Jonathan Edwards Rhetoric
On 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut, puritan minister Jonathan Edwards, gave a harsh sermon to a congregation to disclose how angry God is at those who sin and that only by His grace they can be saved. In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God the minster uses an emotional appeal to convey what would happen to the people who were considered as God’s enemies because they have not been born again. For example, the author admonishes, “...the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out.” The minister is instilling that these people from the congregation have sinned against God and are the targets of His angry wrath. He was adding fear upon the congregation to accept God. He made it clear that there was no other option than to accept God. If they failed to comply, they would fall in the wrath of God thus being tormented in hell. Edwards uses repetition to depict the great danger they are in when damned to hell. For example, he illustrated
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that when they fall in the bottomless pit of hell there is “nothing to lay hold of yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you have ever done, nothing you can do.” He uses this to emphasize to the congregation that once they have fallen into hell, there is no way out. There is no way they could induce God to spare them a moment and liberate them from such torment. They would have to suffer this misery for millions and millions of years to infinity. Throughout the sermon, the prime minister uses deductive reasoning.
Although the author’s claim was uncertain, he sought to bring strong evidence towards his protestation that all non-converted people would suffer the wrath of God in hell. For example, he affirms that “God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment.” The textual evidence implies that God can destroy any person at whatever time He pleases if they are wicked. According to Edwards, the congregation was wicked because they were sinning against God. Edwards used this theory to endorse his claim that the congregation would be destroyed by God because they are
sinning.
that when they fall in the bottomless pit of hell there is “nothing to lay hold of yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you have ever done, nothing you can do.” He uses this to emphasize to the congregation that once they have fallen into hell, there is no way out. There is no way they could induce God to spare them a moment and liberate them from such torment. They would have to suffer this misery for millions and millions of years to infinity. Throughout the sermon, the prime minister uses deductive reasoning.
Although the author’s claim was uncertain, he sought to bring strong evidence towards his protestation that all non-converted people would suffer the wrath of God in hell. For example, he affirms that “God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment.” The textual evidence implies that God can destroy any person at whatever time He pleases if they are wicked. According to Edwards, the congregation was wicked because they were sinning against God. Edwards used this theory to endorse his claim that the congregation would be destroyed by God because they are
sinning.