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Sara Zavala

Ms. Storer

English 3 Honors, American Literature, Block 4

September 4, 2019

In the Hands We Lay On

Reigning through fear is usually a very efficient way to elicit obedience in one’s

followers. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards uses

fear to convince his congregation to turn away from sin and make non-believers convert to

Puritanism. He incites this fear in his audience through diction, imagery, and tone.

Edwards often sets a tone that provokes fear within the congregation. For example, he

attempts to incite a dreadful tone and make the congregation self-conscious when he states, “The

God that holds you over the pit of hell, as much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect,

over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked” (Edwards 98). With the use of abominable

words, Edwards sets a tone that is fear provoking. Edwards takes advantage of the

congregation’s fear, so they feel obligated to convert. For further enhancement of such tone,

Edwards proclaims, “But Alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this

discourse in hell!” (Edwards 99) Instead of only one or a few people going to hell, Edwards

assumes that multiple listeners will experience eternal suffering. The speaker wants the audience

to feel fear so he sets a macabre tone that makes one wonder, what might happen to the

congregation? In addition, Edwards makes use of imagery to make the audience feel as if it were

themselves burning in hell.

Imagery is also utilized through the sermon to incite terror and persuade the congregation

to convert. During the opening passage, the speaker does not waste time to imprint an image in
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the minds of the listeners. For example, Edwards speaks, “There is a dreadful pit of the glowing

flames of the wrath of God” (Edwards 97) The speaker makes use of imagery by speaking of

“glowing flames”, which forces the listener to imagine hell, their near future. Using imagery, the

audience creates in their imagination the description of what might be of their fate. Making the

listeners imagine themselves burning in hell provokes fear, not wanting such fate will make them

convert to Puritanism which is Edwards intended result. Edwards also illustrates God’s lack of

obligation towards mankind by stating, “God without any promise or obligation at all, keeps the

arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood” (Edwards 98). He explains how

God is doing a favor to humanity by not letting sinners die. The imagery that is provoked to the

listeners, of them being shot with an arrow and condemned for all eternity is not a pleasant

thought, it makes the audience feel unsafe. Edwards also makes use of selected phrasing to prove

his point.

Throughout the sermon Edwards carefully selects his diction to morally manipulate and

convert non-believers to Puritanism. For example, when addressing the unconverted people in

the congregation, Edwards states, “This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that

are out of Christ” (Edwards 97). This quotation is from an opening passage in the sermon.

Throughout the quote Edwards makes use of the word “you”, the use of such word is for the

purpose of making the audience feel personally attacked. Edwards’s diction manipulates the

audience to feel a certain way. However, this will not be the only time Edwards makes use of

words to discomfort his audience. Further into the passage, Edwards states, “there is hell’s wide

gaping mouth, and you have nothing to stand upon, nor anything to take hold of” (Edwards 97).

This passage describes the audience’s situation regarding their fate. When describing hell, he

makes use of the words “gaping mouth” which accentuates the unrepentant sinners’ doom of
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everlasting damnation in hell. The spectators might feel the urge to convert to the claimed

religion, because of the fear of what may happen to them if they do not convert, making

Edwards’s intended purpose successful.

Jonathan Edwards’s sermon of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” has an intended

result to provoke fear to his listeners. He believed that by creating fear, he could make

nonbelievers convert to Puritanism. His argument is made effective by specific word choice,

tone, and imagery. This form of argument had been effective in the 1700s because colonial

people were closed minded. Although humanity has made great progress today, people are still

susceptible to fear. If someone were to approach this subject with the same mentality today, he or

she would unfortunately succeed.

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Works Cited

Edwards, Jonathan. “from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Glencoe American

Literature, by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm et al., Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009, pp. 97-99.