be tormented in hell if they don't repent their sins now. Throughout the whole sermon he tries to scare people into a more religious lifestyle. He uses many different types of imagery trying to scare people into believing they are going to hell. Edwards says "The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose"(Baym 431). I believe he’s trying to say, the more you turn away from something the more it is going to build-up and eventually tear you down. Edwards describes even the greatest, most powerful rulers in the world as 'feeble, despicable worms of the dust' and as 'grasshoppers.' In Edwards's most enduring image, the sinner is described as 'a spider, or some other loathsome insect,' which God is dangling over the fire in preparation for destruction. Each of these metaphors reiterate how puny, weak and disgusting the sinner is in the sight of God. I believe he was just trying to get people to let God come into their hearts and take some of the weight of their sins away. Either way I don’t like the harsh way Edwards went about spreading the words of God. “Critics of Edwards and the Puritans find this sermon an appalling example of...